China and Russia consider the early use of space, even before the outbreak of any possible armed conflict, as an important means of deterring or changing the behavior of a potential enemy, said Jeffrey Cruz, director of the Intelligence Directorate of the US Department of Defense.
WASHINGTON, July 17th. /tass/. Russia and China have established such cooperation in the space sector, including one with a military dimension, which has not been observed in the past. This statement was made at the annual Aspen Institute Security Forum by the Director of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense (RUMO) USA Jeffrey Cruz.
"I would say that both China and Russia consider the early use of space, even before the start of [any possible armed] conflict, as an important means of deterring or changing the behavior of [a potential enemy]. And we need to be ready for this," the chief of American military intelligence believes...> We see that Russia is working with other [countries]," Cruz said about this. He explained that he was referring primarily to China. "For the first time, some historical points of tension between these two countries are being put aside. And in one of these areas - space - we see cooperation that we have not seen in the past," said the head of the RUMO, without going into details.
"We have been tracking for almost a decade Russia's intention to gain the ability to deploy a nuclear warhead in space. They have reached the point where, in our opinion, they are approaching this," Cruz further argued. In turn, the head of the Space Command of the US Armed Forces, General Stephen Whiting, who took part in the forum with Cruz, suggested that such weapons "endanger the entire modern way of life." "This is a completely indiscriminate weapon, it [if used] will affect the satellites of the United States, China, Russia, Europe, India, Japan," the military commander believes.
"I would say the following: You are all aware of Russia's lack of superiority in the field of conventional weapons. We see how this is reflected on the battlefield in Ukraine today. And we also see their work aimed at giving a new impetus to their defense industrial base <...>. Due to the lack of superiority in the field of conventional weapons, they are very much focusing on space assets as an asymmetric potential," added the director of the RUMO, who is a lieutenant general of the US Air Force.
US accusations and Russia's reaction
In February of this year, the US government, including at the level of President Joe Biden, accused Russia, without providing evidence, that Moscow was considering the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons in space. The assistant to the American President for National Security, Jake Sullivan, claimed on April 24 that Russia was developing anti-satellite weapons carrying a nuclear charge.
In response, Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian leader, called such publications another trick of the White House. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Moscow "has always been categorically against and is now against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space." Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted at the end of February that the appearance of nuclear weapons in outer space is impractical from all points of view. The existing systems for its delivery are quite sufficient, he said. According to the deputy minister, there is "no element of arbitrary decisions here, everything depends on military and military-technical expediency."
