The White House acknowledged concerns raised by a top lawmaker about Russia developing an anti-satellite weapons capability.
While details are classified, reports indicate it involves nuclear capabilities in space that could threaten U.S. military satellites.
Rep. Mike Turner said, “The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has made available to all Members of Congress information concerning a serious national threat.”
White House national security communications advisor John Kirby said, “We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on Earth.”
“That said, we’ve been closely monitoring this Russian activity and will continue to take it very seriously,” he continued.
National security advisor, Jake Sullivan, briefed Congress on the issue, saying the capability is still in development and not deployed, but that any threat to satellites needs to be taken seriously as many provide critical services.
Sullivan said, “We make decisions about how and when to publicly disclose intelligence in a careful, deliberate and strategic way, in a way that we choose.”
He added, “We’re not going to be knocked off that process regardless of what, in this particular case, has found its way into the public domain. I can assure you that we will continue to keep members of Congress, as well as our international partners and all of you and the American people, as fully informed as possible.”
Kirby said, “If there’s a presumption here that somehow the administration gave a green light for this information to get public yesterday…that is false. That did not happen.”
“We were eventually going to get to a point where we were going to be able to share it with the American people, and we still will as appropriate. As I said in my opening statement, we’ll keep you informed as we can,” he reiterated.
The Biden administration has been monitoring the situation and engaging with allies and Russia on the matter.
On the same day concerns were raised, the U.S. launched multiple satellites to detect missile launches in response to the potential space weapons threat.
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