Putin says Russia has no intention of putting nuclear weapons in space

ABC News ^ | Feb 20, 2024

[McGruff]

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Tuesday that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the U.S.

Putin's statement follows the White House confirmation last week that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said it would violate the international Outer Space Treaty, but declined to comment on whether the weapon is nuclear-capable.

“Our position is quite clear and transparent: we have always been and remain categorically opposed to the deployment of nuclear weapons in space,” Putin said. “Just the opposite, we are urging everyone to adhere to all the agreements that exist in this sphere.”

[Mariner]

It would be contrary to their interests to do so.

[pepsionice]

If the intention is just to take that one satellite....you would not require a nuke for such a purpose.

However, I will point this obvious path. It wouldn’t take an rocket-scientist (say from North Korea or Iran) more than five years to copy the design and have a anti-satellite weapon (of a non-nuke type).

I could predict out in less than a decade that a dozen countries will have such weapons, and all of our satellite technology would be under some threat.

(Note: even some evil genius like Elon could develop such a such a weapon and launch it from some Texas carport)

[canuck_conservative]

and Navalny just suddenly died without any reason

[Bayard]

They will put nukes in space the moment they have the chance to if they’re not there already.

We should be doing the same though, so there’s that.

[Scrambler Bob]

No intention.

It will happen by accident.

Or by being hacked by NATO?

[ClearCase_guy]

I guess I might see some benefit in parking a nuke up in orbit, so that you could drop it on an enemy on short notice. Sort of like a “rod of God” but more thermonuclear and less kinetic.

But as far as I know the current fear isn’t about Russia raining down H-bombs on people.

I think the chatter has been about Russia exploding a device while it is up in orbit in order to disrupt our satellites. That just seems dumb. That’s like releasing smallpox on the world. Oh, sure, your enemy is going to really suffer. But so will you. So why do that? Seems to me that an exploded nuke in orbit basically shuts down orbital communication, possibly for a century or more. The Kessler Syndrome is a serious concern.

Call Russia evil. But they aren’t stupid.

[MeganC]

“Putin says Russia has no intention of putting nuclear weapons in space”

So Russia already has nukes in space. Thanks for letting us know.

[BeauBo]

“Putin says Russia has no intention of putting nuclear weapons in space”

Well, that confirms it.

[John S Mosby]

Largely because we already have them there- and would destroy any they tried to put up. Media is behind on all this war in space crap.

[Alter Kaker]

Just like Putin has no plans to annex Crimea.

[roadcat]

Sort of like a “rod of God” but more thermonuclear and less kinetic.

I remember the scenario of projectiles hurled from the Moon at Earth, in quite a few Sci-fi novels of the 1950's.

Now that there is a lot of activity with the aim of building Moon bases, and space supply stations to orbit the Moon and Earth, this will become a reality in the near future. Projectiles with hardened heat shields and guidance systems can wreak havoc on enemy cities if fired from space or the Moon, no nukes required. Any attempts by Earth-bound enemies to retaliate against the space-based weapons platforms would fail, intercepted early on (nudged off target by laser weapons?). Exciting times.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

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[whitney69]

“...so that you could drop it on an enemy on short notice...”

You’ll have to define short notice. The time here in the US from launch from a foreign sub off our shores to detination in many locations is around 20 minutes. For a launch from an orbital platform just to get by all the satellites and junk in space to hit anything would be longer than that.

Many countries, to include Russia, have observation platforms up there now. As of January 3rd 2024, the satellite tracking website “Orbiting Now” lists 8,377 active satellites in various Earth orbits. And that doesn’t include the junk floating around up there as their list only includes active platform.

Not profitable or worth the effort when all they have on the ground is far more than enough to get the job done to the point of extinguishing all humans on this wet stone. Just imagine a few hundered pieces of still active platforms up there being broken up and going earthward because of someone sending something through that roadblock.

wy69

[wardamneagle]

Send in Space Cowboys!!!!

[PTBAA]

Russia has no intention of putting any(more) nukes in space. They have so many up there now, they are bumping into each-other.