US voices alarm over Russia satellite's 'very abnormal behaviour'

The United States has voiced concern about Russia’s launch of a mysterious satellite that is exhibiting “very abnormal behaviour”, raising suspicions about Moscow’s pursuit of new space weapons.

The Russian government has insisted the satellite is a “space apparatus inspector”, but an American official said the object’s movements in orbit were “inconsistent with anything seen before” in that capacity.

“We don’t know for certain what it is and there is no way to verify it,” said Yleem Poblete, US assistant secretary for arms control, verification and compliance. “But Russian intentions with respect to this satellite are unclear and are obviously a very troubling development.”

Speaking at the UN Conference on Disarmament, Ms Poblete suggested the object could be a weapon, a prospect she described as “disturbing given the recent pattern of Russian malign behaviour”.

A Russian delegate at the conference said Ms Poblete’s comments were unfounded and slanderous.

The Kremlin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, stressed the importance of preventing an arms race in outer space during a meeting of the conference in February.

But the next month, Russian president Vladimir Putin unveiled in March six “new major offensive weapons systems”, including the Peresvet military mobile laser system.

Russia’s space agency is also said to be developing a laser that can destroy objects in space.

“To the United States this is yet further proof that the Russian actions do not match their words,” Ms Poblete said.

Referring to the “space apparatus inspector”, whose deployment was announced by the Russian defence ministry last October, the US official added: “The only certainty we have is that this system has been ‘placed in orbit’. The rest of its demonstrated behaviour is unexpected and unclear to us.

“We are concerned with what appears to be very abnormal behaviour by a declared ‘space apparatus inspector’.”

She said a draft treaty proposed by China and Russia on the prevention of a space arms race would not prevent the pursuit of counterspace capabilities or stop the testing or stockpiling of anti-satellite weapons.

Alexander Deyneko, a senior Russian diplomat in Geneva, dismissed what he called “the same unfounded, slanderous accusations based on suspicions, on suppositions and so on”.

The United States had not proposed amendments to the draft treaty, he said.

“We are seeing that the American side are raising their serious concerns about Russia, so you would think they ought to be the first to support the Russian initiative,” Mr Deyneko added. ”They should be active in working to develop a treaty that would 100 percent satisfy the security interests of the American people.

“But they have not made this constructive contribution.”

China’s disarmament ambassador Fu Cong called for substantive discussions on outer space, leading to negotiations.

“China has always stood for peaceful use of outer space and we are against weaponisation of outer space, an arms race in outer space, or even more turning outer space into a battle field,” he said.

A US intelligence report published earlier this year warned Russia and China were developing “destructive counterspace weapons” which could be ready to use in “the next few years”.

New “anti-satellite” weapons could be used “as a means to reduce US and allied military effectiveness” in future wars, it said.

In June, Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to create a “space force” to establish American dominance outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

The US president told a meeting of the National Space Council that “we don’t want China and Russia and other countries leading us” and announced his intention to reclaim primacy in the extra-terrestrial arena with a new branch of the military.

The move has been opposed by senior members of the US armed forces.