The US has officially acknowledged the deployment of armed "space control weapons" into Earth's orbit, a move confirmed by Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink at an Air & Space Forces Association event.
Speaking at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference on Monday, Meink said the United States was prepared to respond to “evolving threats” in space but did not disclose the weapon's capabilities or reveal when it was placed in orbit, as per BBC.
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The announcement comes as the US, Russia and China expand their military space programmes. American military officials have increasingly warned that Russia and China are developing capabilities designed to disrupt, disable or potentially destroy satellites, which are critical to military communications, surveillance and navigation.
The Trump administration has also identified space-based capabilities as an important component of its planned “Golden Dome” missile-defence system. President Donald Trump last year issued an executive order strengthening the US Space Force's role in protecting American space assets while also recognising its offensive capabilities.
The US Space Force, established in 2019 as the first new US military branch in more than seven decades, said, according to BBC, "Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain – employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities through disruption, degradation and even destruction, if necessary. These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes at the direction of combatant commands."
International concerns over military activity in space have grown in recent years. A 1967 treaty prohibits weapons of mass destruction in orbit, but does not comprehensively ban conventional anti-satellite systems. The US has accused Russia of deploying satellites capable of threatening other spacecraft, while Russian satellites have also reportedly intercepted communications involving European satellites.
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The US Space Force says China is developing space and counterspace capabilities as part of its military modernisation, while Russia considers space a potential battlefield. The latest US admission highlights the growing competition among major powers for control of the increasingly contested space domain.
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