Special to CosmicTribune.com, October 22, 2026

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher

The justification for the United States to develop combat-capable satellites has been recently demonstrated by Russia’s Kosmos-2612, an agile maneuvering surveillance, perhaps combat-capable satellite, that starting on Sept. 30 to about Oct. 19, flew threateningly close to a radar satellite apparently providing imagery to help Ukraine fight invading Russian forces.

Kosmos-2612 was one of six satellites launched on April 16, 2026, by a Russian Soyuz 2-1b space launch vehicle; it is reportedly a 500 kg satellite using a polar orbit at a 545-kilometer altitude.

So far Kosmos-2612 is reported to be a space surveillance satellite that made numerous close passes, reportedly as close as 26 to 500 meters (85-1460 feet), to the U.S.-registered ICEYE X-36 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite.

In a previous report Geostrategy-Direct.com revealed that a new BAE Systems “Ascent” maneuvering space surveillance satellite that carries up to four “ride-share” payloads that may eventually be able to deploy defensive systems. Link:

It is not clear whether Kosmos-2612 is also a combat capable satellite, though it is large enough potentially to be equipped with a small explosive or electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon, or even a small laser powerful enough to blind the sensors on target satellites.

But the most recent target of Kosmos-2612 was a commercial imagery SAR-sat, the 90-kilogram ICEYE X-36 that was launched in March 2024.

It was manufactured by the Finland-based company ICEYE, though the ICEYE X-36 SAR satellite is now registered to a U.S.-based subsidiary of ICEYE.

It was part of a three-SAR-sat polar-orbiting constellation launched from U.S. SpaceX Falcon-9 reusable space launch vehicle, though ICEYE may currently control about 72 satellites.

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  U.S. SAR-sat providing imagery to Ukraine was approached by Russia’s Kosmos-2612 satellite