Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir © Russia's Defense Ministry
press-service/TASS
GENEVA, March 28. /TASS/. Practically all low-orbit space satellites are within the reach of the US missile defense system, the deputy chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate, Lieutenant-General Viktor Poznikhir, told the disarmament conference in Geneva on Tuesday.
"The anti-satellite potential of future interceptors Standard-3 2A having enhanced speed and also GBI (ground based interceptor) missiles is far greater. Practically all low orbit spacecraft will be within the missile defense’s killing zone," Poznikhir said.
In February 2008, the Pentagon used its own satellite at an altitude of about 250 kilometers as a target to destroy it with an early modification of the Standard-3 interceptor missile, launched from a US destroyer.
"Bearing in mind the global range of operations by missile defense ships it is easy to see that space activities by any country, including Russia and China, will be under threat," Poznikhir said.
He added Russia’s officials more than once drew the United States’ attention to the risk the missile defense posed to the strategic balance.
"Arguments are left unnoticed, hard facts are ignored. The US vows again and again its missile defense is not directed against Russia or China," Poznikhir said.
