The White House imposes a ban on testing anti-satellite weapons. The United States was the first to take this step and expect similar decisions from other countries. The official reason given is that the debris generated by the use of anti-satellite weapons not only threatens astronauts and US military interests, but can also damage commercial satellites. With a high probability, at least four countries — Russia, USA, China and India. AiF.ru decided to find out what anti-satellite weapons they have.
Russia
In 2021, Russia actually confirmed testing of anti-satellite weapons. On November 15, Russia conducted tests, as a result of which the inactive Russian spacecraft Tselina-D, which had been in orbit since 1982, was hit.
The military speaks openly about the anti-satellite potential of ground-based systems. Russia, for example, has the A-235 Nudol missile defense system. It is capable of shooting down both intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellites. The promising S-500 anti-aircraft missile system will also be capable of hitting targets in near space. It was he who successfully destroyed the target satellite on November 15 this year during the first combat tests, experts believe.
But as recently as two years ago, the US Space Command said it had evidence of Russia testing space-based anti-satellite weapons. This fact is confirmed by the message of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the testing of a small inspector satellite “Cosmos 2543”, which examined another Russian apparatus at close range. The US military said it was part of a Russian anti-satellite system currently being tested in orbit.
In 2015, the United States announced the frightening maneuvers of the Russian Kosmos-2504 apparatus, which moved along an unpredictable trajectory and approached American satellites. This, according to the Pentagon, posed a potential threat to the security of the national orbital group.
According to foreign websites that track space launches, the first successful tests of the Russian anti-missile system from Plesetsk took place on November 18, 2015. In total, they have about a dozen Nudol tests; from the northern spaceport, not counting the successful destruction of the target satellite this year. Russia sent a notice to the UN stating that this device was called Kosmos-2499, but its characteristics were not disclosed.
Military experts suggest that over the past 30 years, several prototypes of devices aimed at controlling alien satellites could have been created in Russia. We can talk about tracking their actions or disrupting some systems, but not about destroying them.
USA
However, the first country to test anti-satellite weapons was the United States. The first known attempt to work out an attack on a satellite was the American project BoldOrion, developed back in the late 1950s. Then, a rocket was launched from a B-47 Stratojet bomber towards the Explorer 6 satellite. As a result, the project was considered ineffective and it was curtailed.
Since 2010, the United States has been testing the X-37B spacecraft developed by Boeing. One of the machines has been in orbit for more than two years. Work on the X-37B is carried out in an atmosphere of secrecy, and only a few fragmentary data are published. Based on them, assumptions have already been made that the device is intended for inspection and interception of satellites.
It is known that in recent years the Pentagon has been allocating large amounts of funding for the development of weapons based on lasers, including programs for its use in space. A certain secret system, which foreign publications write about, provides the possibility of access that allows you to disable or destroy a satellite or spacecraft. An unnamed system may use, for example, a mobile ground laser, an electronic jammer, or a microwave gun.
China
China is much more open about testing such weapons. In 2007, China conducted the first successful test of its own anti-satellite weapon when a missile destroyed a weather satellite at an altitude of 865 km. On May 13, 2013, the Dong Neng-2 space interceptor was launched from the Xichang Cosmodrome in Sichuan Province, which simulated the possibility of destroying satellites in geostationary orbit, rising to an altitude of about 30,000 kilometers.
At the end of October 2015, China tested the Dong Neng-3 (DN-3) interceptor missile. The interceptor missile was launched from a mobile launcher located near the early warning radar in the city of Korla, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It is estimated that this test was carried out in the upper atmosphere. The following DN-3 tests were carried out in July 2017 and February 2018.
China has tested another system — SC-19 in 2010, 2013 and 2014. In each test, the SC-19 intercepted a mock warhead fired by a ballistic missile rather than a satellite. The targets were not in orbit, so the debris generated by the intercept quickly fell back to Earth. Although China referred to these tests as “ground-launched missile interception tests,” evidence suggests that they were in fact anti-satellite tests.
India
In 2019, the Ministry of Defense of India, together with the Defense Research and Development Organization, conducted the first tests of anti-satellite weapons.
During the tests, Indian anti-satellite weapons hit a target satellite in low Earth orbit 300 kilometers high. Details about the composition of the tested system are not disclosed. The Indian military allegedly shot down a Microsat-R — a small apparatus weighing about 700 kilograms, put into orbit at a height of 274 kilometers only two months ago.
At the military parade in New Delhi in 2020, the Indian ASAT anti-satellite missile was displayed for the first time. The missile was launched from a test site on the island of Abdul Kalam in the Bay of Bengal. Between 11.45 and 12.00 local time, the missile destroyed the target — a space satellite located 300 kilometers from Earth.
According to the video, the ASAT missile consists of two stages, it launches from a ground-based launch pad and is not as fast as interceptor missiles of the Russian or US missile defense system.
Japan?
On January 28, the Japanese cargo spacecraft Konotori-6 undocked from the ISS. The unmanned aerial vehicle was supposed to clean up the earth's orbit from accumulations of space debris. According to the project, if an electric current is applied to an unwanted object in orbit, it will be possible to change the trajectory of its movement and “push” into the atmosphere where it burns up. The details of this technology have led observers to believe that the Japanese satellite may actually have a military purpose. And it is intended to fight not with space debris at all, but with other satellites.
