Should the Russian nuclear threat in low Earth orbit, which would deprive the world of satellites, be taken seriously ?

La menace nucléaire russe plane plus que jamais. (illustration) NASA sur Unsplash

La menace nucléaire venant d’une attaque Russie est toujours à prendre au sérieux. Et les projets de développement du pays de Vladimir Poutine n’ont pas de quoi rassurer.

A nuclear weapon in space, such could be Russia's project. While this may seem totally crazy to some, Mallory Stewart, assistant secretary of state for arms control, and John Plum, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, have warned of this risk in recent days, reports & ;nbsp;The War zone.

A worrying threat

Russia would therefore consider "to incorporate nuclear weapons into its programs for combat in space, on the basis of information that we consider credible", emerged from a discussion organized by the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Statement from Chairman @RepMikeTurner: pic.twitter.com/OA9yJuEPlf

— House Intelligence Committee (@HouseIntel) February 14, 2024

A satellite, which would officially be used for electronic testing, would be in an orbit with unusually high radiation. But this goes against normal deployments of scientific satellites, reports Newsweek quoted by Géo. The alert launched by Mallory Stewart therefore seems to make sense. "This is not a weapon that can be used to attack humans or cause structural damage to Earth", she said.

The objective would rather be to make "unusable for a certain time"  a certain area, a low orbit, which would correspond to a distance of 160 to 2,000 kilometers from Earth. "Most satellites could be damaged and affected. Some would be caught in the immediate blast and would not be able to survive the flow, while others could be damaged over time, John Plumb said.

"The United States has known that Russia has been pursuing this type of capability for years, but only recently have we We were able to more precisely assess the progress made", continued the Deputy Secretary. He clarified that even if such a threat is not imminent, it remains "worrying".