Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space

Russia's anti-satellite threat tests laws of war in space

A Russian official's threat this week to "strike" Western satellites aiding Ukraine highlights an untested area of international law, raising concerns among space lawyers and industry executives about the safety of objects in orbit.

"Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike," senior foreign ministry official Konstantin Vorontsov told the United Nations, reiterating Moscow's position that Western civilian and commercial satellites helping Ukrainian's war effort was "an extremely dangerous trend."

No country has carried out a missile strike against an enemy's satellite. Such an act during the war in Ukraine could sharply escalate tensions between Russia and the United States.

"This threat has brought us to a brink that we've never been to before," said Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the University of Mississippi School of Law's Air and Space Law program. "There’s always been a sense that this could happen, but never has somebody actually said that they might do that out loud.”

Ukraine's military relies heavily on Elon Musk's SpaceX for broadband internet beamed from its low-Earth orbiting Starlink satellite network. U.S. firms like Maxar (MAXR.N) are capturing images of the war from satellites in orbit. And tens of thousands of communications devices in Ukraine rely on U.S. satellite communications giant Iridium's (IRDM.O) satellite network.

"It's really irresponsible to talk about shooting anything down in space for any reason," Iridium chief executive Matt Desch told Reuters. "Space has gotten to be quite messy."

"If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I'd imagine it would quickly make space unusable," Desch said.

Musk and SpaceX did not respond to emailed requests for comment. The billionaire briefly caused alarm this month by saying he could no longer afford to keep funding Starlink service in Ukraine, a position he quickly reversed.

Under the laws of armed conflict, a Russian strike on a private U.S. company's satellite could be seen as an act of war to which the U.S. could respond, Hanlon said.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that any attack on U.S. infrastructure would be met with a response but he did not go into detail.

"The legal aspects of all this are really murky at the moment," said Brian Weeden, a space policy analyst at the Secure World Foundation. "We don’t have any examples of wartime uses of force against satellites - there’s really nothing to go off of."

COMPLICATED CALCULUS


Whether a Russian anti-satellite strike would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, such as its prohibition on placing weapons of mass destruction in space, is debatable, lawyers say. The Liability Convention of 1972, to which Russia is also a signatory, stipulates that countries must pay compensation for any damage caused by its space objects.

Last year Russia demonstrated a direct-ascent anti-satellite missile on one of its old satellites in orbit, blasting it to smithereens. Since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion into Ukraine, Western officials and companies have accused Moscow of repeated attempts to hack and jam satellite internet signals over the region.

Anti-satellite missiles have been widely condemned by the West and astronomers for creating hazardous orbital debris that endangers critical space infrastructure, from crewed space stations to GPS networks that millions of consumer and government platforms around the world rely on.

The only other countries to have conducted direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests are the United States - which last demonstrated an anti-satellite weapon in 2008 - China, and India.

Vorontsov did not single out any companies in his comments to a U.N. panel on Wednesday. But SpaceX's Starlink has stood out as a persistent target for Russia, which has attempted to signal-jam the network's signals during the war, Musk has said.

A network of thousands of interconnected satellites encircling Earth like Starlink have been championed by the U.S. military as being resilient to potential anti-satellite attacks that could only target a small portion of the network without fully disabling it.

"It complicates the calculus for the enemy," Lieutenant General Philip Garrant, the U.S. Space Force's deputy chief of strategy and operations, told Reuters. "If there's lots of satellites, they don't know which one to target."

SpaceX's Starlink network consists of roughly 3,000 satellites, and there are several dozen commercial U.S. imagery satellites eyeing Russia and Ukraine.

"Destroying one or two, or even a dozen, isn’t gonna have much effect," Weeden said.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
0:00
0:00
Open
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker to Return to AIA as Non-Executive Chair
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on International Students at Harvard
Trump Proposes Travel Ban on 'Uncontrolled' Countries
Global News Roundup: From Ukraine's strategic military strikes and Russia's demands and Tensions Escalate in Ukraine, to serious legal issues faced by Britons in Bali and Trump's media criticism, the latest developments highlight a turbulent landscape
Majority of French Voters View Macron's Presidency as a Failure
Hungary Partners with China to Boost Electric Vehicle Production
‘Vibe Coding’ Emerges as the New DIY Trend
AI Pioneer Yoshua Bengio Warns Models Can Deceive Users
Big Four Firms Rush to Create AI Auditing Systems
Musk’s xAI Pursues $113 Billion Valuation in New Share Sale
Walmart Increases Revenue Despite Shrinking Workforce
Hims & Hers Plans UK and EU Launch of Replica Obesity Drugs
Toyota to Acquire Supplier in $33 Billion Buyout
U.S. Reduces Military Presence in Syria
Trump Demands Iran End All Uranium Enrichment in Nuclear Talks
BlackRock-Backed Fintech Aims to Become Europe’s Charles Schwab
China Accuses US of Violating Trade Truce
Europe's Strategic Push to Challenge Dollar Dominance
Iran Warns Europe Against Politicizing UN Nuclear Report
France Implements Nationwide Outdoor Smoking Ban to Protect Children
Macron Lightheartedly Addresses Viral 'Shove' Incident in Indonesia
German Chancellor Merz Keeps Putin Guessing on Missile Strategy
Mandelson Criticizes UK's 'Fetish' for Abandoning EU Regulations
Dutch government falls as far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
Macron and Meloni Seek Unity Despite Tensions
Newark Mayor Sues Over Arrest at Immigration Facility
Center-Left Candidate Projected to Win South Korean Presidency
Trump’s Tariffs Predicted to Stall Global Economic Growth
South Korea’s President-Elect Expected to Take Softer Line on Trump and North Korea
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Eurozone Inflation Falls Below ECB Target to 1.9%
Blackstone and Rivals Diverge on Private Equity Strategy
Call for a New Chapter in Globalisation Emerges
Ukraine Executes Long-Range Drone Strikes on Russian Airbases
Conservative Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Study Identifies Potential Radicalization Risk Among Over One Million Muslims in Germany
Good news: Annalena Baerbock Elected President of the UN General Assembly
Apple Appeals EU Law Over User Data Sharing Requirements
South Africa: "First Black Bank" Collapses after Being Looted by Owners
Poland will now withdraw from the EU migration pact after pro-Trump nationalist wins Election
"That's Disgusting, Don’t Say It Again": The Trump Joke That Made the President Boil
Paris Saint-Germain's Greatest Triumph Is Football’s Lowest Point
OnlyFans for Sale: From Lockdown Lifeline to Eight-Billion-Dollar Empire
×