Russia reactivates highly maneuverable 'killer' satellites - could use them to cripple US internet

News that three Russian kamikaze satellites have reawakened is spreading ripples of concern among scientists and defense officials -- particularly given that if these satellites are mobilized, they could cripple U.S. access to the Internet.

The Daily Beast reports that the trio of "killer satellites" are moving after more than a year of sitting idle.

After being launched into low orbit between 2013 and 2015, the satellites quickly demonstrated a remarkable degree of maneuverability during dramatic orbit changes.

The satellites -- Kosmos-2491, Kosmos-2499 and Kosmos-2504 -- may be a resurrection of the Cold War era program known as Istrebitel Sputnikov, or satellite killer.

Attempts to develop Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) was a major component of the Cold War.

The Daily Mail painted an alarming scenario as to what the satellites could potentially accomplish.

"If US satellites were disabled or destroyed, life on Earth could quickly become paralysed," the Daily Mail predicted. "The Internet would go dead, TV screens would be blank, missiles systems could be frozen and the business and banking institutions would descend into chaos."

If it weren't such a crazy week with Trump bombshells, cable news would likely have nonstop speculation as to why Vladimir Putin was reawakening killer satellites that could knock out the internet. Yet the investigations of Trump and Russia have overshadowed this development.