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Electromagnetic Impulse Weapon
oruzhiye electromagnitnog impulsa

Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Permanent Select on Intelligence, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, and head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly delivered a major speech 20 June 2024 about the Russian nuclear anti-satellite threat at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The Biden Administration, only after having been challenged by a group of bipartisan Members of the House Intelligence Committee, reluctantly declassified that Russia is developing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon intended to be placed in orbit in outer space. No additional information has been released. News reports have speculated that the weapon is past development, exists, and is preparing to launch. Additional news reports have speculated that Russia already has a satellite in orbit that is a "test" first phase of Russia's anti-satellite nuclear weapon system. Without confirming or denying the accuracy of any of these reports, the questions they raise must be answered by the Biden Administration immediately.

"Regardless of Russia's timing or the possible immediacy of this evolving threat, this crisis is the "Cuban Missile Crisis in Space," and the Administration is failing. The advances that mankind has made during the Space Age are at risk, and the Administration is sleepwalking into an irreversible "Day Zero."... In order to avoid "Day Zero" the Biden Administration must immediately declassify all known information concerning the status of Russia's nuclear anti-satellite weapons program. Vladimir Putin thrives in secrecy. Putin's plans and weapons programs must be fully disclosed by the Administration and understood by the world.... The Biden Administration is incredibly reluctant to take any action that would appear to be escalatory. However, Russia is the aggressor, and an escalation has already occurred. Now, the United States must stand strong with our allies to stop "Day Zero" and preserve space, as the UN Outer Space Treaty intended, for the betterment of all mankind."

Congressman Mike Turner (OH-10) issued an extraordinary statement in which he warned of a “dangerous threat” to US national security, calling on President Biden to lift its confidentiality. The Economist magazine said that there was an uproar that swept the United States two days ago due to news about a mysterious Russian space weapon, and talked about 3 possibilities: the first was that it would be a nuclear weapon designed to destroy satellites, or a nuclear weapon that would be stationed in orbit, or a nuclear-powered satellite.

In an interview with CNN, former US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta , who previously served as Director of the CIA , said, “ Russia’s use of these nuclear weapons in space, whether to obstruct or shoot down satellites, threatens national security,” adding that His country uses these satellites for communications, intelligence, and GPS purposes.

CNN quoted three sources familiar with US intelligence reports that Russia is trying to produce a nuclear space weapon that would destroy satellites by generating a massive wave of energy that could paralyze a large number of commercial and government satellites that are used for various purposes, including mobile phone services. to pay bills and surf the Internet. An American official told the network 17 February 2024 that the idea of this weapon is not new, but dates back to the late Cold War, but he pointed out that the great fear of such technology is that it may render large parts of satellite orbits unusable because of the “minefield” of disabled satellites it would leave behind.

CNN also reported that this weapon would be a last resort for Russia, because it would cause the same damage to Russian satellites.

On the other hand, the New York Times said that US intelligence agencies are divided over the extent to which Russian President Vladimir Putin might go regarding space nuclear weapons. The newspaper indicated that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken spoke with his Chinese and Indian counterparts on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference about the possibility of Russian nuclear movement in space.

Even if Russia sends a nuclear weapon into space, American officials agree that the weapon will not be used, but will remain like a time bomb in low orbit, as a reminder from Putin that if he is subjected to pressure sanctions or military resistance to his ambitions in Ukraine or elsewhere, it may destroy... The economies of countries without targeting humans on the ground, according to the New York Times.

"We have always been and are categorically against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space. We have repeatedly proposed not only to comply with all existing agreements in this field, but also to strengthen joint work" Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that they are against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space . Vladimir Putin made a statement 23 February 2024 during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow. Putin noted that they did not refuse to negotiate on Ukraine, saying: “We were always in favor of negotiations. I have already said hundreds of times that we are not going to stop the dialogue. "It was the Ukrainian side that interrupted the dialogue on direct instructions from London and Washington."

