U.S. Confirms Deployment of On-Orbit Weapons, Prompting International Concern
The U.S. Air Force announced that the United States now has weapons operating in space, a move that China and Russia condemned and experts warned could intensify a space-based arms race.
The United States Air Force said on Monday that the country has "on-orbit" weapons currently circling the globe, marking the first public acknowledgment of such capabilities. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink made the statement at the annual Air, Space, Cyber conference, adding that the U.S. must stay ready for evolving threats.
Meink declined to detail the systems, but a Space Force spokesperson described "space-control" as the use of kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities, usable for both offensive and defensive purposes.
China’s foreign ministry responded that Washington is "preparing for war in outer space" and warned against turning space into a battlefield. Russia’s Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia believes space should remain free of weapons and called for complete demilitarisation.
Analysts noted that the United States, Russia and China have long pursued space-based weapons, including signal jammers and kinetic devices. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who tracks rocket launches, said the announcement likely confirms the presence of jamming satellites and predicted that Russia and China would respond with comparable systems.
Victoria Samson, chief director of space security at the Secure World Foundation, said the U.S. admission means other powers are likely to follow suit. She highlighted that no U.S. official had previously confirmed such deployment.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans weapons of mass destruction in orbit but does not prohibit conventional weapons. Experts warned that the increasing militarisation of space raises the risk of debris-creating collisions, recalling Russia’s 2021 anti-satellite test that generated thousands of fragments.
"The US sees conflict in space as something that is conceptually normalised, whereas 20 years ago it was ‘no, we will never want to do that’," said McDowell, adding that he believes the United States could still change course.
The announcement has sparked debate over the future of space security and the potential for an accelerated arms race among the major powers.