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COSMOS 2546 (EKS 4)

Russian Nuclear Missile Early Warning Satellite (Tundra/EKS — Likely Inactive) · Russian Aerospace Forces

Cosmos 2546 is — or was — one of the few satellites standing between the world and an accidental nuclear war. As part of Russia's Tundra/EKS early-warning constellation, its job is to watch for the heat signature of a ballistic missile launch and relay that warning before ground radar even confirms it. Independent orbital analysts reported it appeared to stop functioning sometime in late 2024, shrinking an already-thin constellation that was supposed to have ten satellites and, as of publicly available tracking data, may now have only one or two.