Putin stated the following regarding accusations in the American press that "Russia is planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space. Our position is open and transparent. We have always been and are categorically against the deployment of nuclear weapons in space. "We have repeatedly proposed not only to comply with all existing agreements in this field, but also to strengthen joint work." Shoygu also stated that Russia has no project to deploy nuclear weapons in space: “They (the United States) also know this, but they still make noise. "They want to intimidate senators and members of Congress into raising funds not only for Ukraine but also to strategically defeat Russia."

Claims that Russia is planning to deploy nuclear weapons in space are merely an attempt by Washington to push Moscow into negotiations on terms set by the US, President Vladimir Putin said on 29 February 2024. Delivering his annual address to the Federal Assembly, Russia’s national legislature, Putin insisted that statements by American officials about their supposed willingness to reach an agreement with Moscow on nuclear weapons controls are nothing but “demagogy” ahead of the US presidential election.

Putin accused the US of “hypocrisy” over recent “unfounded accusations” that Russia plans to deploy strategic weapons in space, and insisted that such falsehoods are nothing but an attempt by Washington to drag Moscow into negotiations that are exclusively beneficial to the US. The president noted that Russia offered the US a draft treaty on preventing the deployment of nuclear weapons in space back in 2008, but pointed out that Washington has blocked the proposal ever since.

“They want to show their citizens that they still rule the world. The US will only hold talks with Russia on issues where it is beneficial for America to find an agreement. On issues that are not profitable for them, they will say there is ‘nothing to discuss’ … and will try to inflict a defeat on [Moscow],” Putin stated. The president stressed that this approach is unacceptable, and that any discussions about global security and stability can only be held if Russia’s national interests and security are taken into account.

The New York Times reported 14 February 2024 that "The United States has informed Congress and its allies in Europe about Russian advances on a new, space-based nuclear weapon designed to threaten America’s extensive satellite network, according to current and former officials briefed on the matter. Such a satellite-killing weapon, if deployed, could destroy civilian communications, surveillance from space and military command-and control operations by the United States and its allies. At the moment, the United States does not have the ability to counter such a weapon and defend its satellites, a former official said....

"The intelligence was developed in recent days, and while it is important, officials said it was not a break-the-glass kind of warning of any imminent threat.... Other officials said Mr. Turner was making more of the new intelligence than would ordinarily have been expected, perhaps to create pressure to prod the House to take up the supplemental funding request for Ukraine that the Senate passed this week."

White House national security spokesman John Kirby publicly confirmed the intelligence on 15 February 2024. Asked whether it a nuclear weapon, a nuclear-powered weapon, or a nuclear-capable weapon, Kirby responded "I’m not going to be able to go into any more detail than I did in my opening statement. It is an anti-satellite capability that they’re developing. And beyond that, I will not go."

Kirby stated "It would be — it would be space-based. And it would be a violation of the Outer Space Treaty to which more than 130 countries have signed up to, including Russia.... what Russia does with its treaty requirements is up to Mr. Putin to decide. I can’t answer that question. And I’m not going to get into a hypothetical about what we would do and what we wouldn’t do. We are engaging — we’re going to engage with Russia. We’re going to engage with our allies and partners. We are a signatory to that treaty. We take our obligations under that treaty very seriously. And we have no intention of violating it."

David E. Sanger and Julian E. Barnes reported Feb. 17, 2024 "spy agencies discovered Russia was working on a new kind of space-based weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected. In recent weeks, a new warning has circulated from America’s spy agencies: Another launch may be in the works, and the question is whether Russia plans to use it to put a real nuclear weapon into space — a violation of a half-century-old treaty. The agencies are divided on the likelihood that President Vladimir V. Putin would go so far, but nonetheless the intelligence is an urgent concern to the Biden administration.... Even if Russia does place a nuclear weapon in orbit, U.S. officials are in agreement in their assessment that the weapon would not be detonated. Instead, it would lurk as a time bomb in low orbit, a reminder from Mr. Putin that if he was pressed too hard with sanctions, or military opposition to his ambitions in Ukraine or beyond, he could destroy economies without targeting humans on earth.... the intelligence about the 2022 Russian satellite tests, which has not been previously reported..."

