A White Home spokesman stated on Thursday that antisatellite expertise being developed by Russia had not been deployed and posed “no instant menace to anybody’s security.”
“We’re not speaking a couple of weapon that can be utilized to assault human beings or trigger bodily destruction right here on earth,” the spokesman, John F. Kirby, informed reporters.
Mr. Kirby additionally pushed again on calls from Republicans to broadly declassify intelligence associated to the weapon, which got here to gentle on Wednesday partly after a cryptic message by Consultant Michael R. Turner, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the Home Intelligence Committee.
After Mr. Turner’s announcement, present and former officers briefed on the matter stated Russia was believed to be making advances on a brand new, space-based nuclear weapon designed to threaten America’s in depth satellite tv for pc community.
President Biden is receiving common briefings, and the White Home had “critical issues” about declassifying the entire info that had been gathered concerning the weapon, Mr. Kirby stated. He added that the weapon was space-based and that it didn’t have a element that could possibly be used to disarm or assault buildings in area from the bottom.
Mr. Kirby stated that the administration would argue for declassification in a “strategic manner” and that Jake Sullivan, the president’s nationwide safety adviser, can be assembly with members of Home management to temporary them on the most recent intelligence and the administration’s evaluation of it.
