Russian Nuclear Spacecraft Would Reportedly Attack With Massive Energy Wave

New details are emerging.

Space Wars

In a fascinating new update to the murky Congressional scandal involving a purported in-development Russian attack spacecraft, CNN has spoken to three anonymous sources familiar with intelligence about the weapon.

As a refresher, Washington lit up this week when a member of the House Intelligence Committee made cryptic references to a "national security threat" that had something to do with an orbital nuclear weapon Russia was working on. Officials pushed back moderately on the drama, acknowledging the existence of intelligence about the weapon but saying it was not yet operational.

"There is no immediate threat to anyone’s safety," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. "It is not an active capability and it has not yet been deployed."

Now, CNN's reporting locks in new details on the weapon, with its sources saying it's a nuclear-powered and space-based device designed to generate a huge energy wave that would knock out vast numbers of satellites that the world down below depends on for infrastructure.

Orbital Graveyard

It's worth noting that the concept isn't particularly novel — you've probably heard of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) weapon in sci-fi — though the implications of a real one, wielded by a belligerent nation, certainly are alarming.

"It’s not a new concept and, as a concept, dates back to the late Cold War," one US official told CNN. But they said that the "big fear with any eventual EMP device in orbit [is] it might render large portions of particular orbits unusable" by creating a debris field of derelict satellites that "would then prove dangerous to any new satellites we might try to put up to replace or repair the existing satellites."

It's a terrifying concept. If there's a silver lining, it's that Russia's capability to actually execute such an ambitious plan remain somewhat hazy.

The country's space program, after all, is in complete shambles, with failures and dysfunction accumulating left and right.

And its nuclear capabilities are in question as well. As CNN pointed out, back in 2019 a mysterious accident took place in which seven Russians died while trying to test a new type of nuclear-propelled cruise missile.

More on space warfare: Generate Says Space Force Should Stop Waffling and Build Epic Space Weapons