Diaries of the Green Land reported 21 December 2022 "about some satellites, the meager lines of newspaper news reported only the simplest and most superficial information. And even a deeper study of the issue of knowledge about it, basically, did not add. Some of the launches looked as strange as possible. For example, when military spacecraft, launched into near space and taken over by ground-based space services, left orbit twenty days after launch. And this did not look like an emergency situation, but part of some general strategic plan. Analytical services were especially alarmed by the fact that recently there were three such devices, and all of them entered the dense layers of the atmosphere and burned up approximately over the areas where the largest US military bases, both domestic and foreign, are located.

"In December of this year, such an orbital maneuver was performed by the Cosmos-2560 spacecraft, which burned up on the tenth in the sky over Guam. Since the summer of 1944, the largest US overseas base has been located here, a real outpost of American military power in the Pacific Ocean. Nuclear submarines, missile ships and strategic bombers are concentrated in one place and allow military control over the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. And it was above such a place in the dense layers of the atmosphere that the remains of a small Russian spacecraft, which the intelligence services of the US Strategic Command considered a small-sized reconnaissance satellite, burned up....

"The first time was the same type of spacecraft "Cosmos-2551", launched in September 2021 and burned over the northeastern part of the US coast, where there is also a high concentration of military installations. Then the US space monitoring services simply considered the launch of the spacecraft unsuccessful. After the second such launch, in April of this year, when exactly the same satellite, codenamed Cosmos-2555, burned up over Guam in May 2022, Western intelligence services for the first time showed increased interest in the topic....

"They did this at the suggestion of the famous expert in the field of Soviet and Russian orbital programs Bart Hendricks, the editor-in-chief of the RussianSpaceWeb portal Anatol Zak and the famous astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who were the first to discover a clear pattern in this chain of mysterious launches and deorbits. After the third launch, the Pentagon space services are almost sure that we are talking about a 'new secret program of the Russians.''”

Gunter Krebs reported that due to the similarity of their orbits, both Kosmos 2551 and Kosmos 2555 were tentatively identified as Razbeg EO-MKA or EMKA, small military satellite optical reconnaissance satellite.

According to military analyst and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine Igor Korotchenko, Russia has cheaper and more effective means of anti-satellite warfare than those that Washington accuses it of developing. “This is a question of approaches. The fact is that the deployment of nuclear weapons in space is ineffective in terms of its use, especially given that Russia has much simpler and cheaper means to disable, in the event of hostilities, a significant part of the US satellite constellation," the expert underscored.

Space News reported that one report claimed Russia had developed a nuclear weapon that could be used in space to disable satellites, which would violate international treaties banning the use of nuclear weapons in space. Another report said Russia had developed an electronic-warfare satellite, possibly nuclear powered-but not itself a nuclear weapon, to attack satellites.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he had no information about Russia's alleged plans to place nuclear weapons in space. "These reports, as far as I know, are very, very new - at least for me," he told reporters in Brussels upon arriving for a meeting with NATO colleagues. "We will discuss this with our partners. We must analyze this, clarify the technical issues, and then see what follows from this. I do not have current [information]," Pistorius said.

Much of the Russian problem with credible nuclear threats has been the seeming absence of a not-incredible pathway to Russian first use of nuclear weapons. As someone once said "It is not a thing a sane man would do", and early trepidation concerning the madness of Putin have faded. Initially, scenario-builders focused on the use of tactical ["low yield" Hiroshima-sized bombs] in theater, possibly against Ukrainian troop concentrations, or maybe a demonstrations shot over the Black Sea. Such scenarios were nnt overly convincing, but sufficiently troublesome to provoke a "semi-official" response from GEN. David Petraeus [USA, Rtd.] in October 2022 that the US and its NATO allies would use conventional forces to destroy Russian troops and equipment in Ukraine - and sink its entire Black Sea fleet. That is, rather than responding nuke-for-nuke, follow the "no early second use" policy long advocated by Jeremy Stone.

