Mike Turner Asks Sec. Austin Point Blank What Would Happen If A Nuke Was Detonated Today In Space

thank the gentleman chair and I recognize gentleman from Ohio Mr Turner secr atin General Brown um and um cord thank you for being here uh thank you for your leadership uh secretary Austin I I know you are aware that last week um our ambassador to the United St to the United Nations um in conjunction with the Japanese uh brought forth a resolution to the UN Security Council uh asking for um All Nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear race in outer space uh and to um uh calling for a prevention of a nuclear arms race in space this resolution was blocked U vetoed by Russia and abstained by China um secretary Austin um what would be the effect if a nuclear device was detonated today in outer space it would be it would have uh devastating uh consequences uh on a lot of our um uh capabilities uh uh in space not only our capabilities but the capabilities of uh of other countries and and so uh for that reason we think it's irresponsible for anybody to even consider uh deploying or and employing a nuclear device uh in space well Mr secretary um General Michael trout of the commander of Germany's military space command agrees with you he stated the worst case scenario of an indiscriminate nuclear blast blast in space radiating radiating out at a satellite frying electromagnetic pulse across low earth orbit would be devastating as you had said for everyone if somebody dares to explode a nuclear weapon in high atmosphere or even space this would be more or less the end of the usability of that Global Commons of orbit deploying a nuclear weapon in space would also be countered to the United Nations outer space Treaty of 1967 um in addition it would have catastrophic effects on civilian use of space and our commercial use of Space Mr secretary why would someone put a satellite in space that has nuclear capabilities to detonate a weapon in space as opposed to just use a missile or an ICBM to detonate a nuclear weapon in space certainly uh a device like that would have uh could have uh a much more extend impact and cover more more ground for lack of a better term uh with one device than a uh an anti anti satellite uh weapon which is you directed towards a specific uh Target this thing would uh would take away large swaps of capability uh and as you pointed out not just uh our capability but uh but also allies and partners in uh in and and so um we don't really fully know or understand what uh what the full effects would be it would it would depend upon you know the yield of the weapon U the orbit that it was in and and all those things but uh but certainly what SEC it wouldn't one of the reasons why they'd put it in space as opposed to shoot an ICBM missile is because um an ICBM missile could be attributed as a nuclear weapons attack on a country and would have a a a nuclear weapons response that's right if it was a uh a an attack on on one of our terrestrial capabilities uh sure but it there's also they also have the opportunity or the ability to use a ground launch capability to attack a satellite and take out uh some capability that's on orbit Mr secretary uh John Plum the assistant secretary of defense for space policy told reporters on um April 5th that Washington was in discussions with Russia about the weapons plans and apparent confirmation that Moscow is at least engaging on the topic um is is Russia developing an an anti-satellite weapon with nuclear capabilities um certainly I I uh would not want to get into a discussion of uh intelligence U uh information and an open hearing but certainly we can we can have that discussion so Mr the reason why I asked you the question question and the reason why you're stumbling is because the Biden Administration refused to declassify this information so we're not able to have an open public discussion but one thing I'm concerned about is that Mr secretary in your entire um written testimony you never mention anti-s satellites as a threat you certainly don't even mention nuclear weapons as a threat but the administration's moving forward trying to get the UN Security Council to take action I believe that this is a the Cuban Missile Crisis in space and this Administration is sleepwalking itself into an international crisis and I certainly want to encourage you to encourage the administration to declassify this and take every actions necessary to avoid this space race uh that could as the our ambassador to United Nations says be a nuclear weapon space race gous times expired you're not

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 9,966

Keywords:

Id: wEDW-vxS4zg

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024