{"id":43293,"date":"2026-04-24T18:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/us-space-command-russia-is-now-operationalizing-co-orbital-asat-weapons\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:53:49","slug":"us-space-command-russia-is-now-operationalizing-co-orbital-asat-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/us-space-command-russia-is-now-operationalizing-co-orbital-asat-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"US Space Command: Russia is now operationalizing co-orbital ASAT weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After several tests of unusual \u201cnesting doll\u201d satellites in low-Earth orbit, Russia is now fielding operational anti-satellite weapons with valuable US government satellites in their crosshairs, the four-star general leading US Space Command said this week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"\">Gen. Stephen Whiting didn\u2019t name the system, but he was almost certainly referring to a Russian military program named Nivelir, which has launched four satellites shadowing US spy satellites owned by the National Reconnaissance Office in low-Earth orbit. After reaching orbit, the Nivelir satellites have released smaller ships to start their own maneuvers, and at least one of those lobbed a mystery object at high velocity during a test in 2020. US analysts concluded this was a projectile that could be fired at another satellite.<\/p>\n<p>US officials have compared the Nivelir architecture to a Matryoshka doll, or a Russian nesting doll, with an outer shell concealing smaller, unknown figures inside.<\/p>\n<p>The newest suspected Nivelir satellite was launched last May from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Its launch was precisely timed for the moment Earth\u2019s rotation spun Plesetsk underneath the orbital plane of the NRO\u2019s USA 338 Keyhole-class optical spy satellite. Civilian missions heading to the International Space Station launch with similarly precise timing, down to the second, to intersect with the space station\u2019s orbital plane.<\/p>\n<p>Ars has covered Russia\u2019s testing of the Nivelir stalker satellites before. The first Nivelir test mission launched in 2013, and they began creeping near US spy satellites in 2019. US officials now believe the Nivelir system is operational.<\/p>\n<h2>Within striking distance<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s evident Russia was deploying a space weapon there, and they\u2019re putting it into an orbit where they can reach critical US national security satellites,\u201d Whiting said Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. \u201cIf you go back to some of those early launches of that system, the Russian nesting doll system, they were testing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whiting\u2019s comments suggested Russia\u2019s actions were a provocation.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be the same as if we had a new fighter, maybe the new F-47 that the Air Force is going to acquire, with a new missile system, and we decided, instead of testing that on our test ranges back in Nevada or Utah, we decided to send that airplane up to Alaska, and as Russian bombers were flying patrols somewhat near our coastline, we sent this brand new F-47 up to test near a Russian bomber,\u201d Whiting said. \u201cIt\u2019s just not the kind of thing we traditionally see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The video animation below was produced by CSIS and the Bertelsmann Foundation, using imagery from the Australian remote sensing company HEO.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZK07C46RogY?si=_Rgmt6RdsZgBnRqL\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\ufeff<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>So far, none of the Nivelir satellites have gotten closer than a few dozen miles from their NRO counterparts. But they launched into orbits that would allow Russian commanders to approach US spy satellites with little warning. That is no coincidence, according to US officials. Launching these missions just a few minutes earlier or later would put them into a different orbital plane, making it much more difficult\u2014perhaps impossible, depending on fuel loading\u2014to get close to or strike one of the US spy satellites. The circumstances suggest intentionality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the Russians were testing weapons near our satellites,\u201d Whiting said. \u201cAnd now we assess they\u2019re through testing, and now they\u2019re putting operational systems up within orbit reach of our high-value satellites. It\u2019s evident what they\u2019re doing, and we maintain constant vigilance watching that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This constant vigilance requires close observation through a network of ground- and space-based surveillance sensors. Telescopes and radars routinely track tens of thousands of objects in orbit. Russia\u2019s Nivelir satellites are near the top of the priority list.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf one of these Russian weapons systems starts to maneuver, we want to be able to detect that very quickly and be able to provide that warning to the operators of that critical national security satellite,\u201d Whiting said.<\/p>\n<h2>Deciphering Russia\u2019s motivations<\/h2>\n<p>For years, US military officials have identified China as the \u201cpacing threat\u201d in space. In other words, China has the most advanced space technology of any potential US adversary. But it takes more than a technology evaluation to size up a geopolitical rival. One must also consider their strategic priorities, tactical advantages and disadvantages, and to some degree, the psychology of their leaders.