Russia's tests of anti-satellite weapons undermine strategic stability in the world and pose a threat to it. This was stated by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a briefing on November 17.
"The most worrying thing about this is the threat that is being created for the international community. This undermines international stability," he said, the broadcast was carried out on the Defense Ministry's Twitter page.
Austin stressed in his speech that Russia, when conducting tests, probably understood what kind of debris field would form after such actions. It is unclear then why it was necessary to do this, the head of the defense department summed up.
According to him, the United States is concerned about the process of militarization of outer space. In this regard, he called on Russia and other countries to "behave responsibly."
On Tuesday, November 16, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the tests, during which an inactive Russian spacecraft, the Soviet satellite "Tselina-D" was successfully hit. The ministry stated that they are carrying out planned activities to strengthen the defense capability.
Military expert Dmitry Kornev told Izvestia that on November 15, it was the anti-missile and anti-satellite system, known by the name of the development work (R&D) "Nudol", which has been under development for a decade, that was tested. Tests have shown that the Nudol system is in a high degree of readiness, the expert stressed.
According to foreign websites tracking space launches, the first successful tests of the Russian anti-missile system from Plesetsk took place on November 18, 2015. In total, they count about a dozen tests of the Nudol system from the northern cosmodrome, not counting the successful destruction of the target satellite this year.
The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, did not provide details about the system with which a faulty Soviet satellite was destroyed on November 15.
Earlier, on November 6, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that Russia and the United States continue to conduct a dialogue on strategic stability, despite the existing differences. According to her, along with the disagreements, there is also an understanding of the need to create two thematic working groups.
On November 4, the head of the press service of the State Department, Ned Price, pointed out that the dialogue between the United States and Russia concerning strategic stability has so far been constructive and useful.
