(Ken Silva, Headline USA) After Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, sounded the alarm Wednesday on a vague new “national security threat” facing the U.S., multiple sources are saying that the threat relates to a space-deployed Russian anti-satellite weapon—sparking fears that the Russian weapon could have nuclear capability.
However, skeptics aren’t buying the alarmist tone coming from Turner and other war hawks. Their warnings come as Congress debates a $95 billion foreign aid package, as well as reforms to the domestic spying bill, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“The most serious threat facing America isn’t Russian nukes in space or overseas terrorist plots, it’s the political class in Washington and our intelligence agencies that think they’re above the law,” the Federalist’s John Davidson wrote in response to the recent news.
Russia, for its part, has also criticized the talk of a new “national security threat” as propaganda. A Kremlin spokesperson reportedly called it a “trick” by the White House to get U.S politicians to approve an aid package for Ukraine.
🚨🇷🇺BREAKING: KREMLIN CALLS SPACE NUKES STORY A “TRICK”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied U.S claims that Russia has nuclear weapons in space.
He called it a “trick” by the White House to get U.S politicians to approve an aid package for Ukraine.
Source: TASS https://t.co/pyRc1caKFi pic.twitter.com/rUDuahpz4Q
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 15, 2024
Nevertheless, the Associated Press reported Thursday that the U.S. has gathered highly sensitive intelligence about Russian anti-satellite weapons that has been shared in recent weeks with the upper echelons of government, according to four people who have been briefed on the intelligence. Such a weapon could pose a major danger to U.S. satellites that transmit billions of bytes of data each hour.
The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly, said the capability was not yet operational. One added that intelligence officials consider the threat to be significant, but it should not cause panic.
Rep. Turner gave no details about the nature of the threat, and the Biden administration also declined to address it. Turner issued a statement urging the administration to declassify the information so the U.S. and its allies can openly discuss how to respond.
Turner has been a voice for stronger U.S. national security, putting him at odds with some Republican colleagues who favor a more isolationist approach. He has called for the renewal of a key U.S. government surveillance tool while some fellow Republicans and liberal Democrats have raised privacy objections.
And he supports continuing U.S. military aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia at a time that the funding remains uncertain because of opposition in the Republican-led House.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., noted Turner’s positions on FISA and Ukraine in an interview with Newsmax about the supposed threat.
The timing of this “national security threat” is suspicious. I worry that it will be used as a basis to extend the FISA authorities that have been abused by the Biden Administration.
There is nothing I read in the intelligence yesterday that scares me more than the intelligence… pic.twitter.com/IbvsX2rvwx
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 15, 2024
Several other leading lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have also cautioned against being overly alarmed.
The rapidly evolving threat in space was one of the primary reasons that the U.S. Space Force was established in 2019. A lot of that threat has to do with new capabilities that China and Russia have already developed that can interfere with critical satellite-based U.S. communications, such as GPS and the ability to quickly detect missile launches.
In recent years the U.S. has seen both China and Russia pursue new ways to jam satellites, intercept their feeds, blind them, shoot them down and even potentially grab them with a robotic arm to pull them out of their programmed orbits. One of the key missions of the Space Force is to train troops skilled in detecting and defending against those threats.
In its 2020 Defense Space Strategy, the Pentagon said China and Russia presented the greatest strategic threat in space due to their aggressive development of counterspace abilities, and their military doctrine calling for extending conflict to space.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