This response largely abated overt Western fears of Russian nuclear weapons, but did not abate Russian enthusiasm for making such threats. In the subsequent year, Former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has become a parody of himself with weekly threats of atomic fire and brimstone, largely to little avail. Various supposed Red Lines were crossed with nary a quiver from Moscow's nuclear arsenal.

The first step in the escalation ladder from conventional to nuclear weapons was in fact a giant leap. Russian political scientist Sergei Karaganov, the honorary head of the presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy of the Russian Federation, was most eloquent in arguing in late September 2023 for “an increase in the nuclear threat. I hope , without implementing it to the end. But the enemy must know about the unconditional readiness of our leadership and society to take this step in case of emergency. We need to return faith in hell to those who have lost it,"

Around that time there was also evidence of renewed Russian interest in their Novaya Zemlya nuclear test range, silent since the end of the Cold War. Then on 03 October 2023 Margarita Simonova, editor-in-chief of the Russian Today propaganda empire, proposed using a nuclear electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

This plan might proceed in eight stages:

• description of the concept, already in progress.
• Denunciation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, already in progress.
• Announcement of an intention to resuming testing.
• Conduct an underground nuclear test in the Arctic.
• A nuclear test in space above Siberia, creating a damaging EMP over Russian territory and crippling many satellites in space.
• A nuclear attack against the US, with a nuclear detonation in space, over Manhattan, which could cause a blackout across the Northeastern United States and damage or destroy electronic devices.
• A nuclear attack against the entire US, with a nuclear detonation in space, over the central USA, which could cause a blackout across the whole USA, and damage or destroy electronic devices.
• further escalation

Simonyan said the EMP taatcks over Siberia, which would render all iPhones and iPads useless, would take us "back to the year of 1993 or so, corded phones". She added: "I'll tell you. It was a wonderful life." It would be the “most humane” and “harmless” form of nuclear blackmail, she claimed, but her outburst appeared too extreme even for her paymasters in the Kremlin.

She predicted that Putin would get his own way in Ukraine and send the world back three decades with the enormous nuclear hit. This should be “a nuclear explosion, hundreds of [miles] away on our territory, somewhere over Siberia,” she said. “There will be nothing on earth, nothing so terrible, neither nuclear winter, which everyone is afraid of, nor monstrous radiation, which will kill everyone around, and those who are not killed will die within 10 years from cancer,” she said. “That's not going to happen. What is? Well, it's going to disable all radio electronics, all digital. All the satellites. This is the camera they're filming me on right now. This is the phone that's lying next to me. We're going to go back to the year of 1993 or so…”

President Vladimir Putin on 05 October 2023 stated “I hear calls to start testing nuclear weapons, to return to testing... I am not ready to say whether we really need to conduct tests or not.” America's meager inventory of anti-missile interceptors might intercept a handful or so of incoming Russian hydrogen bombs, but the American store of interceptors would be long exhausted before the Russians depleted their atomic stockpile. And the Russian warheads might be fused to detonate when intercepted, complicating rather than solving the problem.

It is argued that Russia would be self deterred from using a nuclear EMP ASAT because it woud also dstroy many Russian satellites. But by 2024 Russia's paltry few hundred satellites was dwarfed by by the thousands of American spacecraft, mainly Starlink. From both technical and economic points of view, the global system is an extremely unprofitable way to organize a service area, since 79% of the Earth’s surface is oceans, and satellites simply “heat the water” three quarters of the time. To provide services on land from low-flying satellites, it is necessary to have a sufficiently dense network of gateway stations located on the territory of other states, and sufficient effective demand from users in these states to ensure the payback of the project.

The possibility of achieving economic efficiency in general is the most controversial issue in projects of low-orbit multi-satellite systems. Most experts believe that the capacity requirements for low-orbit systems will be significantly less than what is needed to make them pay for themselves. For an attempt to implement a similar system in the Russian Federation, the likelihood of attracting a significant number of clients from abroad is low, especially taking into account the current political situation, and the entire existing and future Russian need for Internet traffic is only a small fraction of the volume of traffic necessary for its recoupment.

