Vladimir Putin’s terrifying plan to disable nuclear-armed satellites in space could cripple America’s GPS and intelligence gathering, ex-CIA chief Leon Panetta has warned.
Barack Obama’s defense secretary said Russia would unleash an “act of war” if it took out a US satellite.
He also believes the Pentagon is looking at ways it can respond and disable satellites launched from Moscow as the space arms race intensifies.
Panetta’s comments follow furious speculation sparked Wednesday by top Republican Mike Turner’s cryptic message that a “serious national threat” had emerged.
Vladimir Putin’s terrifying plan to disable nuclear-armed satellites in space could cripple US GPS and intelligence gathering, ex-CIA chief Leon Panetta has warned (above)
Russia will launch a Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile in 2022 in one of the shows showing how deadly Moscow can be in the space arms race
The chairman of the House Intel Committee demanded that President Joe Biden release all information related to the threat.
It subsequently emerged that the ominous warning was based on Putin’s plan to put his nuclear arsenal into orbit so that Moscow could shoot down satellites crucial to gathering information around the world.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan prepares to brief Congress on developments in the Kremlin on Thursday morning.
“Russia could blind our ability to gather that kind of information, make no mistake about that,” Panetta told CNN on Wednesday evening.
“That would be an act of war because it would threaten our national security.
“I’m confident that the Pentagon is not only developing the ability to monitor what the Russians are doing and determine whether or not they will try to deploy something like this.”
“We are going to work together to address this issue, just as we do all sensitive matters that are classified,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon.
‘But we want to make sure that everyone has steady hands on the wheel.’
Moscow has already shown how it can be deadly from space by testing a hit-to-kill anti-satellite missile in 2021.
Russia smashed a defunct spy satellite launched in 1982 into 1,500 pieces of rubble in the attack, sparking outrage around the world.
In 2020, Moscow fired an anti-satellite weapon from its Cosmos 2543 satellite while in orbit.
Putin has also threatened the West with his deadliest hypersonic missile, but it could shoot into space and hit multiple targets on the ground.
The nuclear-capable Avangard missile, which can reportedly hit targets at 27 times the speed of sound, is seen in new footage installed in an underground launch silo in Russia’s Orenburg region.
According to Moscow, the rocket, traveling at 20,000 miles per hour and using a hypersonic glide vehicle, will be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere in less than 30 minutes before hitting any target in the world.
Members of Congress or US allies should not openly discuss or collaborate on the threat until the report is released.
They can review the information related to “destabilizing foreign military capabilities” at a secure location in the Capitol until Thursday.
“Today, the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence made information about a serious threat to national security available to all members of Congress,” Turner said.
“I urge President Biden to release all information related to this threat so that Congress, the Administration, and our allies can openly discuss the actions needed to respond to this threat.”
Russia blew up one of its own satellites with a missile in 2021. Cosmos 1408, a defunct spy satellite launched in 1982, was the destroyed target, resulting in a field of 1,500 pieces of debris that endangered the ISS crew
Republican Mike Turner, head of the House Intelligence Committee, yesterday asked the White House to release all information related to this threat.
Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., was one of the first lawmakers to review the documents in the SCIF on Wednesday afternoon.
He told reporters that the threat “is not an immediate crisis, but certainly something that we need to deal with very seriously.”
“There are a lot of very volatile things that we need to address. This is one of them,” he added.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Wednesday he was “surprised” that Turner was speaking publicly about the threat being linked to a “destabilizing foreign military capability.”
He told reporters at the White House that the briefing on the warning would take place in Congress on Thursday.
“I contacted the Gang of Eight earlier this week to offer myself for a personal briefing to the Gang of Eight and in fact we have a briefing scheduled for the members of the House of Representatives of the Gang of Eight tomorrow.” , Sullivan said. the White House media briefing.
‘That’s in the books. So I’m a little surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today, ahead of a meeting where I could be sitting next to him tomorrow alongside our intelligence and defense professionals.”
“I’m not in a position to say anything more,” he added.
Rep. Jim Hines, the top Democrat on the Intel committee, emphasized there was no need to panic but declined to go into details.
“It’s something that Congress and the administration need to address in the medium to long term.”
The ominous warning comes as the House of Representatives is expected to introduce a bill to reauthorize the FBI’s controversial “spying tool” – Section 702 of the Foreign Information Surveillance Act (FISA).
The tool allows U.S. federal intelligence agencies to conduct targeted searches on foreigners, which they say is critical to stopping terrorists.
House Intel Chairman Mike Turner of Ohio said members of Congress had been notified of the threat but would not go into details
“We do not and should not need a warrant to look at legally and constitutionally collected data from terrorists,” Turner previously told DailyMail.com
Lawmakers are determined to fix the program’s “rampant abuses” before reauthorizing the bill so the FBI doesn’t ask inappropriate questions of Americans in the process of stopping the threats.
Turner is leading the charge on a bill that the House could vote on as soon as Thursday.
He is confident the legislation does not contain command requirements that he says could “impair national security.”
The bill text was released earlier this week, which merges competing bills passed by the House Intel and Judiciary committees last year.
But some members of the Republican Party have pushed back on the combined version, saying more reforms are needed and there should be a warrant requirement.
“Current law allows the U.S. government to collect data about you,” Bob Good, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday.
But Turner has criticized the demand for arrest warrants, which he says will place an undue burden on the intelligence community.
“We do not and should not need a warrant to look at legally and constitutionally collected data from terrorists,” Turner previously told DailyMail.com.
