U.S. confirms Space Force has on-orbit space control weapons

Treaties have long agreed outer space should be used only for peaceful purposes.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink spoke at the United States Air Force Academy graduation ceremony at Falcon Stadium on May 28, 2026.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated space-based Golden Dome components could cost as much as $542 billion over 20 years.

Trump directed the Pentagon to pursue space-based interceptors in an executive order during the first week of his presidency.

The Trump administration is putting a growing focus on space.

In April 2024 Russia vetoed a U.S.-Japanese resolution calling on countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other WMD in space.

The 2024 Russian nuclear-weapon report kicked off a renewed United Nations debate on weapons in space.

Russia proposed a rival resolution to ban all weapons in space for all time, and that resolution failed.

The confirmation prompted separate warnings from China and Russia.

For Washington, Russia and China pose potential threats to U.S. interests in space.

After Sputnik launched in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to arm and destroy satellites.

Russia, the United States, China and India have explored ways to fight in space outside that treaty, including targeting rivals' satellites.

Clayton Swope of CSIS discussed what the Space Force’s newly disclosed on-orbit weapons could be.

Fox News Digital did not hear back from the Space Force when reached for details of the weapon.

A weapon launched from Earth toward a satellite could potentially give an adversary warning that an attack was underway.

Those attacks can target GPS and satellite communications without physically destroying a spacecraft.

Swope pointed to Soviet work on co-orbital anti-satellite weapons dating to the 1960s.

Other forms of interference are already widespread.

President Trump announced the Golden Dome missile defense shield next to War Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office on May 20, 2025.

The concept of weapons operating in orbit is not new.

Last December President Trump issued an executive order underlining the Space Force’s role in defending space assets and in the attack mission.

U.S. officials have discussed counter-space capabilities, space fires, and space-based interceptors designed to shoot down missile threats.

The Space Force is leading a prize competition on SBIs and could field an initial capability by 2028.

Meink highlighted the Space-Based Interceptor program and the Space-Based Air-Moving Target Indication constellation.

The Space Force awarded SpaceX a $4.2 billion contract in May to start building the Space-Based AMTI constellation.

The Space Force is working with the National Reconnaissance Office to add satellites to airborne-threat tracking.

Gate Three requires proving the capability works in space, and Gate Four requires showing interceptors can integrate with Golden Dome.

The Space Force has not disclosed how many spacecraft will initially launch or how many satellites the constellation will eventually feature.

U.S. officials began highlighting Russia’s testing of an apparent anti-satellite weapon in orbit in 2020.

A nuclear detonation in low-Earth orbit would jeopardize thousands of commercial and military spacecraft, including Starlinks and the International Space Station.

China has deployed satellites that U.S. military officials view with suspicion.

In June the Space Force announced operational acceptance of Meadowlands, a ground-based mobile satellite jammer.

Applications now include space-based sensing and targeting, Starlink-style broadband, and perhaps soon space-based interceptors for missile defense.

These types of weapons could be positioned on the ground or in space.

U.S. officials have repeatedly voiced a preference for counterspace weapons that do not generate space debris.

There was no immediate reaction Monday from the governments of China or Russia.

President Trump nominated Meink for the top civilian post in the Air Force last year.

Before becoming secretary, Meink served as an Air Force officer, civilian program manager, and senior intelligence official in Democratic and Republican administrations.

Offensive counterspace operations can impair or destroy an adversary’s space capabilities, while defensive operations protect U.S. and allied systems.

Meink’s wording does not establish that the United States has placed guns, explosives, or missile interceptors in orbit.

An orbiting spacecraft could approach another satellite for inspection, servicing, or attack.

Russia conducted another debris-producing missile test in 2021.

Destructive attacks can produce debris that remains in orbit and threatens spacecraft belonging to many countries.

GPS also underpins civilian transportation, financial timing, and communications.

Commercial satellites increasingly provide imagery and connectivity to armed forces.

The United States has also produced debris by destroying a satellite, on a smaller and shorter-lived scale.

In 2022 the United States committed not to conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missile tests and backed a U.N. resolution calling on other countries to do the same.

Each new debris field increases the risk of the Kessler effect, a chain reaction of collisions.

The USA-193 breakup created 174 pieces of trackable debris, some of which passed near operational satellites and the International Space Station.

If an armed conflict begins, the law of armed conflict applies in space.