(OPINION) Leon Panetta, who served as the director of the CIA and the secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama, said Russia could “blind” the US by using a nuclear-capable weapon to disable satellites in space.
Panetta spoke to CNN on Wednesday about an unnamed threat to US national security.
Multiple media reports, citing US officials, said the threat was about Russia developing a nuclear weapon that could be deployed against satellites.
Satellites are pivotal for transmitting information ranging from cellphone data to military communications.
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On the CNN segment, Panetta spoke in hypothetical terms about how such a system could work, adding that he didn’t have direct knowledge of the situation.
“If Russia could blind our ability to be able to gather that kind of information, make no mistake about it, that would be an act of war because it would threaten our national security,” Panetta said.
He added that the US was likely developing a similar capacity to target satellites and defend its own from attacks.
“So I’m sure that the Pentagon is developing the ability not only to track what the Russians are doing and determine whether or not they’re going to try to deploy something like this but also how they defend against it if it should happen,” he said.
The information initially came to light on Wednesday after Rep. Michael Turner, a Republican from Ohio and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, called on the Biden administration to declassify information on the threat, which he did not describe.
ABC News and The New York Times later reported that the threat concerned Russia developing a nuclear space weapon, which, according to the reports, could disable civilian communication, GPS, surveillance from space, and military command and control.
Other reports described it differently: PBS News reported its sources saying the satellite could be powered by a nuclear reactor but was not itself a nuclear weapon.
A former US official told the Times that the US does not currently have the capacity to counter the threat but the launch of the Russian weapon did not appear to be imminent.
