US admits to having weapons in orbit: How do they work, and should Russia, China worry?

THE United States has, for the first time, acknowledged that it has weapons deployed in orbit, revealing a previously undisclosed military capability in space.

US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said on Monday that Washington now possessed “on-orbit space control weapons” that could protect American forces from hostile action.

Meink disclosed while speaking at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Maryland. However, he did not reveal what the weapon is or when it was deployed.

“This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” Meink said.

Why is the US keeping the weapon secret?

Meink said the decision to reveal the existence of the weapon was deliberate and intended to deter potential adversaries. He later told reporters that providing further details could weaken its deterrent effect.

At a press roundtable, Meink declined to discuss the weapon's design, capabilities, testing, or the type of targets it could potentially engage, according to The War Zone (TWZ).

The US Space Force later offered a broader explanation of what it means by “space control”. It said the term includes missions aimed at challenging and controlling activity in space through both kinetic and non-kinetic methods.

How do the weapons work?

According to the Space Force, such capabilities could be used to disrupt, degrade, or, if required, destroy an adversary's space systems. They can serve both offensive and defensive purposes, including technologies capable of interfering with satellites without physically destroying them.

The lack of details has prompted speculation about the nature of the newly acknowledged system.

Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation told the Financial Times that the weapon could be a space-based jammer. She noted that the US has generally tried to avoid kinetic attacks on satellites because destroying spacecraft can create hazardous debris in orbit.

Clayton Swope of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, however, said the announcement was too broad to establish a clear deterrent threat.

He argued that countries such as China and Russia would need at least a general understanding of the weapon's destructive capability and the circumstances under which Washington might use it to properly assess the threat.

Russia and China, the two principal geopolitical rivals of the United States, are considered potential threats to American interests in space.

According to the US Space Force, China “develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernisation strategy”, while Russia “views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts”

US, Russia and China race to develop space weapons

In 2024, the US said Russia had placed a satellite into orbit that it believed could potentially attack other spacecraft.

More recently, reports suggested that two Russian satellites may have intercepted communications from at least a dozen European satellites since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

China has also been developing counterspace technologies designed to disrupt or disable an adversary's satellites.

The US has itself become increasingly open about developing offensive space capabilities. In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order strengthening the Space Force's responsibility for protecting American space assets and developing capabilities to attack adversaries' systems.

Space militarisation dates back to the Cold War

The military competition in space began alongside the space race. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit in 1957, both Washington and Moscow started examining ways to deploy weapons in space as well as methods to disable or destroy satellites.

Nuclear weapons were initially regarded as the biggest threat in orbit. However, the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, which prohibits the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Satellites remain key military targets

Despite the treaty, major powers have continued to develop capabilities that could be used in conflicts beyond its restrictions. Russia, the US, China and India have explored technologies aimed at targeting or disrupting satellites operated by rival countries.

Satellites play a crucial role in modern military operations, supporting communications, surveillance and navigation. Their growing importance has made space an increasingly contested domain for major military powers.