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussia remains a capable space power, even while its space industry suffers from systemic underfunding, quality control issues, international sanctions, and export controls,\u201d US intelligence agencies wrote in their annual unclassified threat assessment released earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s space industry has far less money than the US and Chinese space programs. Russian factories produce fewer satellites, and Russian rockets launch less often than the world\u2019s other two leading space powers. But Russia seems to have a unique theory for the use of anti-satellite, or ASAT, weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Whiting said Russia \u201chas come to the conclusion that they\u2019re a conventional arms deficit\u201d compared to the United States and its NATO allies. Russian forces are seeking to get an asymmetric advantage anywhere they can.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re looking for novel ways to try to balance that correlation of forces, to use a Soviet term,\u201d Whiting said. \u201cSo they\u2019re looking at nuclear, cyber, and space, and that\u2019s why, when we read the reports over the last two years that Russia may be considering placing a nuclear ASAT on orbit, we find those just incredibly troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>US forces rely on space-based assets for all major military operations. Satellite capabilities, such as overhead surveillance, navigation, missile warning, and electronic warfare, are now \u201cfully nested in\u201d all military planning. If you take away any of these capabilities, US forces \u201ccannot fight the way they are designed or sized,\u201d Whiting said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve noted that the Chinese and the Russians have studied us since Desert Storm (in 1991),\u201d Whiting said. \u201cThey deeply have tried to understand how is it that the United States is able to create such global effects with what appears to be such small number of forces, and they\u2019ve assessed that space is one of those foundational issues. So now they have developed a suite of counter-space weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The United States, China, Russia, and India have each demonstrated the ability to destroy a low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite using a ground-launched missile. Russia\u2019s development of co-orbital ASAT, or counter-space, weapons has long focused on LEO. That may be changing with the launch of a suspected Nivelir or similar mission last year toward geosynchronous orbit more than 20,000 miles above Earth.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>So far, China\u2019s military space strategy appears to be copying the US military\u2019s winning formula in orbit. Like the US Space Force, China has a growing fleet of reconnaissance and inspection satellites in geosynchronous orbit, some of which may also have the capability to strike. China has deployed its own GPS satellite network and a constellation of intelligence-gathering satellites to monitor locations around the world and, if necessary, supply targeting information for a military attack.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Chinese, they have studied us deeply for 35 years, and really, they\u2019re trying to replicate what we have done,\u201d Whiting said.<\/p>\n<p>An \u201cindiscriminate\u201d ASAT strike using a nuclear detonation or a high-velocity projectile would make LEO more hazardous for all satellite operators. A nuclear weapon would pollute LEO with radiation, and a kinetic strike would generate thousands of new pieces of space junk. The United States has the most to lose in such a scenario, followed by China.<\/p>\n<p>Russia, on the other hand, is in a hot war with Ukraine. The conflict has introduced new tactics in warfare, such as cyberattacks on space networks, one-way and first-person-view drones, and GPS jamming. The war also revealed deficiencies in Russia\u2019s conventional ground and air forces. The experience could drive Russian leaders to look to the space or cyber domains to find an edge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUkraine\u2019s use of Starlink for resilient communications and US plans to deploy hundreds of missile defense satellites probably are amplifying adversary views of the importance of defeating large constellations,\u201d US intelligence officials said in this year\u2019s threat assessment. A Russian nuclear ASAT would be the easiest way to take out such a proliferated network.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRussia could have directly attacked in space,\u201d Whiting said, referring to the start of the Ukraine war. \u201cThey\u2019ve demonstrated that capability. In fact, they did a hit-to-kill ASAT test three months before they invaded Ukraine to send a signal to us and the rest of the West. But they would rather attack us in cyber because it\u2019s easier for them, cheaper for them, and harder for us to attribute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After several tests of unusual \u201cnesting doll\u201d satellites in low-Earth orbit, Russia is now fielding operational anti-satellite weapons with valuable US government satellites in their crosshairs, the four-star general leading US Space Command said this week. Gen. Stephen Whiting didn\u2019t name the system, but he was almost certainly referring to a Russian military program named [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}