Dumb War
A Russian launch vehicle higher than most satellites has long been a concern of the Pentagon – and new revelations about its contents have made the concerns even worse.
Launched in February 2022 just weeks before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s cosmos 2553 was nominally built to test “newly developed instruments and systems.” According to a new report from New York Timeshowever, the mysterious satellite system has a “dummy warhead” – a precursor to what could come if the Russians decide to develop a real warhead.
As scary as the thought of a space nuke sounds, it would not be harmful to life on Earth – unless you decide to remove all the satellites from its orbit, in which case the people on the ground below would be very difficult.
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Back in 1962, the US military successfully destroyed a nuclear weapon in space, although the damage from the resulting electrical shock appears to have been limited to the street lights that went out in Hawaii, which was under test.
Scientists learned from a previously planned experiment that doing so would be a bad idea, and in 1967, Russia and the United States signed the Outer Space Treaty to prevent, essentially, space warfare. In the years since, however, concerns have grown that Russia might violate the agreement – especially as more and more communications satellites began to orbit our planet.
After Russia launched Cosmos 2553 about 250 miles from Earth’s surface, military experts became concerned that it might be a secret nuclear weapon. Since NYTA new report shows, the US Space Force and a group of intelligence agencies have been quietly monitoring the satellite to try to determine its true purpose.
Throughout the year 2024, more information about the anti-satellite weapon began to emerge from Washington. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin continued to deny that such a thing was the case – although, it does not appear that he has denied it since NYT reported that Cosmos 2553 has a dummy warhead.
Despite this opposition, Russia voted in April for a United Nations resolution that would ban nuclear weapons in space. Or that NYT‘s reporting up, we can find out why.
More about Russian crafts: Crazy Video Shows Reckless Russian Fighter Jet Rips Past F-16