Overview
- The Associated Press says it reviewed assessments from two unnamed NATO intelligence services alleging a pellet-based system aimed at Starlink, which the AP could not independently verify.
- An official familiar with the findings described the effort as in active development but withheld any timeline for potential deployment.
- The concept envisions dispersing hundreds of thousands of dense pellets across Starlink’s low-Earth orbits, potentially from formations of small satellites, to disable multiple spacecraft at once.
- Intelligence indicates the pellets would be just millimeters across and likely evade tracking, complicating attribution if satellites are damaged or fail.
- Experts warn such debris could threaten many satellites and crewed stations including the ISS and Tiangong, while Russia has not commented publicly and continues to back U.N. limits on space weapons even as it touts capabilities like the S-500 and has tested ASAT systems before.