US ‘closely monitoring’ national security threat from Russian anti-satellite weapon

The United States is “closely monitoring” Russian efforts to develop a new “anti-satellite” weapons capability that so alarmed the leader of the House Intelligence Committee that he went public and described it as a “national security threat,” according to National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

The House Intelligence panel chairman, Ohio Representative Mike Turner, drew attention to the threat earlier on Wednesday when he issued an unusually cryptic statement on the “serious national security threat” and called on Mr Biden to “declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat”.

According to ABC News, two sources described the threat at issue as emanating from Russia and involving plans to potentially use space-based nuclear weapons for anti-satellite purposes.

Mr Kirby did not say whether the threat in question was nuclear-based, but he did confirm to reporters at Thursday’s White House press briefing that the threat raised by Mr Turner is “related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing” and confirmed that the weapon in question is “space-based” and if deployed would represent a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty to which both the United States and Russia are signatories.

He took pains to stress that the weapon was not one that Russia could use at this time.

“This is not an active capability that’s been deployed. And though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety,” he said.

“We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth. That