Washington, May 18 (Agency) The United States is seeking ground and space based capabilities to defend its satellite network, pointing to alleged threats posed by rapidly advancing China and Russia, The New York Times reported on Friday, citing Pentagon officials.More specifically, the United States is looking for tools that would make it possible to both defend its satellite network from being attacked and to disrupt or disable enemy spacecraft in orbit, the report said. The US is in the midst of a significant shift in its approach to space, which Washington now perceives as a new battlefield against its enemies, which include Russia and China. The United States has accelerated this search after information appeared about alleged Russian plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space against satellites, which would be capable of disabling the entire network of American satellites at once, thus causing irreparable damage to the country’s defence capability, according to the report. However, according to a number of American officials, it was China’s activity in space that served as a trigger for the United States to accelerate the development of measures to respond to the threat to its satellites, the report said. “China has fielded a number of space capabilities designed to target our forces,” the report quoted Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall as saying in an interview.
“And we’re not going to be able to operate in the Western Pacific successfully unless we can defeat those.” Space Command Chief General Stephen Whiting described China’s tripled satellite network as a “kill web over the Pacific Ocean to find, fix, track, and, yes, target United States and allied military capabilities,” the report said. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that US officials claim that Russia launched a research spacecraft into space in February 2022 that is intended to test components for a potential nuclear anti-satellite weapon.Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has always been categorically opposed to deploying nuclear weapons in space. Putin stressed that Russia’s activities in space are no different from those of other countries, including the US.