The Pentagon has the means to defend American interests in space against any form of hostile act

Alarm in Washington over the firing of a Russian anti-satellite missile

photo_camera PHOTO/Space Order - The real tests to check the effects of the ASAT missiles generate thousands of fragments that represent a serious threat to the rest of the satellites in orbit.

United States is alarmed by the firing into space of a powerful anti-satellite missile by Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, a "real, serious and growing" threat to the military and commercial space systems of the United States and its allies. The Russian missile was launched from a mobile platform located in the military zone of the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, 1,000 kilometers north of Moscow. The day chosen was 15 April, the date on which the Federation's armed forces celebrate "Electronic Warfare Specialist Day". 

The launch of the ASAT missile - acronym for Anti-SATellite weapons- was detected by American spy satellites and its flight trajectory followed at all times by the radar and ground and space observation systems of the United States Space Force, the organization established by Donald Trump on December 20, 2019 to protect American and allied infrastructures in space and provide intelligence and communications to their Armed Forces.   

El Comandante en Jefe de la Fuerza Espacial, el teniente general John Raymond, asegura que el disparo “es una demostración de las hipócritas propuestas de Rusia para el control de armas en el espacio ultraterrestre”

The reaction of the Trump administration has not been long in coming. An official statement from the Commander in Chief of the Space Force, Lieutenant General John Raymond, attacks the Kremlin and points out that the firing "is a further proof of Russia's hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control proposals" which, in his opinion, are intended "to restrict the capabilities of the United States while clearly having no intention of halting their counterspace weapons programs."

The angry response of the Pentagon has surprised the Russian Ministry of Defence headed by General Sergei Shoigou. The military authorities in Moscow assure that their missile launches "are planned well in advance" and that they informed Washington through official channels, to avoid the activation of the American system against ballistic missile attacks.

Los analistas del Pentágono consideran que la nueva versión del A-235 Nudol es capaz de superar los 1.000 kilómetros de altura
Missiles capable of reaching satellites in orbit at an altitude of 1,000 kilometres

The launch of the Russian coded A-235 Nudol missile took place on 15 April at 18:00 Moscow time - 17:00 Spanish peninsular time - but it did not hit any satellite because it was a test firing. According to Russian sources close to the Federal Ministry of Defence, as it was a test, it incorporated a simulated warhead, which deliberately did not impact or explode against any object in space during its ascent stage, so it continued its flight, described a descending ballistic trajectory and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. Finally, it fell into the waters of the Laptev Sea in the Arctic Ocean, north of Siberia, more than 3,600 kilometres from the cosmodrome from which it had taken off some 17 minutes earlier.

Military analysts at the Pentagon believe that the shot is a test of a new version of the A-235 Nudol, capable of exceeding 1,000 kilometers in height, which is capable of destroying any type of platform placed in low earth orbit (LEO). 

- El disparo del misil A-235 Nudol fue detectada por los satélites espía norteamericanos y su trayectoria de vuelo seguida en todo momento por los sistemas radar y de observación terrestres y espaciales de la Fuerza Espacial de Estados Unidos

The LEO orbit is the one between the atmosphere and the Van Allen radiation belt. Its boundaries are not rigidly defined, but it is admitted to range from 100 miles above the Earth's surface to 2,000 miles. In that zone the delay in the transmissions of going and return - denominated latency - is very small, of the order of the 32 milliseconds. This is where most of the spy satellites, commercial and scientific observation devices, navigation and positioning devices (GPS and others), mini and micro satellites and even the International Space Station with three astronauts on board are located.

The A-235 Nudol is an advanced supersonic missile that can carry either a nuclear charge or a large amount of explosive in its warhead. Its main features are secret, although calculations made by American analysts assign it a maximum ascent speed of the order of 3 kilometers per second. 

La Estación Espacial Internacional también se encuentra en órbita baja, a menos de 400 kilómetros de altura de la superficie terrestre, con tres astronautas a bordo
 A select club with only four members

United States, Russia, China and India compete most fiercely. It should be noted that all four countries rely on their navigation and positioning systems to target their ground, naval and airborne weapons systems with maximum precision.  

The actual testing of the effects of ASATs in orbit has very negative consequences for the international community as a whole. The explosion generates thousands of fragments - the well-known space debris - which represent a serious threat to the other satellites in orbit. 

India se convirtió en marzo de 2019 en la cuarta potencia en poseer capacidad ASAT, tras impactar un misil anti-satélite Prithvi contra el Microsat-R situado a 283 kilómetros de altura

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia were the powers that developed weapons against satellites fired from the ground. On June 11, 2007, China surprised Washington and Moscow and joined the small club of countries with ASAT capabilities after successfully firing an SC-19 missile and destroying its old Fengyung FY-1C weather satellite, located about 865 kilometers above sea level.  

On 27 March 2019, India became the fourth power to show its ability to attack space assets in orbit from the ground. The demonstration consisted of the firing of long-range anti-satellite missile named Prithvi. The victim was the Indian satellite Microsat-R, located at an altitude of 283 kilometers.  

A menos de 2.000 kilómetros de altura  se encuentran la mayor parte de los satélites espía, ingenios de observación comerciales y científicos, los de navegación y posicionamiento (GPS, GLONASS ruso), los mini y micro satélites

Washington and Moscow are also conducting tests with their ASAT systems. In February 2008, the United States destroyed a damaged radar spy satellite. The mission was assigned to the war cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70), which used the modified, more powerful version of the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3). 

The first known successful Russian ASAT was fired in November 2015 and was also an A-235 Nudol missile. Since then a total of six different launches have been carried out from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome against Russian satellites in non-operational LEO orbits.
 

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