The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, amid ongoing tensions with Russia and China.
The country’s top civilian Air Force official, Secretary Troy Meink, disclosed the information on Monday.
He revealed the space weapons deployment while speaking at an Air and Space Forces Association event at National Harbor, Maryland.
Meink said the United States remains ready at all times to counter any new threat, wherever it emerges. As a result, he said, the Space Force now has orbital weapons capable of protecting joint forces from enemy attack, calling this important from a deterrence standpoint.
Meink declined to elaborate further on his remarks during the subsequent question-and-answer session, but stressed that the wording of his statement had been “very carefully considered.”
The information was reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine, citing Troy Meink’s remarks. Meink further said that maintaining US dominance is critically important not just in the air, but in space as well.
A US official told The Washington Post that the technology Meink referred to could include capabilities allowing an enemy satellite to be “destroyed.”
There is no international ban on deploying weapons in space. Such weapons, however, cannot be weapons of mass destruction.
US President Donald Trump established the Space Force in 2019 during his first term, describing space at the time as the “newest war-fighting domain” in the world.
Last year, Trump unveiled a plan called the “Golden Dome.” The plan calls for building a multi-layered missile defence system to protect the entire US territory, including space-based systems for intercepting missiles.
Trump’s plan recalls the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) launched by then-president Ronald Reagan in 1983 at the height of Cold War tensions — a project also known as “Star Wars.”
Reagan’s ambitious programme was later scaled back and eventually abandoned. The space-based weapons proposed under that programme were never deployed.
Last March, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov condemned Trump’s “Golden Dome” plan, describing it as the “militarisation of space.” Lavrov said the “Golden Dome” poses a “serious threat” to strategic stability.
Since the 2000s, four countries — the United States, China, India and Russia — have tested anti-satellite weapons.
In November 2021, Russia’s military successfully destroyed an unused Soviet-era intelligence satellite. At the time, Russia’s foreign ministry said the operation was conducted in strict compliance with international law, and claimed it was not directed against any specific country.