Russia considers Washington’s plans to deploy weapons in space an irreversible blow to security
Russian authorities have expressed on Friday their concern ove plans by the United States to deploy weapons in space.
Russia said that using weapons in space would deal an irreversible blow to the current security balance in space, the RIA news agency cited the foreign ministry as saying.
The Kremlin does not have plans to solve problems in space using weapons, the foreign ministry added.
In 2019, US Defense officials have asked the Congress for about $304 million to fund research and development into space-based lasers, particle beams, and other new forms of missile defence.
The Pentagon wants to test a neutral particle-beam in orbit in fiscal 2023 as part of a ramped-up effort to explore various types of space-based weaponry.
US armed forces requested these kind of weapons to counter new potential threats from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.
As a result of these concerns, the Pentagon is undertaking two studies. The first is a $15 million exploration of whether satellites outfitted with lasers can be able to disable enemy missiles coming off the launch pad.
The second is a study of space-based neutral particle beams, a different form of directed energy that disrupts missiles with streams of subatomic particles traveling close to light speed — as opposed to lasers, whose photons travel at light speed.
