Russia’s development of a space-based nuclear weapons system poses a threat to “the entire modern way of life,” according to a top U.S. general. 

“It’s a completely indiscriminate weapon,” Gen. Stephen Whiting, the commander of U.S. Space Command, told the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday. “It would affect the United States satellites, Chinese satellites, Russian satellites, European satellites, Indian satellites, Japanese satellites. And so, it’s really holding at risk the entire modern way of life. And it’s just an incredibly reckless decision.”

The anxiety over a potential Russian deployment of a nuclear weapon into space has percolated in public discussions of nuclear arms and national security since February,…