The strange secret of US information about Russia’s space nuclear bombs

Is Russia going to put a nuclear bomb in space? And, if so, are you going to do it this year? Is this an immediate threat? Or is this something that, despite being of concern at the moment, should not concern the American population?

for that governmentAlthough – very deservedly – ​​it has been boring to the point of exhaustion, as Joe Biden has been, the fact that this salad of questions has been circulating in Washington for a week should be cause for concern. As it should, the debate started because a Republican congressman had derailed – but not a pro-NATO Republican, like Mike Johnson and Donald Trump – to whom the government had entrusted that secret because of his institutional status. , which is the chairman’s intelligence committee And, as such, a member of the ‘Gang of Eight’, a very select group of legislators who, because of their positions, have access to state secrets that affect US national security.

The men of the ‘Gang of Eight’ mince words on an issue that could literally be life or death for America (and planet Earth). And, if they do, the Speaker of the House himself, who is from their party (but not anti-NATO or, in general, anti-anything Trump says) comes and calls them overreach. yes, there are an evil plan As for Vladimir Putin, who seems like something out of a Hollywood movie, one either takes him seriously or keeps it a mystery; It is not expected that people who know will start publicly discussing whether it is something to worry about or not.

And yet, this is the strange situation in which the capital of the United States has been living since last Thursday House Intelligence Committee Chairman Republican Mike Turner issued a strange statement About information “about a serious threat to national security” And, the most surprising thing, he sent a letter to his colleagues inviting them to move to safe areas – the so-called. faraday room, where controls on who enters are combined with all kinds of measures to prevent electronic espionage – to see for yourself the “destabilizing military capability” of that thing in the Capitol. All he needed to do was call James Bond, who is British but has ties to the Americans.

Obviously, if someone is asked: “Would you like to see the secret weapon of the end of the world?”, it is very difficult to resist the temptation and not go. But, like the Cannes critics watching a Hollywood film, Turner’s colleagues returned from the trip disappointed. the most, no less than anyone House Speaker Mike JohnsonWhich clearly ruled that “there is no cause for concern.”

But the controversy had just begun. A principle of American capital is that, if you don’t want a secret to remain a secret, you have to tell multiple congressmen. And that’s what Turner did with his invitation. On Wednesday afternoon, there was discussion in Washington about a Russian satellite powered by nuclear energy – which is new, although still very dangerous because of the risk of accidents – or, rather, because of an anti-satellite nuclear weapon. . So on Thursday, Joe Biden’s national security spokesman, Adm. John Kirby, which launched three messages. A: It’s about Russia. Two: “This is not a capability that is being deployed.” And three: “We are not talking about a weapon that could attack humans or that could cause physical destruction on Earth.”

Russia categorically rejected the allegations. For Moscow, it was another Biden tactic to get the most Trumpist sector of the Republican Party to agree to provide military aid to Ukraine. Turner is a traditional Republican, which puts him far from his allies like Trump and Johnson. He is a great defender of the American alliance system. was the president of NATO Parliamentary Assemblywhich is an advisory body that advises that organization, and has just returned from a trip to Ukraine with other congressmen from both parties – Democratic and Republican – after which he once again voted with Johnson on military aid to that country. Have asked for permission.

Therefore the representative could speak to put more pressure on his party. However that didn’t mean there wasn’t “something” there. Obviously, the question was what that “something” included. It was known that this “thing” would be in orbit, that is, permanently located in space and would revolve around the Earth. But a little more. It could be an anti-missile system, just like the controversial one strategic defense initiative (better known by its colloquial name “Star Wars”), which was launched by Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s and which never became a reality due to the enormous cost and poor technical feasibility of a shielded antimissile outside the atmosphere could. But the White House and the Pentagon quickly leaked what was the matter Nuclear bombs in space, which can damage or destroy satellites through their radiation On which American nuclear missiles would depend to achieve their objectives in the event that we were doomed to nuclear annihilation.

Achilles heel of nuclear deterrence

This would mean attacking the Achilles heel of the US nuclear deterrent which has so far been invincible. The network of satellites that will guide nuclear missiles – most of which are launched from submarines – that are one of the legs of US strategic defense was designed before China and Russia began development. sophisticated anti-satellite weapons, As Donald Trump’s Under Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson, said in reference to that country’s satellite network, “The United States built an excellent glass house before the invention of marbles.” Therefore the system is very vulnerable to attacks.

