5 Secret Space Weapons

As a response to the American Star Wars program, the Soviet Union urgently prepared a counter-attack program to launch a 1MW orbital laser system. This weapon could potentially target and destroy US satellites, rendering any possible Star Wars weapon obsolete. The spacecraft became known as Polyus-Skif. Polyus is Russian for pole, as in the extremity of an axis of a sphere. The word Skif refers to the Scythians, an ancient tribe of warriors in Asia, and the European equivalent of a barbarian. The project was born after Soviet scientists mentioned the US space shuttle made no economic sense and posed the theory that it could be hiding a weapon ready to take out Moscow at any given time.