Russia wants to put a nuclear weapon into space, US intelligence indicates, in what was described as a “serious national security threat”.
Joe Biden was urged on Wednesday night to declassify US intelligence on the military operation, which has been shared with every member of US Congress.
The Telegraph reports that the weapons system could be used to target Western satellites in space, potentially knocking out communications and military targeting systems.
The US president is understood to have been tracking the threat, described as a “grave” but not “immediate”, for some weeks, according to White House sources.
Republican Mike Turner, the head of the House intelligence committee, revealed the existence of the intelligence in a public statement calling on Mr Biden to share it with the public.
It comes amid growing fears that Russia’s war in Ukraine has escalated the potential for a clash between Moscow and Nato.
White House officials said on Wednesday that they assessed the threat to be “serious” but believed there were ways to “contain” it without triggering mass panic.