Russia said on Wednesday it was aware of the efforts US intelligence agencies use commercial satellite operators such as SpaceX and warned that such movements had turned their satellites into legitimate purposes.

Reuters reported this month that SpaceX builds a network hundreds of spy satellites under a secret contract with the US intelligence agency, showing deepening ties between the US space company Elon Musk and national security agencies.

“We are aware of Washington’s efforts to attract the private sector to serve its military space ambitions,” a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman told reporters. Maria Zakharova.

Such systems “become a legitimate target response measures, including military– said Zakharova.

On Saturday, the British news agency announced that the network was being built Star Shield Business Unit SpaceX under contract $1.8 billion signed in 2021 with National Bureau of Recognition (NRO), an intelligence agency that operates spy satellites.

You might be interested > SpaceX Musk is building a spy satellite network for US intelligence agencies: Reuters

The plans show the extent of SpaceX’s involvement in US military and intelligence projects and illustrate largest Pentagon investment in huge low-orbit satellite systems designed to support ground forces.

If successful, the program would significantly improve the US government and military’s ability to quickly detect potential targets almost anywhere in the world.

Information about Reuters reveals for the first time that the SpaceX contract is for a powerful new spy system with hundreds of satellites capable of receiving images of the Earth that they can act as a swarm in low orbits and that the spy agency Musk’s company is working with is NRO.

The official database of objects in orbit shows that several SpaceX missions have deployed satellites that neither the company nor the government has ever recognized. Two anonymous sources confirmed to the agency that they are prototypes of the Starshield network for security reasons.

The network is part of the growing competition between the United States and its rivals to become dominant military power in spacepartly by expanding spy satellite systems from bulky and expensive spacecraft to higher orbits.

(according to information from Reuters)