MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - Russia's low-orbit satellites are protected against the U.S. global missile defense system, Roman Romanenko, a cosmonaut and member of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"The primary objective of U.S. missile defense is to politically intimidate the world but it also threatens low-orbit objects, such as weather, communication, and other types of satellites. That's the idea," Romanenko said.
Russian satellites have protective systems, he said. "They are classified, but they exist. They exist, and they are operational," Romanenko said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said last week that the U.S. global missile defense system creates a threat in space.
"It puts virtually all low-orbit spacecraft located in the impact zone of the missile defense systems at risk of destruction. Bearing in mind the global nature of missile defense ships' operations, any state's space activities are threatened," Russian Defense Ministry official Alexander Yemelyanov said at a joint Russian-Chinese briefing.
In February 2008, the Pentagon demonstrated an ability to strike spacecraft with missile defense weapons, Yemelyanov said.
"A U.S. satellite at an altitude of some 250 km was then destroyed by an early modification Standard Missile 3, which was launched from a U.S. naval destroyer," the Russian military official said.
"The anti-satellite potential of the prospective Standard Missile 3 of 2A modification with extended flight speed, as well as ground-based interceptors (GBI), is much higher," he said.