#Index #Pentagon #Moscow #nuclear #weapon #space
A senior Pentagon official has confirmed for the first time that the United States believes that Russia is preparing to install a nuclear weapon in space, writes the South China Morning Post. In testimony before the Republican-led House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb also claimed that China and Russia have “militarized” space.
According to Plumb, China is “developing a new anti-satellite capability related to a nuclear-capable satellite that Russia [szintén] develop”. He said the U.S. was concerned that he “couldn’t convince them to ultimately launch a nuclear weapon in space.”
Plumb stressed that such an “indiscriminate” weapon would threaten all satellites and the world’s essential communications, scientific research, meteorological, agricultural, commercial and national security services on which “we all depend.” He also said it could make low Earth orbit “unusable”. According to Plumb, such a move is “so threatening that we should be concerned about it right now.”
What is China hiding?
His comments came after Russia last week vetoed a US-drafted UN resolution calling on countries to prevent an arms race in space, prompting questions in Washington about Moscow’s cover-up. something. China abstained from the vote.
Today’s veto raises the question: Why? If they follow the rules, why don’t they support a resolution that reinforces them? What can you hide?
said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Ambassador to the UN, after the vote. The purpose of the resolution was to call on all states to reaffirm their commitment to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and to actively contribute to the goal of peaceful uses and the prevention of an extraterrestrial arms race.
Dual use
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, accused Washington of trying to discredit Moscow and announced that Russia would soon begin talks with council members on its own proposed resolution to promote the peaceful uses of outer space.
In a White House statement last month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin truly had no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, Moscow “would not have vetoed this decision”.
John Plumb clarified that the Outer Space Treaty does not ban the weapons themselves in space, but WMDs, and said that Russia is deploying and developing prototype kinetic weapons in space, while China has developed robotic satellites that are dual-use and they can also be used for military purposes.
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