US confirms for first time it has deployed a space weapon in orbit
The US has deployed a space weapon in the Earth’s orbit for the first time, its air force has confirmed.
Troy Meink, the Secretary of the Air Force, said the measure was necessary to safeguard American forces against hostile enemy action.
Speaking at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference yesterday, Mr Meink said the US was prepared to deal with ‘evolving threats’ but did not elaborate on the weapon’s offensive capabilities or when it was put into orbit.
Senior military leaders have previously said they planned to enhance military capabilities in space, citing Russian and Chinese initiatives developing ways to attack and disrupt US satellites in a future war.
The Trump administration has previously said space-based capabilities – and interceptor missiles – will play a crucial role in its touted ‘Golden Dome’ defence system, designed to protect the US from missiles and other airborne threats.
After a 1967 treaty banned weapons of mass destruction in orbit, the US, Russia, and China have been exploring other capabilities outside of the treaty ever since.
One is targeting rivals’ satellites – which are central for military communications, surveillance and navigation.
In 2025, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order underlining the US Space Force’s role in not only defending assets, but also as an aggressive force.
The US has confirmed for the first time it deployed a space weapon in Earth’s orbit
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off carrying NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, August 30
The first of a new, more capable, more survivable missile warning satellite, designed by Lockheed Martin, completed environmental testing in August 2025
The US Space Force was launched in 2019 – making it the newest branch of the US military in more than 70 years.
It was designed to protect American assets in space, including hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance.
A US Space Force spokesman said: ‘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.’
Two Russian satellites have likely intercepted the communications of at least a dozen European ones since the start of the war with Ukraine, it was revealed in February.
Such interceptions may have enabled Russian intelligence services to access the sensitive data they transmit, or hypothetically, even to take control of the satellites.
In 2024, Washington said Moscow had launched a satellite which it believed may be capable of attacking other such probes.
The Kremlin did not publicly comment on the issue.
The US Space Force says Beijing ‘develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernisation strategy,’ while Vladimir Putin ‘views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts’.
