http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/21/russia-tests-anti-satellite-weapon-pl-19-nudol/

The PL-19 Nudol missile system

Russia has successfully carried out the 5th test of an anti-satellite weapon that is designed to destroy American communication and navigation capability, the backbone of the American military. The PL-19 Nudol missile was tested from a base in central Russia on Dec 16th. American intelligence was aware of and monitored the test.

Russia advertises the missile as a missile defense weapon but American military analysts are not fooled and believe it is an anti-satellite weapon.

Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza declined to comment. “We generally don’t comment on other countries’ capabilities,” she said, reported the Washington Free Beacon.

“Russia views U.S. dependency on space as an exploitable vulnerability, and they are taking deliberate actions to strengthen their counter-space capabilities,” Air Force Lt. Gen. David J. Buck, commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, revealed during recent House testimony.

“Potentially, it could result in our defeat in a high intensity conflict. The complete loss of the GPS network, or its serious degradation, would eliminate the effectiveness of all existing long-range conventional strike cruise missiles and would degrade the functioning of many of our precision guided weapons,” says Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic arms policymaker.