home Security Air & Missile Defense Russia Joins Space Warfare Race, Tests Anti-Satellite Missile

Russia Joins Space Warfare Race, Tests Anti-Satellite Missile

Dec 13, 2015

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

In a further escalation of the space arms race, Russia has launched and tested an anti-satellite missile on Nov. 18. The missile system, called the Nudol, seems to be part of the missile defense system and has a limited anti-satellite capability. With the successful anti-satellite missile test, Russia has joined China in arming its forces with strategic space warfare weapons.

Twenty days earlier China conducted a flight test of its anti-satellite missile. The Dong Neng-3 direct ascent missile was tested on Oct. 30 in western China. Chinese defense officials said the DN-3 is primarily a direct-ascent missile designed to ram into satellites and destroy them, even if intelligence assessments hold that the weapon has some missile defense capabilities.

The United States military, as well as its civilian communications and economic infrastructure, depends heavily on satellites for intelligence and delivery of weapons systems, and it appears likely that Chinese and Russian ASAT systems are designed to threaten U.S. superiority in this area.

While there is little information available publicly regarding the Russian program, it – like its Chinese counterpart – appears to be a direct-ascent weapon that is linked to missile defense programs. State-run media in Russia described the mobile transporter-launcher for what has been identified as “a new Russian long-range missile defense and space defense intercept complex.”

Israeli experts say that these developments suggest a three-headed arms race with players being China, Russia and the US. But Americans seem to think that the US is lagging behind. Former Pentagon official Mark Schneider said the Russian test highlights the failure of the United States to prepare for space warfare. “There is an enormous asymmetry in play regarding space weapons,” said Schneider.

The Pentagon says several countries including Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are working on an ASAT capability.