The head of the US Space Command, General Stephen Whiting, said he was "extremely concerned" about the possible deployment of anti-satellite nuclear weapons in space. According to him, this threat could affect every person on Earth, so "Russia should be smarter." This is reported by Breaking Defence.
The American general emphasized that the placement of such weapons would be a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
This weapon will not only potentially affect American satellites. It will affect Russian satellites, Chinese satellites, Indian satellites, European satellites, Japanese satellites. Therefore, the world cannot and should not tolerate anyone placing nuclear weapons in orbit.
Earlier, Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability Mallory Stewart stated that the United States had long been aware of Russia's desire to create such weapons and use their potential. She claimed that Russia used a satellite in orbit to conduct tests as part of a nuclear anti-satellite weapons program.
On May 17, 2024, Russia did indeed conduct a space launch in the interests of the Ministry of Defense. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with spacecraft on board was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. However, the defense department did not specify what exactly was put into orbit.
Russian authorities have denied US claims of alleged deployment of space weapons, calling them an "information dump."
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