Comment by __turbobrew__

The military have developed other ways to bring down satellites.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionospheric_heater

Whats less well known is as the Ionsphere heats up the upper atmosphere, it bulges out into space like a tyre sidewall bulge. This has the effect of putting an atmosphere in the path of LEO satellite, which then causes the LEO satellite to fall to earth because they are not designed to travel through an atmosphere.

Joule heating is the most important one which can alter the thermospheric dynamics quite significantly.[1]

[1] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/201...