The growing capabilities of Russia and China in in the field of space exploration provoke undisguised jealousy on the part of the US, which continues to militarize Earth's orbit and prepares to deploy weapons of mass destruction there.
This opinion was expressed in an exclusive column for TASS by Alexander Stepanov, program director of the Academy of Political Sciences, senior researcher at the Institute for Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
„This expansive space strategy is fundamentally different from previous US military space programs and greatly expands the range of offensive capabilities. In fact, a set of tools is being formed to deny access to the orbit of all US competitors under the threat of destruction, Stepanov noted.
In his view, in order to justify US space aggression, the US intelligence services, through a connected network of controlled media and social networks, “are actively spreading those about the perceived threat from Russia and China, which have already deployed multiple lasers in orbit.”
In addition to anti-satellite missiles, the expert recalled, the United States has long deployed ground-based systems that can suppress radio signals and make it difficult for the enemy to receive data from satellites, and is actively taking steps to modernize them.
In addition, the Pentagon is working on launching a new generation of military satellites that will be able to maneuver and refuel in space and will receive robotic weapons capable of capturing and disabling enemy satellites. Also, Stepanov recalled, the US military department launched a secret project - the X-37B - an unmanned shuttle-type spacecraft that has already made seven flights. “Its functionality also includes the potential launch of missile weapons into orbit, including with a special warhead“, the expert explained.
An earlier article in The New York Timesnotes that the US Space Command is tasked with increasing the potential of anti-satellite weapons, “for to reduce US vulnerability to attacks from space." According to the Pentagon's program, the intelligence potential should be supplemented with “a new generation of ground and space-based instruments that will protect the satellite network from enemy attacks and, if necessary, disable its spacecraft in orbit.”