US Confirms Weapons Deployed in Space Amid Global Tensions

The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, prompting separate warnings from China and Russia. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air and Space Cyber Conference in Maryland on Monday that the U.S. has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.” Meink did not detail what the weapons were or how they work. In 2024 the U.S. said Russia was developing a new anti-satellite weapon that could be launched from space. At the time, the White House said the danger wasn’t imminent.

But reports of the anti-satellite weapon reflected longstanding worries about space threats from Russia and China, given that much U.S. infrastructure is dependent on satellite communications. In his remarks, Meink also said the Air Force was adding more autonomous systems to its capabilities and predicted the service would look “radically different” by 2032. For example, he foresaw one-way attack drones replacing artillery as the “primary killer.” “We are increasing readiness against existing threats,” he said. Meink also said that AI “competes with some of the world’s top programmers, cyber operators and hackers. And these technologies are revolutionizing the battlefield.

They allow countries that would not have had the resources in the past to quickly adapt and scale their combat capabilities.” As a result, the U.S. military “must increase our combat power and innovate faster than anyone else, affordably,” Meink said. President Trump created the Space Force in 2019.

China and Russia issue warnings

China on Tuesday warned against turning outer space into a “battlefield” and Russia said it must be “free from any weapon” after the United States confirmed that it has arms deployed in orbit above the Earth. Analysts said that the revelation by Washington confirmed an open secret but the timing of the announcement risked exacerbating tensions with Beijing and the risk of a weapons race in space. China’s foreign ministry opposed the move, warning against the “weaponization of outer space, turning it into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there.”

“We urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing. Russia called Tuesday for space to be kept “free of any weapons.” “We are counting on broad international consolidation to continue working toward the complete demilitarization of space,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

What are the U.S. capabilities?

The U.S. statement did not provide concrete details about what weapons are deployed in space and how many. “Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain — employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities,” the statement said. “These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes,” it added. Non-kinetic means could include lasers to blind satellites, or even electromagnetic or cyber jamming of their data links.

Why does the U.S. want weapons in space?

For Washington, both Russia and China — its two main geopolitical rivals — pose potential threats to U.S. interests in space. China “develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy,” according to the U.S. Space Force. Russia, meanwhile, “views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts,” it said.

The militarization of space is as old as the space race itself — as soon as the USSR’s Sputnik was launched into orbit as the first probe in space in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to both arm and destroy satellites. India in March 2019 said it had destroyed a low-orbiting satellite, following in the footsteps of Russia, China and the U.S., in a missile test that proved the nation was among the world’s most advanced space powers.

“China will not stand by and do nothing”

Song Zhongping, an independent military commentator based in Hong Kong and former Chinese army instructor, told AFP the announcement was “no surprise at all” as the fact that the U.S possesses such weapons “has long been an open secret.” “The only difference is that the U.S. used to keep it ambiguous, whereas now it has gone public, which shows that Washington is no longer trying to hide it,” he added.

“China will not stand by and do nothing,” he warned, noting Beijing already has its own space station in orbit. “Whether China deploys weapons in space will depend entirely on whether the United States moves in that direction,” he said. The Wall Street Journal reported Beijing supplied Iran with satellite imagery that enabled Tehran to precisely target military facilities and kill U.S. servicemembers in Jordan in July — a claim China has denied.

Can weapons in outer space be regulated?

The biggest worry was once about nuclear weapons in space, but the superpowers and other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, banning weapons of mass destruction in orbit. Since then, Russia, the United States, China and India have explored ways to fight in space outside of that treaty, including by targeting rivals’ satellites, which are key for military communications, surveillance and navigation. “There is a regulatory vacuum because Article 4 of the 1967 treaty only forbids weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in orbit,” said space law expert Laetitia Cesari.

She said the topic would likely be on the agenda at the next U.N. disarmament meeting in November. “Moscow and Beijing have been wanting to work for about 20 years on a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in space,” while “Western states are trying instead to work on the notion of responsible behavior,” Cesari said. The U.S. announcement “will likely give impetus to the restrictive approach that Moscow and Beijing are pushing for,” she added.

Source: U.S. confirms for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space. China and Russia have responded. – CBS News

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U.S. confirms for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space. China and Russia have responded.

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