Space Force chief Troy Meink said the deployment was aimed at deterring America\u2019s adversaries<\/p>\n
The US has for the first time acknowledged that it has weapons in space amid ongoing tensions with Russia and China.
\nUS Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink revealed the deployment on Monday during the opening of the Air & Space Forces Association\u2019s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference at National Harbor in Maryland.
\n\u201cToday, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenge of evolving threats wherever they exist,\u201d Meink said in a keynote address.
\n\u201cThis is why the Space Force now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,\u201d he said, without elaborating. \u201cIt\u2019s important from a deterrence perspective,\u201d he added.
\nDuring a question-and-answer session, Meink declined to go into detail, stressing that the phrasing of his remarks was \u201cvery well thought out.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is critically important that we maintain our dominance, not only in the air but in space,\u201d he said, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.
\nThe Washington Post quoted a US official as saying that the technology mentioned by Meink could include the ability to \u201ctake out\u201d an enemy satellite if it were being used to target American troops or a US satellite.<\/p>\n
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There is no international ban on deploying weapons in space, provided they are not weapons of mass destruction.
\nUS President Donald Trump established the Space Force in 2019 during his first term in office, describing space as \u201cthe world\u2019s newest warfighting domain.\u201d Last year, he unveiled plans for Golden Dome, a multilayered missile-defense system designed to protect the entire United States that includes space-based interceptors.
\nThe project echoes the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed Star Wars, launched by President Ronald Reagan at the height of the Cold War in 1983. Reagan\u2019s ambitious program was later scaled back and ultimately abandoned without its proposed space-based weapons being deployed.
\nIn March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov condemned what he described as \u201cthe militarization of space\u201d and argued that the Golden Dome \u201cposes a significant threat to strategic stability.\u201d
\nSince the 2000s, the US, China, India and Russia have tested anti-satellite weapons. In November 2021, the Russian military successfully destroyed a decommissioned Soviet-era spy satellite. The Russian Foreign Ministry said at the time that the operation was conducted in strict accordance with international law and was not directed against any particular country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Space Force chief Troy Meink said the deployment was aimed at deterring America\u2019s adversaries The US has for the first time acknowledged that it has weapons in space amid ongoing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t