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Embarrassed by Ukraine, Russia Turns to Space to Even the Odds Against US
Since 2022, I’ve been extremely critical of the Russian military circus taking place in Ukraine — specifically, the archaic way Russia fights its wars.
And while Russia has incrementally improved on the Ukrainian battlefield, there is one theater of war where they are particularly advanced: Space.
To underestimate Russia here would be a grave mistake — after all, we’re talking about the people who put both the first satellite and the first human in space.
Also, the infrastructure for Russia’s space industrial base is largely intact; albeit, starting to suffer from a lack of Western tech thanks to sanctions.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Russia from weaponizing space.
Today, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed that Russia launched a satellite last week into low Earth orbit that the Pentagon believes to be a counter-space weapon — presumably capable of attacking other satellites.
What’s more, Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite.
But this isn’t the first time Russia has launched a payload like this.
In 2019, Russia launched an “inspector” satellite, Kosmos 2542, from the…