The U.S. military has a renewed sense of urgency in defending space assets following Russia’s successful missile launch that hit and destroyed a satellite.
“What we’re seeing Russia demonstrate is a weapon. If they can destroy a Russian satellite, they can destroy an American satellite,” U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno said at the ASCEND space conference on Wednesday, according to Defense One.
MISSILE TESTS BY RUSSIA AND CHINA SHOULD BE ‘WAKE-UP CALL’ FOR BIDEN, EXPERTS SAY
“It’s not just Russia, it’s China as well,” Armagno added, referencing the hypersonic missile test China conducted over the summer. For the Space Force, it means “more difficult to find or less juicy,” she said.
“We’re doing this mission area by mission area. We need to take our missile-warning assets, we need to add layers of orbits, hybrid capabilities, smaller satellites, and commercially provided capabilities,” she continued. “That will all complicate Russia targeting our prime missile-warning capabilities.”
The two missile tests from adversaries have gotten the attention of the Department of Defense, while Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin told reporters on Wednesday, “We are concerned about the weaponization of space.”
“We’re working as hard as we can to ensure that we can defend ourselves against a range of threats going forward,” Austin added.
The secretary also questioned why Russia would conduct the test, which endangered its own cosmonauts at the International Space Station, who had to take emergency shelter in their spacecraft from the more than 1,500 pieces of debris that were scattered throughout space.
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“They have the ability, they know exactly what kind of debris field they’re going to create,” Austin said. “So we wonder why they would move to do such a thing.”
Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback, the director of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance for the Space Force, said at the conference that the test was “probably from a deterrence perspective” and represents “a continuation of their intent to degrade and deter us from using our space capabilities.”
