The United States has acknowledged for the first time that it has space control weapons deployed in Earth's orbit, marking an unprecedented milestone in the militarization of outer space.
The announcement was made on Monday by Troy Meink, Secretary of the Air Force, during his speech at the Conference on Air, Space, and Cybersecurity, held in National Harbor, Maryland.
Meink stated that the "orbital" weapon is necessary to protect U.S. forces from hostile actions, but did not disclose any details about the type of system, how many devices there are, or when they were placed in orbit, according to a report from BBC.
The general Douglas Schiess, head of space operations for the Space Force, supported Meink's remarks and described space as an active battleground in light of antisatellite systems of rival powers.
A spokesperson for the Space Force specified the scope of these capabilities: "Space control encompasses the mission areas necessary to contest and control space dominance, employing both kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect the adversary's capabilities through disruption, degradation, and even destruction, if necessary."
He added, "These capabilities can be used for offensive and defensive purposes under the direction of command in combat."
What kind of weapon could it be?
Experts consulted by the BBC admit that very little is publicly known about the technology.
Bleddyn Bowen, from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, proposed three hypotheses without ruling any of them out: an electronic warfare platform capable of disrupting radio communications —"if you take away the radio links, a satellite can become quite useless."—
A second possibility would be a kinetic destruction vehicle that physically collides with enemy satellites. Thirdly, it could involve an inspection and capture device similar to the "space towing capability" that China has already demonstrated, by which "a vehicle can approach a satellite, latch onto it, and move it to a different orbit."
Bowen dismissed the kinetic option as the most likely, as it would generate a large amount of debris in orbit.
The space rivalry with Russia and China
The announcement comes at a time of extreme geopolitical tension. Washington has been in armed conflict with Iran for months and has repeatedly warned Moscow and Beijing about the consequences of supporting Tehran.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in May that "Russia and China, both nuclear-armed states, are aligned with Iran."
In this context, the deployment of the space weapon is interpreted as a deterrent signal specifically aimed at those two powers, which have united diplomatically against Washington at the UN.
China reacted this Tuesday with a direct warning: “We urge the United States to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space,” stated a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the AFP agency.
Rod Thornton, a professor at King's College London, explained how Russia compensates for its inferiority in satellites: "The Russians have ground-based missiles that can be launched into space to target satellites in low Earth orbit. They also have ASAT missiles that can be launched from great heights by aircraft."
The announced weapon is part of the broader strategy of the Trump administration, which is promoting the project "Golden Dome" —a missile defense system with a space component whose initial estimated cost is 25 billion dollars and could reach 542 billion in the long term— and an executive order signed last year that expanded the role of the Space Force to include offensive functions.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits weapons of mass destruction in orbit, but it does not explicitly address conventional weapons, a legal gray area that major powers have exploited for decades to develop capabilities that today make space the new front in global rivalry.
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