Russia lunched a new exoatmospheric anti-satellite missile last week. The missile is capable of destroying US strategic satellites.

The test was monitored by the US but it did not disclose any information, as it is against its policy. The only thing that is known so far is that there were no debris detected, which means that either there was no target to be hit, or the test was not successful.

According to Washington Free Beacon the PL-19 Nudol missile was developed as an anti-missile system which was modified for exoatmospheric targeting missions. The test took place on December 16th and it was the third of its kind.

Officially the US do not have a similar system, although an SM-3 was used for the destruction of an old military satellite in a 2008 test.

China is also in the process of testing a similar weapon, although no relevant information is available yet.