Russia's push to put a nuclear weapon in space to attack satellites is a reckless move that endangers the modern way of life for all humanity, top US military officials said on Wednesday.
The US has been tracking Russia's plans for a space-based weapon for nearly a decade and has assessed that it has progressed to the point where “we think they're getting close", said Lt Gen Jeff Kruse, the head of the Defence Intelligence Agency.
“If they were to detonate a nuclear weapon in space, it is not just going to affect military targets," he told the Aspen Security Forum.
"Everything that's in line of sight at low-Earth orbit is going to have immediate effects.”
Lt Gen Kruse said many satellites that have not been hardened against radiation could be fried within 90 minutes.
The Soviet Union was an original signatory of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that set the expectation that no one would put a nuclear weapon in space.
But Russia is now pursuing such a weapon because of their “lack of conventional superiority drives them to asymmetric solutions", Lt Gen Kruse said.
Gen Stephen Whiting, head of the US military's Space Command, said Russia's plans were “incredibly reckless” and jeopardised the “entire modern way of life”.
“It's a completely indiscriminate weapon. It would affect United States satellites, Chinese satellites, Russian satellites, European satellites, Indian satellites, Japanese satellites,” he told the audience in Aspen.
“It is not the action of a responsible space actor and we hope that Russia returns to its roots as a responsible space actor and living up to its to its treaty obligations.”
Some of Washington's elite have gathered in Aspen for this week's summit focusing on global security challenges.
Watkins reported from Aspen, Colorado