US confirms for first time it deployed weapons in Earth orbit

The United States has for the first time publicly confirmed that it has deployed weapons in Earth orbit, an official acknowledgment that Washington possesses offensive capabilities in space.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told an industry conference that orbital weapons are necessary to protect U.S. forces from "threats that are evolving," but he did not disclose what systems are in orbit or when they were deployed.

Context and legal limits

The 1967 treaty banned placing weapons of mass destruction in orbit, but major powers including the United States, Russia and China have pursued other options outside the treaty’s scope — in particular measures that could disable or destroy rivals’ satellites, which are critical for military communications, surveillance and navigation.

The U.S. Space Force, the newest branch of the American military created in 2019, was stood up to protect U.S. space capabilities, including the hundreds of satellites used for communications and reconnaissance.

A Space Force spokeswoman said: "Control of the space domain encompasses the mission areas necessary to contest and control the space domain, through the use of kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect an adversary's capabilities by disrupting, degrading, and even destroying, if necessary. Those capabilities may be used for offensive and defensive purposes, at the direction of combatant commands."

U.S. officials have cited Russian and Chinese programs that seek ways to attack and disable American satellites. At the beginning of February it was revealed that two Russian satellites likely intercepted communications from at least a dozen European satellites after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In 2024 the United States said Russia launched a satellite believed possibly capable of attacking other spacecraft. The Pentagon has also described China as one that "develops and operates space and counter-space capabilities as part of its military modernization strategy," while describing Russia as seeing "space as a domain for warfare and believing space superiority will be a decisive factor in future conflicts."

The previous U.S. administration promoted space-capability initiatives such as interceptor missiles and a proposed defensive architecture dubbed the "Golden Dome." Officials say the declared presence of weapons in orbit is intended to deter attacks on U.S. satellites and preserve space-based systems that underpin modern warfare.

Photo: Ilustracija