The United States can put nuclear weapons into orbit, but these actions would be a gross violation of international law, President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
So he commented on the statements of the candidate for the post of the head of the Pentagon, James Mattis, who previously said that the United States should invest in offensive capabilities in space.
“There is a treaty banning the militarization of outer space, it has worldwide significance, therefore the deployment of offensive weapons in outer space is a violation of international law. It turns out that Washington, which in the 90s told us about peacefulness and called us militarists, turned out to be the main militarist itself,”Sivkov said.
He suggested that the United States could launch "combat spacecraft equipped with laser or beam weapons" into orbit, as well as nuclear weapons designed to attack enemy territory from space at hypersonic speeds.
“This is a very serious weapon, the Soviet Union developed such systems back in 1972, and the United States, frightened, then concluded the SALT-1 treaty with the USSR. Today the United States has reached what we did 40 years ago, and apparently wants to place these developments in space,”the expert emphasized.
According to him, we can also talk about the creation of American air-to-space aircraft capable of delivering strikes at hypersonic speeds.