- [Narrator] Alarm and confusion have gripped Washington.
- The US has new intelligence.
- Of a quote "Serious national security threat."
- Nukes in space, really?
- [Narrator] New intelligence suggests that Russia
may be developing nuclear weapons to be used in space.
Although details of the classified intelligence are slim,
space policy experts said that,
"The technology could be used
against American satellites,
raising questions about Russia's intentions
and the potential ramifications of an orbital damnation."
- I think this is a wake-up call.
What Russia is doing is unprecedented,
extremely dangerous, and destabilizing.
- [Narrator] The disclosure of the intelligence
was first made public
by Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
Mike Turner.
On February 14th,
Turner issued a cryptic statement
about an unspecified, "Serious national security threat,
and called on the Biden administration
to declassify the information."
The White House wouldn't say if the new Russian system
had a nuclear component,
but it did confirm that Russia's pursuing
what it called an Antisatellite capability.
- 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.
- [Narrator] Russian President Vladimir Putin
denied the US allegations
that Moscow plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.
(speaking in Russian)
- [Narrator] The Russian development of nuclear weapons
for use in space,
would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
- There is a clause in the Outer Space Treaty
that prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons
or other weapons of mass destruction into orbit.
- [Narrator] Prior to signing the Outer Space Treaty,
both the US and the Soviet Union
conducted high-altitude nuclear tests in space.
- [Announcer] On Johnston Island,
missile preparation for the July launch
of the Starfish Prime Shot.
- [Narrator] Perhaps the best-known of these tests
was Starfish Prime,
the highest-altitude nuclear test in history.
- [Announcer] The Missile lifted off
and began its long programmed trajectory.
- [Narrator] To learn what effect a nuclear detonation
in space would have on satellites,
in 1962, the US launched a 1.4 megaton nuke
from Johnston Island in Atoll in the South Pacific.
The missile traveled 250 miles above the Earth's surface,
which is about as high
as where the International Space Station orbits today,
then it detonated,
- It created two phenomena.
One is the energy from the nuclear detonation
as it transmitted down through the Earth's atmosphere,
it converted to an electromagnetic pulse,
so basically, an electric surge of energy
that ended up frying components on land,
power grids, electrical devices,
caused communications blackouts for hundreds of miles.
- [Narrator] The missile was launched
about 700 nautical miles from Hawaii,
but effects from the tests
were seen around the equator.
- [Announcer] Here, in still pictures,
are two profile views of the Starfish Prime Aurora,
as seen from the Hawaiian Islands 700 miles away.
- So when you see a solar flare,
energy from the Sun heads towards the Earth,
it hits the Earth's magnetic fields,
that energy dissipates,
and that's what creates the aurora borealis.
A nuclear detonation in space
also creates that high-energy radiation like the Sun.
- [Narrator] The radiation
from the Starfish Prime detonation
eventually dissipated, but only after years.
- It also created radiation
that was trapped within the magnetic fields of Earth.
So any satellites
that were orbiting the Earth at that point in time,
again, very few in 1962,
but any satellites that were orbiting the Earth,
accumulated a higher radiation dose,
and their electronics basically got fried over time.
- [Narrator] The Starfish Prime test,
revealed that a high-altitude nuclear detonation
is particularly effective and indiscriminate.
Not only were nearby satellites destroyed,
satellites on the other side of the Earth,
were damaged and rendered inoperable.
According to a 2010 Defense Threat Reduction Agency Report,
"Starfish Prime damaged or destroyed
roughly one-third of all satellites
in low Earth orbit at the time."
In recent years,
the space domain has emerged as another battlefield.
- One of the first shots that Russia took
as it was invading Ukraine, it was a space shot.
Russia launched a cyber attack against a satellite network
to prevent Ukrainian forces
from being able to communicate with each other.
- [Narrator] According to Bingen,
"There is no satellite in orbit today
that is out of reach of Russian missiles."
- So if I think about
a direct accent Antisatellite missile,
so a missile designed to target a satellite,
that's largely, I'll say a one versus one weapon system,
it's one missile targeting one satellite.
A nuclear detonation in space,
I see as a one versus many weapon.
If your aim is to target
and take out as many satellites as you can,
you might seek this nuclear option
to create a large detonation
that fries any satellites within range,
and then creates a high-radiation environment
that degrades even more satellites over time.
- [Narrator] Bingen says, "It would be very difficult
to defend American satellites
against a nuclear explosion in space."
- There are some satellites
that the US government builds,
that have been designed to withstand nuclear attacks.
Those are our nuclear command and control systems
and our missile warning systems.
But those are large, exquisite, expensive systems.
When you think about
all of the satellites in orbit today,
over 90% of them are commercial.
Those commercial companies
are unlikely to invest
in radiation hardening their satellites.
- [Narrator] To address the growing threats from space,
in 2019, the US created a new service branch,
the Space Force.
- Now, those who wish to harm the United States
to seek to challenge us
in the ultimate high ground of space,
it's gonna be a whole different ballgame.
- [Narrator] By contrast,
the Russian Space Program has atrophied
- Sanctions from their invasion of Ukraine
are biting into their space program.
They plan to withdraw
from the International Space Station Program,
so they have a lot less to lose.
At the same time, they know how dependent
the United States is on space for our military,
for our intelligence collection,
and even the economic benefit that we gain
from our satellites orbiting the Earth.
So they know that we have a lot more to lose,
and if a situation is potentially dire for them,
they may be willing to make that trade.
(missile buzzing)
(gentle music)