The U.S. Moratorium on Anti-Satellite Missile Tests Is a Welcome Shift in Space Policy
Ankit Panda and Benjamin Silverstein | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
On Monday, the United States became the first country to adopt a voluntary moratorium on the destructive testing of direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile systems. These weapons generally involve missiles that launch from the Earth’s surface to destroy a satellite passing overhead. The testing of these weapons—conducted in recent years by China, India, Russia, and the United States—creates debris that can remain in low Earth orbit (LEO) for years if not decades, threatening other satellites. Though there’s no international legal framework prohibiting these types of tests, other countries should follow the United States in voluntarily refraining from destructive, DA-ASAT testing.
Russia Test-Fires New Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
Associated Press
The Russian military said Wednesday it successfully performed the first test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon President Vladimir Putin said would make the West “think twice” before harboring any aggressive intentions against Russia. The test launch of the Sarmat missile comes amid soaring tensions between Moscow and the West over the Russian military action in Ukraine and underlines the Kremlin’s emphasis on the country’s nuclear forces. Russia’s Defense Ministry said the Sarmat ICBM was launched Wednesday from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its practice warheads have successfully reached mock targets on the Kura firing range on the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.
Experts Urge Return to Iran Nuclear Deal as Prospects Dim
Karen DeYoung | Washington Post
A group of 40 former government officials and leading nonproliferation experts have urged President Biden to successfully complete negotiations for a return to the nuclear deal with Iran, warning that Tehran is a week or two away from producing sufficient weapons-grade uranium to fuel a bomb. In a statement to be released Thursday, the experts said failure to reverse the policies of the Trump administration, which withdrew from the agreement between world powers and Iran in 2018, would be “irresponsible” and “would increase the danger that Iran would become a threshold nuclear-weapon state.”
Space Force Budget Presents a Bridge Strategy for Missile Warning, Tracking Architecture
Courtney Albon | C4ISRNET
U.S. Space Force leaders say the missile warning and tracking architecture supported in the service’s fiscal 2023 budget request is a “bridging strategy” — a way to maintain existing programs in a critical mission area as new capabilities are developed. The service laid out that strategy in late March, requesting $3.4 billion — about $1 billion more than Congress appropriated in fiscal 2022 — to keep the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared System satellites and ground segment on track. The request also proposed another $1.2 billion to continue developing systems to track hypersonic missiles from low and medium Earth orbits and ensure the associated ground capabilities are aligned with the satellite work.
S. Korea Successfully Test-Launched Two SLBMs Earlier This Week: Gov’t Sources
Yonhap News Agency
South Korea successfully test-fired two submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) consecutively earlier this week, government sources said Thursday, in a sign the missile is nearing its operational deployment. The military launched the SLBMs at an interval of 20 seconds from the 3,000-ton Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine in the Yellow Sea on Monday, the sources said. They flew some 400 kilometers and hit the preset maritime targets. The test came after the country successfully carried out an SLBM test-launch from the submarine in September last year, becoming the world's seventh country with homegrown SLBMs.
US Pentagon Chief Speaks for 1st Time to Chinese Counterpart
Robert Burns | Associated Press
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday spoke with his Chinese counterpart for the first time since becoming Pentagon chief more than a year ago, breaking a communications impasse that American officials saw as increasingly dangerous amid concern that Beijing might provide military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Austin, who calls China the U.S. military’s leading long-term challenge but has been forced to focus heavily on Russia this year, requested the telephone conversation with Gen. Wei Fenghe after months of failed effort to speak with Gen. Xu Qiliang, the highest ranking uniformed officer in the Communist Party military structure.