Two days ago, we reported how the House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner had called for the White House To Immediately Declassify “Information Concerning A Serious National Security Threat”
“I am requesting that President Biden declassify all information relating to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions necessary to respond to this threat.”
There was a lot of speculation about what the threat was, and how urgent it was. There were reports it had to do with some sort of space weapon.
One reaction was that it was all a ploy to pass Ukraine military funding. But Turner didn’t call for funding, he called for declassification of the information. If it was a big nothingburger then declassification would reveal that. So I didn’t buy into that conspiracy theory.
CNN is reporting (I know, I know) that the urgent threat was maybe not so urgent, but involves Russia putting nuclear weapons in space to disable satellites:
Russia is trying to develop a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites by creating a massive energy wave when detonated, potentially crippling a vast swath of the commercial and government satellites that the world below depends on to talk on cell phones, pay bills, and surf the internet, according to three sources familiar with the intelligence.
These sources gave CNN a more detailed understanding of what Russia is working on – and the threat it could pose – than the US government has previously disclosed.
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, set off a frenzy in Washington on Wednesday when he issued a statement saying his panel “had information concerning a serious national security threat.” By Friday, President Joe Biden had publicly confirmed that Turner was referring to a new Russian nuclear anti-satellite capability — but officials have steadfastly refused to discuss it further, citing the highly classified nature of the intelligence.
The weapon is still under development and is not yet in orbit, Biden administration officials have emphasized publicly. But if used, officials say, it would cross a dangerous rubicon in the history of nuclear weapons and could cause extreme disruptions to everyday life in ways that are difficult to predict.
This kind of new weapon — known generally by military space experts as a nuclear EMP — would create a pulse of electromagnetic energy and a flood of highly charged particles that would tear through space to disrupt other satellites winging around Earth.
I claim no expertise on the subject, but haven’t EMP weapons been widely discussed as a threat for a long time? I just assumed they already existed.
This 2021 article explained the risk:
Abstract:The United States and NATO allies regularly experience from Russia major cyber-attacks penetrating government agencies and critical infrastructures for electric power, telecommunications, transportation and other sectors vital to electronic civilization. These events practice a new way of warfare, including EMP attacks, that could blackout North America and NATO Europe, and win World War III at the speed of light.Any nuclear weapon detonated in outer space, 30 kilometers or higher, will generate a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) damaging all kinds of electronics, blacking-out electric grids and collapsing other life-sustaining critical infrastructures. No blast, thermal, fallout or effects other than HEMP are experienced in the atmosphere and on the ground.Russian military doctrine, because HEMP attacks electronics, categorizes nuclear HEMP attack as a dimension of Information Warfare, Electronic Warfare and Cyber Warfare, which are modes of warfare operating within the electromagnetic spectrum.
But perhaps putting them in space would create a different threat. Taking down satellites without having to explode a nuke in our atmosphere, which would trigger a wider nuclear war, could cripple an opponent’s ability to communicate. But unless the threat could be targeted, the Russians would be taking down their own satellites also.
I think we need some more information here. Which is why I agree with Turner that the information should be declassified.
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