Special to CosmicTribune.com, April 30, 2026

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

Russia and China are developing weapons for use in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), with Russia suspected of developing nuclear weapons for anti-satellite warfare, while China pursues fighting satellites.

For its part, the United States is finally developing space-based weapons as part of the Trump Administration’s Golden Dome missile defense project.

Russia

Regarding Russia’s intention to place nuclear weapons in LEO, a United States Space Force “Space Threats Fact Sheet” updated in April 2026 states:

“Russia is also developing an ASAT [anti-satellite] capability using a new satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon. Such a capability could pose a threat to all satellites and to the space-enabled services the world depends on.”

The use of such a weapon in LEO, “could pose a threat to all satellites operated by countries and companies around the globe, as well as to the vital communications, scientific, meteorological, agricultural, commercial, and national security services,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John F. Plumb in May 1, 2024 testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.

A Russian nuclear blast in LEO could affect 80 percent of satellites in LEO, as many as 10,000, and Russia’s goal would be to prevent the United States and its allies from using their superior surveillance and communication space assets to win battles on Earth.

Russian use of a nuclear weapon in LEO was also the focus of a recent multinational table-top exercise according to U.S. Space Command Commander General Stephen Whiting, as noted in an April 14 report in Defense One.

Regarding previous possible space-based nuclear weapons, during the Cold War, the Soviet/Russian Energia Corporation designed a version of the large, manned MIR space station to host up to four Earth-bombing vehicles derived from the fuselage of the Buran large reusable space plane.

While Russia plans to loft a small space station after the retirement of the International Space Station, it is not known to have plans to develop a space plane that could be used for Earth bombing.

The Space Force fact sheet also noted, “Russia has deployed probable orbital ASAT prototypes into LEO in 2017, 2019, 2022, 2024, and 2025. The four most recent were all placed in orbits matching those of U.S. national security satellites, and one ejected an object near a Russian satellite while testing a space-based ASAT weapon.”

Co-orbital ASATs were pioneered during the Soviet period, and the Soviet Union and Russia today maintain Earth-based direct-ascent ASAT missile systems, with its recently deployed S-500 anti-aircraft missile also having some LEO ASAT capability.

China

While U.S. intelligence had monitored four previous test missions without public comment, China’s 2007 successful ASAT destruction of a weather satellite was a shock to the world, but the U.S. Space Force has listed more recent Chinese space weapon developments.

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