India, Oct. 2 -- A former US Air Force and intelligence officer recently recalled how India's 2019 anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test caught American officials at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) off-guard.

David Grusch, who has represented the NRO on the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, claimed that the agency had scrambled to assess the impact of debris and determine whether it could hinder US spy satellites. "They shot down one of their own satellites and they didn't tell us," Grusch claimed.

According to his account, the former US intelligence officer said he was on duty at the NRO operations centre when the test took place, adding that he contacted the US Embassy while orbital analysts calculated the debris field....