On Feb. 14, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said on X that the committee had made available to all congressional members “information concerning a serious national security threat.”
Turner then asked President Biden to declassify information relating to the threat. Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a joint statement that the committee has “the intelligence in question, and has been rigorously tracking this issue from the start” but warned that “we must be cautious about potentially disclosing sources and methods that may be key to preserving a range of options for U.S. action.”
Capitol Hill started the press abuzz on the possible threat–from Russian nuclear-armed anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) to hypersonic weapons to nuclear-powered, orbiting satellite jammers.
On Feb. 15, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the threat was Russian ASAT-related but not imminent.
“I can confirm that it is related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing,” he said. “This is not an active capability that’s been deployed, and, though Russia’s pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”
Kirby said that Biden is “fully informed” of the threat and has ordered “a series of initial actions, including additional briefings to congressional leaders, direct diplomatic engagement with Russia, with our allies and partners, and with other countries around the world who have interests at stake.”
In addition to chairing the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Turner is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a former chair of the HASC strategic forces panel.
Turner has voted to back Ukraine. Last October, Turner was one of 311 House members approving H.R. 5962, the Fiscal 2024 Ukraine Security Assistance and Oversight Supplemental Appropriations Act. Less than a month after the Feb. 24, 2022 Russian assault on Ukraine, Turner signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 995–Supporting the Ukrainian People and Recognizing Their Contributions to the State of Ohio.
Legislation to continue funding for the Ukrainian war effort is still caught in Congress, due to significant House GOP opposition.
The United States, Russia, China and India have had ASAT development efforts.
For its part, the U.S. has developed dedicated direct ascent-ASAT (DA-ASAT) “in the past, both conventional and nuclear-tipped, and likely possesses the ability to do so in the near future
should it choose so,” according to a Secure World Foundation counterspace report last September.
The U.S. Space Force also has an L3Harris [LHX] Block 10.2 Counter Communications System (CCS) to jam uplinks to geostationary communications satellites and has been upgrading Block 10.2 CCS to the Block 10.3 Meadowlands system (Defense Daily, Jan. 21, 2021). The Space Force said that Block 10.2 CCS achieved initial operational capability in March 2020 as the service’s “first offensive weapon.”
The 2023 Secure World Foundation counterspace report said that Russia began development of the Ekipazh nuclear-powered satellite frequency jamming system in 2014.
“I would not be surprised if we find out this new Russian capability is aimed at trying to deal with Starlink,” said Brian Weeden, the chief program officer for the Secure World Foundation. “It [Starlink] is a huge problem for the Russians. They can’t deal with it. They can’t blow up the satellites. They’ve tried jamming, and it’s not been effective.”
In combating Russian forces, the Ukrainian military has heavily used SpaceX‘s Starlink commercial satellite communications system.