Germany's top military space commander said he cannot rule out that Russia is developing technology to place a nuclear weapon in orbit, a step he warned could disable a third of low-Earth-orbit satellites and render some altitudes unusable for decades.

Maj. Gen. Michael Traut, head of the Bundeswehr Space Command, delivered the assessment in a Politico interview at the ILA Berlin air show, where Berlin is unveiling a sharper military posture in space.

"At the very top end of escalation, there is the suspicion that Russia may be working on technology to place a nuclear explosive device in orbit," Traut said.

Asked whether he viewed that as realistic, he answered: "I cannot rule it out."

A detonation on the scale of Starfish Prime, the 1962 U.S. high-altitude test, would knock out "up to one-third of all satellites in low-Earth orbit" over the following weeks and months, he said, worsening the debris field and raising the odds of cascading collisions, the so-called Kessler effect.

"It is even conceivable," Traut added, "that certain orbital altitudes would no longer be usable for decades."

The warning lands as Berlin pivots space into a core pillar of national defense.

Germany's new space security strategy directs the Bundeswehr both to protect German and allied access to orbit and to restrict an adversary's ability to use it.

Traut said in-orbit threats have "massively developed" in recent years, from GPS jamming and laser dazzling to physical attacks on satellites.

"The best example is GPS jamming in the Baltic region," he said, citing disruption to civilian aviation and maritime traffic.

Germany's response, he argued, cannot be defensive only.

"You don't go into the arena only with a shield," Traut said.

"A functioning deterrent always has an active, offensive component."

He stressed that "offensive does not mean aggressive," but said Germany must be able to seize the initiative in a conflict and act against an adversary's space systems, not necessarily in orbit but across the supporting infrastructure of ground stations, jammers, and links.

To get there, Germany plans to field non-kinetic systems including jammers and lasers, along with inspection satellites and, eventually, spaceplanes to shield German assets and inspect or counter adversary systems.

Berlin is also building a sovereign military satellite communications network, SATCOMBw 4, to meet the Bundeswehr's growing demand for secure connectivity.

Reuters reported in February that the constellation will exceed 100 satellites and is part of a broader military space plan valued at roughly 35 billion euros (about $40.5 billion).

Traut said SATCOMBw 4 should not be read as a rival to the EU's IRIS2 secure connectivity constellation.

"We do not see IRIS2 as competition, but as a complementary addition," he said, adding that the German network would ease pressure on the EU system and free up bandwidth for other users.

Berlin wants partners aboard, particularly European states that cannot or will not build their own constellations.

The aim, Traut said, is to bring "as many European partners as possible into the boat."