US ‘not prepared’ to respond to nuclear attacks in space, report says

KYIV, Ukraine — The possibility of an adversary detonating a nuclear weapon in space to disrupt U.S. satellite infrastructure and the global communications networks that rely on it is no longer a remote scenario, according to multiple officials — and American forces are not prepared for it, strategists found after bringing former officials together to war-game their responses to a potential nuclear danger in orbit.

The possibility of nuclear war in space mostly sat in think-tank territory until recently, when the Pentagon confirmed it keeps weapons above the sky. Moscow demanded the demilitarization of space and Ukrainian intelligence published stolen documents on Russia’s next-generation military space platform all within the span of a few weeks.

But U.S. decision-makers still lack clear guidance, legal clarity and operational plans for a space-based nuclear crisis, according to an April 2026 report published by the American Foreign Policy Council that analyzed the outcome of a pair of 2025 war games that tested possible responses to such a crisis. The report found the U.S. unprepared in each case.

The war games were conducted during two workshops in May 2025 with former officials from the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the intelligence community, the Space Force, U.S. Space Command and the commercial satellite industry, using three draft contingency plans: one for a suspected nuclear device in orbit; a confirmed weapon used for coercion; and a detonation.

The plans were applied to four scenarios using a fictional Russian satellite modeled on a real Russian platform along with a Chinese adversary as stand-ins.

The first found U.S. detection and attribution tools too weak to confirm a suspected payload, with a high risk of premature escalation.

In the second scenario, Russia announced it had a nuclear weapon in orbit and warned the U.S. that it must comply with its demands or lose its military and commercial satellites — a threat the workshop judged credible and one against which the U.S. “appears to lack response options.”

The third and fourth detonated a weapon outright, first in low orbit and then in geostationary orbit as a Chinese demonstration during a Taiwan crisis, with strategists finding no capability in existence to recover from either.

Across all four scenarios, the report concluded that the U.S. can defend its own satellites against an adversary’s direct action, but it has no tested plan for detecting, managing or recovering from an adversary’s nuclear weapon in orbit.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed on Monday that the United States “now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” the first public acknowledgment by any American official that the U.S. military has put weapons in orbit.

Although U.S. officials have said there was a “serious national security threat” tied to Russian space activity, including a nuclear-capable anti-satellite weapon since mid-2024, Meink’s confirmation this week prompted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to declare on Tuesday that “We believe that space must be free of any weapon,” according to AFP .

And last week, Ukrainian military intelligence said it breached the network of Russia’s Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, the corporation behind the Yars and Bulava nuclear missiles, and came away with documents on a Russian orbital program — including “a scalable, unified space platform called ‘Tiporyad,’ aimed at enhancing the reconnaissance, communication, and command capabilities of the Russian army,” the directorate said .

U.S. Space Command said in April it was aware of Russia’s recent orbital upgrades and the dangers they pose to American interests.

“Russia remains a very historic and sophisticated space power... they continue to invest in counter-space weapons, with the most concerning reports being that they are potentially thinking about placing on orbit a nuclear ASAT weapon,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of U.S. Space Command, told Fox News on April 16.

Such a weapon “would hold at risk everyone’s satellites in low Earth orbit, and that would be an outcome that we just couldn’t tolerate,” he said.

Katie Livingstone is the Ukraine correspondent for Defense News and Military Times. Based in Kyiv, she has covered Russia's full-scale invasion since its first days. She is a former Fulbright fellow whose award-winning work has appeared in outlets across Europe and the U.S.

乌克兰基辅——多位官员表示，敌方在太空引爆核武器以破坏美国卫星基础设施和依赖该基础设施的全球通信网络的可能性已不再是遥远的设想——战略家们在召集前官员进行兵棋推演，模拟应对轨道上潜在核危险的措施后发现，美军对此毫无准备。

太空核战争的可能性此前主要停留在智库层面，直到最近五角大楼证实其在太空部署了核武器。莫斯科要求太空非军事化，而乌克兰情报部门也在短短几周内公布了有关俄罗斯下一代军事太空平台的窃取文件。

但根据美国外交政策委员会2026年4月发布的一份报告，美国决策者仍然缺乏针对太空核危机的明确指导、法律依据和行动计划。该报告分析了2025年举行的两场模拟太空核危机的战争演习结果，这两场演习旨在测试应对此类危机的可能方案。报告发现，美国在这两场演习中均准备不足。

战争演习于 2025 年 5 月举行了两次研讨会，参与者包括国家安全委员会、五角大楼、情报界、太空部队、美国太空司令部和商业卫星行业的前官员。演习使用了三个应急预案草案：一个是针对疑似在轨核装置；一个是针对已确认用于胁迫的武器；还有一个是针对核爆炸。

这些计划应用于四个场景，使用了一个以真实俄罗斯平台为蓝本的虚构俄罗斯卫星，以及一个中国对手作为替代者。

第一个发现的美国检测和归因工具太弱，无法确认可疑载荷，存在过早升级的风险。

在第二种情况下，俄罗斯宣布其轨道上有一枚核武器，并警告美国必须遵守其要求，否则将失去其军事和商业卫星——研讨会认为这一威胁是可信的，而美国“似乎缺乏应对方案”。

第三枚和第四枚核弹直接引爆了核武器，第一枚在低轨道，第二枚在地球同步轨道，作为中国在台湾危机期间的一次示威活动，战略家们发现没有任何能力可以从这两次爆炸中恢复过来。

报告在所有四种情况下都得出结论：美国可以保护自己的卫星免受敌方直接行动的攻击，但它没有经过检验的计划来探测、管理或从敌方在轨道上的核武器中恢复。

美国空军部长特洛伊·梅因克周一证实，美国“现在拥有在轨太空控制武器，能够保护联合部队免受敌对势力的攻击”，这是美国官员首次公开承认美军已将武器送入轨道。

尽管美国官员表示，自 2024 年年中以来，俄罗斯的太空活动（包括可携带核弹头的反卫星武器）构成了“严重的国家安全威胁”，但梅因克本周的确认促使克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫周二宣布，“我们认为太空必须没有任何武器”，据法新社报道。

上周，乌克兰军事情报部门表示，他们攻破了俄罗斯莫斯科热技术研究所（亚尔斯和布拉瓦核导弹的研发公司）的网络，并获得了有关俄罗斯轨道计划的文件，其中包括“一个名为‘蒂波里亚德’的可扩展统一空间平台，旨在增强俄罗斯军队的侦察、通信和指挥能力”。

美国太空司令部在四月份表示，他们已经意识到俄罗斯最近的轨道升级及其对美国利益构成的威胁。

“俄罗斯仍然是一个历史悠久且技术先进的太空强国……他们继续投资反太空武器，最令人担忧的报道是，他们可能正在考虑将核反卫星武器送入轨道，”美国太空司令部司令斯蒂芬·惠廷将军4月16日告诉福克斯新闻。

他说：“这样的武器会危及所有人的近地轨道卫星，这是我们绝对不能容忍的结果。”

凯蒂·利文斯通是《防务新闻》和《军事时报》的乌克兰特派记者。她常驻基辅，自俄罗斯全面入侵乌克兰之初便开始报道此事。她曾是富布赖特学者，其获奖作品发表于欧洲和美国的多家媒体。