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Russia is developing a new weapon specifically designed to target satellites, according to intelligence reports from two NATO countries, particularly threatening Elon Musk's Starlink network.
As the Associated Press reports, evidence suggests that the so-called weapon aims to flood Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density projectiles.
Intelligence findings indicate that the weapon in question would aim to overwhelm Starlink orbits with hundreds of thousands of high-density missiles, potentially disabling many satellites at once, but also risking catastrophic collateral damage to other systems in orbit.
The goal behind this development is to limit Western space supremacy, which has played a critical role in helping Ukraine on the battlefield.
Why the Russians want to target satellites
Russia particularly sees Elon Musk's Starlink as a serious threat, the findings show. Thousands of satellites in low orbit have been essential to Ukraine's survival against a full-scale Russian invasion, now in its fourth year.
Starlink's high-speed internet service is used by Ukrainian forces for battlefield communications, weapon targeting and other roles, as well as by civilians and government officials where Russian attacks have affected communications.
Russian officials have repeatedly warned that commercial satellites serving the Ukrainian military could be legitimate targets. This month, Russia said it had developed a new ground-based missile system, the S-500, capable of hitting targets in low orbit.
Unlike a missile that Russia tested in 2021 to destroy a malfunctioning Cold War satellite, the new weapon under development would target several Starlinks at once, with missiles likely fired from formations of small satellites that have not yet been launched, according to intelligence findings.
Analysts who have not seen the findings say they doubt whether such a weapon could work without causing uncontrollable chaos in space for companies and countries, including Russia and its ally China, which rely on thousands of satellites in orbit for communications, defense and other vital needs.
Such implications, including risks to its own space systems, could deter Moscow from developing or using such a weapon, analysts said.
"I don't believe it. I really don't believe it," said Victoria Samson, a space security expert at the Secure World Foundation, which leads the Colorado-based nongovernmental organization's annual study of anti-satellite systems. "I would be very surprised, frankly, if they did something like that," she added.
However, the commander of the Canadian military's Space Command, Brigadier General Christopher Horner, said such a development could not be ruled out in light of previous US accusations that Russia was also pursuing an indiscriminate, space-based nuclear weapon.
"I can't say I've been briefed on that kind of system. But it's not impossible," he said. "If the report on the nuclear weapons system is accurate and that they are willing to develop it and move towards that goal, then I wouldn't find it shocking that something less than that, but equally damaging, is at the forefront of their development," he added.
Russia has previously called for efforts by the United Nations to ban the development of weapons in orbit, and President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of developing space nuclear weapons.
The French military's Space Command said in a statement to the AP that it could not comment on the findings, but said: "We can inform you that Russia, in recent years, has multiplied irresponsible, dangerous and even hostile actions in space."
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