The large number of systems already announced in the world and being designed in low orbits are all are aimed at the same audience. The implementation of the domestic project will require significant financial resources and time to carry out a large amount of R&D, since satellites in low orbits differ significantly from traditional satellites in GEO and proven technical solutions cannot be applied. The delay in implementation compared to foreign analogues will be at least 5–6 years, and by this time the entire world market will have already been divided.

Creating a commercially successful low-orbit constellation without a focus on global sales markets looks like a utopian idea. Even with such a large territory of Russia, the payback of such a system only at the expense of Russian consumers is doubtful. The lion's share of potential consumers of such a global network is located outside of Russia, and there is expected to be fierce competition from other similar systems.

The UN Security Council failed 24 April 2024 to adopt its first-ever resolution on outer space — one that would have affirmed the obligation of all States parties to fully comply with the Outer Space Treaty, including not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner. Had it been adopted, the resolution would have also emphasized the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.

Introducing the draft text, also on behalf of Japan, the representative of the United States said: “There should be no doubt that placing a nuclear weapon into orbit would be unprecedented, unacceptable and deeply dangerous.” Thus, the resolution should not be controversial, she added, highlighting that the text allows the international community to address current and emerging threats to help ensure that countries will not deploy nuclear weapons around Earth and pose a grave threat to international peace and security. Her delegation and that of Japan have gone to great lengths to forge consensus, she said, thanking the 62 cross-regional co-sponsors who have joined in support.

The representative of the Russian Federation, noting that the Council is again involved in “a dirty spectacle prepared by the US and Japan”, said: “This is a cynical ploy. We are being tricked.” Recalling that the ban on placing weapons of mass destruction in outer space is already enshrined in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, he said that Washington, D.C., Tokyo and their allies are “cherry-picking” weapons of mass destruction out of all other weapons, trying to “camouflage their lack of interest” in outer space being free from any kinds of weapons. The addition of the operative paragraph proposed by the Russian Federation and China does not delete from the draft resolution a call not to develop weapons of mass destruction and not to place them in outer space, he emphasized.

The representative of the Russian Federation said the only reason Washington, D.C., introduced this amendment is to tarnish the Russian Federation. Addressing the United States’ delegate and highlighting the thrust of the proposed amendment, he asked: “If the United States is really so much in favour of using outer space for peaceful purposes, why did you vote against our amendment calling for a ban on weapons of any kind being placed in space, not just weapons of mass destruction?”

Echoing that sentiment, China’s representative said that if the United States and Japan were truly committed to advancing the Council’s constructive deliberations on outer space security, then they unequivocally stand for the prohibition of the placement of all types of weapons, including nuclear weapons in outer space. The draft resolution is incomplete and unbalanced and does not fully reflect the common interest of 193 Member States, he said, explaining his abstention.

By a vote of 13 in favour to 1 against (Russian Federation), with 1 abstention (China), the Council then rejected the draft resolution, owing to the negative vote cast by a permanent member.

The Wall Street Journal reported 16 May 2024 that in February 2022, a few weeks before Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia launched the Kosmos 2553 research spacecraft into space. This satellite, American officials say, was designed to test components for a potential anti-satellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device. Sources say Kosmos 2553 does not carry nuclear weapons, but American officials are certain it contains non-nuclear components of a new Russian armament system. This armament, if deployed, will give Moscow an opportunity to destroy hundreds of satellites in low-Earth orbit with a nuclear blast "in a part of space dominated by American government and SpaceX assets". One of the sources called the satellite a "prototype" of the weapon but others say that the Russian space programme has not advanced that far. Kosmos 2553 is still moving around the Earth on an "unusual orbit".

The editor-in-chief of the magazine "All about Space" Denis Albin explains: theoretically, if the nuclear device of this satellite is detonated in orbit, the electromagnetic pulse will disable all other (foreign) satellites within a certain radius.