Vladimir Putin was then on his way to achieving the goal that Ronald Reagan had unsuccessfully attempted in the 1980s: Insecurity against nuclear attack. If Moscow’s plan is implemented, Russia could without any problems launch nuclear blackmail on the US and all countries relying on Washington’s ‘nuclear umbrella’. The nuclear war would have ended before it even started. This was a complete violation of the Outer Space Treaty, which There is a ban on keeping nuclear weapons outside the earthSigned between the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom in 1967, and 136 countries have since joined. According to Kirby, this is why the Biden government was trying to negotiate with Putin’s government so that the plan could not move forward.

But, that very day, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, spoke to the press at the White House and said that he had met with the ‘Gang of Eight’ a few days earlier. Sullivan did not reveal what they talked about, but there was no need to. Everyone knew the answer to the riddle. And, if someone – for example, Kirby or Johnson – wanted to remove drama from the case, Sullivan – whose characteristics do not include modesty – explained to the press that “it is highly unusual for a national security adviser to do so”. . That is, he meets the MLAs who have expertise in intelligence, not through his subordinates, but directly. Shortly after, Turner reported that the meeting with Sullivan was the White House’s response to his request for an immediate meeting with Joe Biden to discuss the issue.

Apparently the situation was returning to normal, when on Tuesday the White House leaked that it had informed its aides about the weapon system. And what was not operational can be made eligible. Because, according to Washington, Moscow can put nuclear weapons into orbit by the end of the year. Of course, he also introduced a nuance there: they might not be real nuclear weapons, but just fake weapons to scare people.

All of these statements, insinuations and contradictions run contrary to the way Biden’s intelligence team handled the invasion of Ukraine, and which earned them respect inside and outside the country. This too, failure in election year In which the President wants to use the card of his effectiveness and prudence in contrast to the chaos and tendency of Donald Trump to talk about everything, although he has not significantly touched upon the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.

But, despite the Democratic and Republican chaos, there is some data that is worrying. There are about 9,000 active satellites around the Earth, which are relatively easy to remove from their orbit. A nuclear explosion in space could kill or destroy hundreds of them. This could trigger ‘Kessler syndrome’, which takes its name from NASA scientist Donald Kessler, who reported in 1978 that the density of satellites, especially in low orbit, is such that, if some are destroyed , then their remains will affect others. , which will in turn disintegrate upon impact, creating more debris that will eventually create a cascade effect in which hundreds or even thousands of satellites can be destroyed.

It’s an apocalyptic vision, but feasible. However, it has one trick that makes it useful from a military perspective: there is no way to control where the satellite debris goes. This means that in a scenario ‘Kessler Syndrome’ American, Russian, Chinese, European, Japanese or any other country’s satellites would be equally vulnerable. In principle, this option is suicidal for Putin, because his “exquisite glass house”, to use Wilson’s expression, would be as vulnerable to a nuclear bomb as the United States.

a hole in the ionosphere

In fact, no one knows very well the effects of a nuclear explosion in space. And it is better not to know them. The most studied case is operation fishbowlNuclear testing was conducted by America in 1962 John F. Kennedy He was the President. A Thor rocket carried a nuclear bomb with a power 93 times greater than that of Hiroshima to the same altitude as the International Space Station’s orbit (400 kilometers), where it exploded. Although there were hardly any satellites at the time, the electromagnetic waves generated by the explosion immediately rendered three satellites useless, and rendered another nine satellites useless over the following months.

The bomb opened a hole in the ionosphere, the upper part of the atmosphere, which plays a fundamental role in radio communications and GPS systems. The electromagnetic wave was so large that it disabled many of the instruments that were supposed to measure it, so its exact effects are not known. But, although the United States chose a remote location in the South Pacific for testing, its impact was most spectacularly felt in the Hawaiian archipelago, 1,500 kilometers away: 300 traffic lights stopped working, many islands without telephones. Remained. And dozens of burglar alarms were triggered automatically. There were so many northern lights even in the tropical Pacific that the defense think tank RAND Corporation named the nuclear bombs detonating at high altitudes. “Rainbow Bomb”,

Which leads to another scenario: Ukraine. Already in 2022, Russia was expected to detonate a nuclear bomb 60 to 200 kilometers above that country. Its consequences in terms of human life will almost certainly be zero. But that country – and, perhaps, part of Europe – may suffer. Complete cut off of your communication systems, In 1962 there were no mobile phones or Internet, and far fewer televisions than there are today. A nuclear bomb in space could return us to that world. Of course, if Russia really plans to put these devices into orbit.