Russia’s ‘Space-Based Weapon’ Raises Fresh Fears About an Old Threat

TIME

The White House on Thursday confirmed reports that Russia is pursuing an “anti-satellite capability” that poses a serious national security concern but is not an immediate threat to Americans' safety.

Transcript

00:00 I know that Chairman Turner's letter to House members and his subsequent post on social

00:05 media about a national security threat has prompted a lot of questions.

00:09 While I am limited by how much I can share about the specific nature of the threat, I

00:15 can confirm that it is related to an anti-satellite capability that Russia is developing.

00:20 I want to be clear about a couple of things right off the bat.

00:24 First, this is not an active capability that's been deployed.

00:29 And though Russia's pursuit of this particular capability is troubling, there is no immediate

00:33 threat to anyone's safety.

00:35 We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical

00:40 destruction here on Earth.

00:42 That said, we've been closely monitoring this Russian activity and we will continue to take

00:47 it very seriously.

00:48 President Biden has been kept fully informed and regularly informed by his national security

00:53 team, including today.

00:55 He has directed a series of initial actions, including additional briefings to congressional

00:59 leaders, direct diplomatic engagement with Russia, with our allies and our partners as

01:04 well, and with other countries around the world who have interests at stake.

01:08 The intelligence community has serious concerns about a broad declassification of this intelligence.

01:16 They also assess that starting with private engagement rather than immediately publicizing

01:21 the intelligence could be a much more effective approach.

01:25 We agree with that, which is consistent, of course, with the manner in which we have conducted

01:28 downgrades of information in the past.

01:31 This administration has put a lot of focus on doing that in a strategic way, a deliberate

01:36 way, and in particular when it comes to Russia.

01:39 I would tell you that this is still a development – I'm sorry, it's still a capability

01:43 they're developing.

01:44 We are still analyzing the information that's available to that.

01:48 I would not speak definitively about our strategic deterrent capabilities one way or the other.

01:55 We just don't – we don't talk about that publicly.

01:57 But we're taking this potential threat very, very seriously, and we are examining what

02:01 the best next steps are and what our options might be.

02:04 I want to reiterate it is not an active capability and it has not yet been deployed.

02:10 We will engage directly.

02:12 We plan to engage directly with the Russians about this, and – as well as allies and

02:17 partners.

02:18 And as I said, we'll continue to work through what our next steps and our approaches might

02:22 be.

02:23 I don't want to minimize the potential here for disruption should there be an anti-satellite

02:30 capability of any significance.

02:32 It could affect services here on Earth.

02:36 There's no question about that.

02:37 That's why we are taking this so seriously.

02:39 Look, it's – we certainly – we're not in a position where we're trusting what's

02:43 coming out of Russia.

02:45 What they say, we watch what they do.

02:48 And we analyze what they do, and then we make our own decisions, our own policy decisions

02:52 about what we're going to do based on their actions or their inactions.

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