Last week, the head of the U.S.'s newest military branch, the Space Force, cautioned publicly for the first time that Moscow had undertaken at least two concerning anti-satellite weapon tests in recent months, in a potential bid to develop on-orbit efficiency that could dangerously hinder the U.S.'s heavy dependency on space-based systems.
"On July 15, Russia injected a new object into orbit from Cosmos 2543," the U.S. Space Force said in a statement. "Russia released this object in proximity to another Russian satellite, (which was) inconsistent with the system's stated mission as an inspector satellite."
While Russia's Defense Ministry dismissed the allegation, it is not the first time the Pentagon has said such an incident occurred.
Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, commander of U.S. Space Command and U.S. Space Force chief of space operations, further highlighted that the Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same one they "raised concerns about earlier this year when Russia maneuvered near a U.S. government satellite."
"This is further evidence of Russia's continuing efforts to develop and test space-based systems, and consistent with the Kremlin's published military doctrine to employ weapons that hold the U.S. and allied space assets at risk," Raymond continued.
The proclamation that these satellites are part of a space-based anti-satellite weapon system is even more significant given that Cosmos 2542 had moved into a position to shadow a U.S. KH-11 spy satellite, publicly identified only as USA 245, in January, The Drive's War Zone analysis pointed out.
A month earlier, the USA 245 satellite was forced to move its own orbit to avoid a collision with the notorious 2543, which the U.S. Space Force believes was also trailing the American asset. Then in April this year, Space Force also raised red flags that the Kremlin had conducted testing of an unspecified "direct-ascent anti-satellite missile," also known as a DS-ASAT, from its Plesetsk base in northern Russia.
"Russia's DA-ASAT test provides yet another example that the threats to the U.S. and allied space systems are real, serious and growing," Raymond said in a statement after that incident. "The United States is ready and committed to deterring aggression and defending the nation, our allies and U.S. interests from hostile acts in space."
The U.S. State Department underscored that matter both in 2018 and again in 2020, saying that "Russian satellite behaviors were inconsistent with their stated mission and that these satellites displayed characteristics of a space-based weapon," and characterizing the behavior as "hypocritical and concerning."
But what is the newly-deployed and seemingly troublesome Cosmos 2543, also spelled Kosmos 2543? Moscow deems it a "space apparatus inspector," which does nothing more than observe and examine damage to other equipment on-orbit. Yet given its small stature and mobility, some defense experts suspect it could also double as spycraft or be used to destroy other critical space apparatuses in a number of ways – including launching projectiles, which the U.S. Space Force is accusing its Russian counterparts of dry-running in recent months.
"Details remain vague on this 'inspector satellite,' but the main concern is it's able to launch small payloads toward another orbiting vehicle," Miranda said. "Going by that alone, it does seem to have an offensive role, and this is what the U.S. military is concerned about."
Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow and space expert at The Heritage Foundation, concurred that a big part of the problem quite simply is that we don't entirely know what the Cosmos 2543 is and what it can do.
"It would appear to be a mini-satellite, launched from Cosmos 2542. Now, Cosmos 2543 has itself launched a smaller object," he noted. "I am not aware of the U.S. testing anything akin to this. The U.S. and other states have talked about 'servicing satellites,' usually more in terms of systems that would be able to refuel and possibly repair satellites in orbit."
"It is a shared interest and responsibility of all spacefaring nations to create the conditions for a safe, stable and operationally sustainable space environment," the release continued.
In addition to simmering space tensions with Russia, the U.S. Space Force also has to contend with China's influence in the sphere as it is also actively curating an array on anti-satellite systems. In 2007, Beijing sent a message to its adversaries by shooting a kinetic anti-satellite missile to blow up a weather satellite, demonstrating its prowess and generating the worst scattering of debris in the Space Age so far
Source: Space Force on Alert: Behind Russia's mysterious testing of deadly anti-satellite weapons in orbit
26 Jan 2020, 7:57 am
