Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency quoted a representative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin on 2 February as saying that Russia will prepare a plan to neutralize the threat of arms deployment in space.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has tasked Defense Minister to prepare a plan to combat the treat of weapons deployment into outer space by the beginning of a series of traditional meetings on defense procurement program in Sochi.
“We are aware of the plans of certain countries to deploy weapons in outer space. I want to listen to how that potential threat will be neutralized as well,” he said at a meeting with heads of Russian Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry on Saturday.
On January 17, US President Donald Trump unveiled the new strategy of developing the American missile shield system (the Ballistic Missile Defense Review) stating that it should be capable of intercepting any missile fired against the United States, including a cruise or a hypersonic missile. The 108-page document released by the Pentagon notes that the United States will no longer recognize any limitations in developing and deploying its missile shield elements. The strategy also sets the task of bringing detection capabilities and, potentially, interceptors into outer space.
On 20 January, new commercial satellite imagery shows hidden launch areas of the Russian anti-ballistic missile and anti-satellite weapon system in the area of Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia.
In reports released by Russia’s media, researchers said that launch areas of the newest PL-19 Nudol anti-satellite weapon system located it the Plesetsk military spaceport (approximately 800 kilometers north of Moscow), at the ex-launch site of the Cyclone-2 rocket.
Also, commercial satellite imagery captured on April 2018 shows the newest Peresvet laser combat system in Ivano region, near the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) base at Teykovo.