If the Russians are developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon, as leaked reports from the House Intelligence Committee suggest, two things can be said. First, the threat that such a weapon poses is not exactly new. Second, it is serious—even alarming.

Several countries have launched crucial military assets into outer space, but none more so than the United States. We rely on satellites for early warning of an enemy attack, for communications of all sort, and—through a network of GPS satellites—to guide “smart” bombs and missiles to their targets. If the GPS satellites were disabled, the commanders of many U.S. ships at sea would not even know precisely where they are.

In other words, if Russia or China were to launch a preemptive attack on U.S. communications networks, through cyber or anti-satellite weapons or a combination of both, America’s ability to wage war would be severely compromised from the first shot. (In the past decade, in response to cyberthreats, a few units in the U.S. Air Force and Navy have gone “offline” to the extent possible but only a few.)

Such scenarios have been contemplated, at least as a theoretical possibility, for some time now. Two years ago, a normally insouciant defense consultant with a high security clearance told me that a briefing he’d recently received on Russia and China’s anti-satellite, or ASAT, programs left him “shaken.”

The Russians and Chinese have tested ASAT systems of various sorts. In 2014, Russia launched an Olymp-K satellite and maneuvered it within 7 miles of two Intelsat communications satellites. If it had been carrying a weapon, it could have destroyed the pair easily. In 2021, Russia launched a rocket that ascended into space and blew up one of its own satellites that had been inactive for a while. China first did this back in 2007. Some U.S. defense analysts were alarmed, but........

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