Breaking news
USA plans to use missile defense system to enhance its anti-satellite capabilities 71410162.
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Defence & Security News - USA
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| USA plans to use missile defense system to enhance its anti-satellite capabilities | |||
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The United States plans to use the global ballistic missile defense system to enhance its capabilities to destroy other countries’ satellites in orbit, First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir said.
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 A Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) launched to destroy a failed satellite |
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The US global ballistic missile defense system aims "to enhance the capabilities to destroy artificial earth satellites in low orbits," Poznikhir said at the Xiangshan Security Forum in Beijing.
"The anti-satellite potential of the system is one of the reasons why the United States does not want to accept any agreement banning the deployment of weapons in outer space," he added. In 2008, a US satellite was destroyed at an altitude of about 250 kilometers (155 miles) by a SM-3 Block 1A missile launched from the US Navy’s ship Lake Erie, Poznikhir said. "The capabilities of the promising SM-3 Block 2A missile with an increased range and the GBI antimissile are considerably higher. They can destroy spacecraft of Russian and Chinese orbital constellations," the general said. As Poznikhir said, the United States’ ballistic missile defense system poses a threat to the free use of space by any country. |
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