Russia conducted its first kinetic satellite interception on November 15, 2021. A ground-based (presumably silo-based) missile was launched from the Plesetsk launch site and targeted the dead Soviet military satellite Kosmos-1408 at an altitude of about 480 kilometers—considered low Earth orbit (LEO). The Russian Ministry of Defense justified this action as a countermeasure to the United States’ efforts to maintain space superiority, and it referred to the previous anti-satellite (ASAT) tests carried out by China in 2007, the US in 2008, and India in 2019 (TASS, November 16; see EDM, November 18). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sought to convert this test into a diplomatic asset or bargaining chip in US-Russian discussions on strategic stability, missile defense and space security (Mid.ru, November 16, 2021). Yet all that said, it is important to point out that while Russia did apparently realize an ASAT test, it was not the test of an “ASAT weapon” per se.
Russia’s ASAT Test: Motivations and Implications – Jamestown
