(NewsNation) —  Imagine losing your TV, telephone, Internet, GPS and every other communication device. It’s a threat that two retired U.S. Air Force generals say is very real, thanks to Russia and China exploring ways to put weapons into Earth’s orbit. Even nuclear weapons.

“In one strike, Russia could render America dark and stop our ability to prevent a strike that could take Washington, D.C., and most other cities off the map,” writes Gen. John Hyten and Maj Gen. Roger Teague in The Hill.

Teague explained the threat on NewsNation’s “Reality Check.”

They say Russia has gone so far as to test a weapon on one of its own defunct satellites in 2021. That blast polluted the area with debris that will last for decades. “It is a stark reminder that U.S. space capabilities are in Russian crosshairs,” they write.

To counter the Russian and Chinese moves, U.S. space leaders have long called for an upgrade of what’s known as the Satellite Control Network. They say, that if we don’t do that soon, the U.S. faces a very real threat of being unable to defend itself in the event of an international confrontation.

The U.S. intelligence community has been alive with hints that Russia is secretly developing what is feared to be a nuclear-powered anti-satellite weapon. Russia denied it and accused the U.S. of doing the very same thing.  

The U.S. did explode a massive nuclear weapon in space in the early 1960s, and the blast knocked out electricity and communications systems 1,000 miles away in Hawaii.

In 1967, the U.S., the Soviet Union and more than 100 other countries signed The Outer Space Treaty, which forbids countries from deploying nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction into space. The recent actions by Russia led to fears that it was ready to break that treaty.

The cost to counter our adversaries will be high, but the cost of inaction would be beyond enormous. Everything we do online relies on satellite technology, and experts say we must make sure those systems are protected.