US First Acknowledges Deployment of Orbital Space Weapons

The United States has acknowledged for the first time that it has operationally deployed space weapons into Earth's orbit to protect ground forces and its own satellites, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Troy Meink, US Secretary of the Air Force, made the remarks at an event held in Maryland on the 14th (local time), stating that these weapons will be used for "space control" purposes.

He did not disclose specific details regarding the exact roles or the scale of the deployed weapons.

Citing an anonymous US official, the Washington Post reported that the capabilities include directly destroying or neutralizing enemy satellites that are used to strike US forces or American satellites.

The newspaper noted that this serves as an "explicit warning message to China and Russia," adding, "The US has warned that China and Russia are threatening American satellites through aggressive orbital satellite maneuvering drills, such as laser illumination and satellite communications jamming."

While anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons targeting hostile nations' space assets have traditionally involved launching missiles from the ground or fighter jets to hit satellites, the approach is shifting toward orbiting weapons that strike target satellites.

Representative methods include non-physical attacks (soft kills) such as approaching a target satellite to fire lasers or disabling communications using high-output electromagnetic waves; causing malfunctions through robotic arms or thrusters to push satellites out of orbit or collide with them; and destroying enemy satellites by releasing metal submunitions (hard kills).

In 2022, China's SJ-21 satellite successfully approached a malfunctioning Chinese satellite in geostationary orbit, grabbed it with a robotic arm, and knocked it out of orbit.

Although China claims this technology is intended for repairing and decommissioning its own satellites, it could also potentially be used to eliminate adversary military and reconnaissance satellites.

In addition, China is known to have mobilized experimental satellites to conduct large-scale, high-speed approach maneuvers and completed tests of launching unmanned spacecraft to release small submunitions or auxiliary reconnaissance objects.

Russia has also launched orbital test satellites years ago and conducted close-tracking maneuvers in the same orbit as US reconnaissance satellites.
 
(Photo: Getty Images)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.