Washington: A day after media reported that Russia was working on developing anti-satellite weapons, the White House publicly confirmed the reports on Thursday. The paper claimed that Russia had acquired a “troubling” emerging anti-satellite weapon, but said it could not directly cause “physical destruction” to Earth. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. intelligence officials have information that Russia has acquired this capability, but no such weapons are currently operational. U.S. authorities are analyzing the information they receive about emerging technologies and are consulting with allies and partners on the issue.
“First, this is not an actual fielded capability, and while it is concerning that Russia is pursuing this particular capability, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety,” Kirby said. Ta. “We are not talking about weapons that can be used to attack humans or cause physical destruction on Earth.”
Republicans ask Biden to declassify information
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, R-Ohio, issued a vague call for the Biden administration to declassify information about what he called a grave national security threat. After being alerted, the White House acknowledged the intelligence community’s presence. Kirby said the process to review and declassify aspects of Russia’s capabilities was underway at the time Turner made his “unfortunate” statement.
“We have been very careful and thoughtful about what we declassify and release to the public,” he added.
Russia claims this is a tactic to divert military aid to Ukraine
Russia has downplayed U.S. concerns about this capability. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described Russia’s claims of new military capabilities as a ploy designed to get the US Congress to support aid to Ukraine. “It is clear that Washington is trying to force Congress to vote on the aid bill by tricks and tricks,” Peskov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. “Let’s see what tricks the White House will use.”
Kirby said the capability is space-based and violates the International Outer Space Treaty, which is signed by more than 130 countries, including Russia. He declined to comment on whether the weapon could be nuclear-capable. The treaty prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction of any kind” into orbit, or “any other means of placing weapons in outer space.”
The White House calls this a “serious problem”
The White House said it would consider communicating directly with the Russian side about the concerns. While the White House tried to reassure Americans, Kirby acknowledged it was a serious problem. “We don’t want to minimize the potential for disruption here,” Kirby said. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan briefed lawmakers on the Russian threat on Capitol Hill Thursday.
White House officials said the U.S. intelligence community was concerned about the widespread declassification of the intelligence community. The United States has known for at least months, if not years, that Russia was pursuing anti-satellite capabilities. Biden has been regularly briefed by his national security team on the issue, including Thursday. Over the course of the nearly two-year war with Ukraine, the United States has frequently downgraded and released intelligence findings about Moscow’s plans and operations.
These efforts may highlight Russia’s plans for a disinformation campaign or draw attention to Russia’s difficulties in waging war against Ukraine or cooperating with Iran and North Korea to supply desperately needed weapons. is focused on.
(Information provided by agency)
Also read: Russia is developing space weapon capable of jamming US satellites transmitting 1 trillion bytes of data: Report
