A White House spokesman said on Thursday that antisatellite technology being developed by Russia had not been deployed and posed “no immediate threat to anyone’s safety.”
“We are not talking about a weapon that can be used to attack human beings or cause physical destruction here on earth,” the spokesman, John F. Kirby, told reporters.
Mr. Kirby also pushed back on calls from Republicans to broadly declassify intelligence related to the weapon, which came to light on Wednesday in part after a cryptic message by Representative Michael R. Turner, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
After Mr. Turner’s announcement, current and former officials briefed on the matter said Russia was believed to be making advances on a new, space-based nuclear weapon designed to threaten America’s extensive satellite network.
President Biden is receiving regular briefings, and the White House had “serious concerns” about declassifying all of the information that had been gathered about the weapon, Mr. Kirby said. He added that the weapon was space-based and that it did not have a component that could be used to disarm or attack structures in space from the ground.
Mr. Kirby said that the administration would argue for declassification in a “strategic way” and that Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, would be meeting with members of House leadership to brief them on the latest intelligence and the administration’s analysis of it.