Russia’s Defence Ministry and Roscosmos reported about the launch of this satellite but little information concerning the purpose of the satellite was disclosed – only that it was equipped with the systems for operation "under conditions of exposure to radiation and heavy charged particles". Sources of WSJ consider the claims of the Russian side about the goal of the spacecraft launch to be improbable and stress that it was launched within the Russian nuclear anti-satellite program.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported "Ground assets of the Aerospace Forces Space Forces took control of a spacecraft launched in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense. The spacecraft was launched into the target orbit and accepted for control by ground facilities of the Main Test Space Center named after G.S. Titov of the Aerospace Forces Space Forces. The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle and the launch of the spacecraft into orbit took place as usual. A stable telemetry connection has been established and maintained with the spacecraft. The spacecraft's onboard systems are operating normally.

After being accepted for control, the spacecraft was assigned the serial number “Cosmos-2553”. The technological spacecraft "Cosmos-2553" is equipped with newly developed on-board instruments and systems for testing them under conditions of exposure to radiation and heavy charged particles. More than 70 combat crews were involved in ensuring the launch of the spacecraft, as well as over 40 spacecraft control equipment, systems and complexes for collecting, processing and displaying telemetric information from formations and military units of the 15th Army of the Special Purpose Aerospace Forces.

"Specialists of the 15th Army Aerospace Forces Special Forces included the Cosmos-2553 spacecraft into the Main Catalog of Space Objects of the UKKP. After the launch of the spacecraft into orbit, launched on February 5 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome by the Soyuz-2.1a medium-class launch vehicle, officers of the Space Control Center began analyzing and processing coordinate and non-coordinate information about the new space object in order to accept it for escort by ground means The main center for reconnaissance of the space situation of the Space Forces of the Aerospace Forces.

"The main catalog of space objects of the SKKP is a unified information database containing coordinate and non-coordinate information about each space object. The main catalog is intended for long-term storage of orbital measuring radar, optical, radio engineering and special information about space objects of artificial origin at altitudes from 120 km to 50 thousand km. The catalog contains information on 1,500 indicators of the characteristics of each space object, including a set of orbital elements sufficient to predict its movement with the required accuracy, an international identifier number, data on the time and place of launch, type of object, purpose, mass, size, etc. . Every day, to maintain the Main Catalog of Space Objects, specialists from the Central Control Commission of the Aerospace Forces Space Forces process more than 60 thousand measurements."

Cosmos-2553 went into orbit in February 2022 just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine. Kosmos 2553 is in a circular orbit of about 2,000 kilometers at the farthest edge of the low Earth orbit (LEO) belt, consistent with hosting a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for observing the Earth. “The big issue with nuclear weapons deployed in space is that they have to sit there a long time, unattended. So, I imagine that one possible explanation is gathering data on the long-term effects of sitting in orbit would be,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterrey, CA, told Theresa Hitchens. Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research in Geneva and a long-time watcher of Russia’s nuclear and space forces, agreed. In a May 13 essay in The Space Review, Bart Hendrickx, likewise noted its likely SAR mission.

Computer technologies are widely used in SAR designing and SAR data handling. Specific software has been elaborated for SAR equipment testing and correction. High efficient algorithms for image focusing based on coherent accumulation of signal frames were studied. The relative platform-target motion model is especially convenient for high orbit SAR. [ L.B.Neronskiy, S.Likhansky, I.V.Elizavetin, D.V.Sysenko. "Phase History Model Adapted to the Spaceborne SAR Survey",. IEE Proceedings, Radar, Sonar & Navigation. Vol. 150, # 3, pp. 184-192, 2003, June]

At 21:14 UTC on 26 May 2023, a Soyuz 2.1a rocket launched from Site 1S at Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. Onboard the Soyuz was the Kondor-FKA n°1 satellite, which was lofted to a Sun-synchronous 510 km orbit. The Kondor satellites are a series of Earth observation satellites developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya that provide reconnaissance services for the Russian military. The Russian S-band SAR "Strizh", which is a payload of the light satellites of "Condor-E" type launched into high inclination sunsynchronous orbit with a height around 500 km orbit in 2013 and 2014.