U.S. Air Force secretary confirms U.S. has weapons in orbit

U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed Monday that the United States has weapons in orbit designed to disable or destroy adversary satellites, a rare public admission from a senior Pentagon official about a capability the government has typically declined to discuss, Defense One reported.

Meink made the statement during a Monday morning speech at the Air, Space & Cyber conference. He did not specify what type of weapons the U.S. has stationed in orbit or how many exist.

“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,” Meink said.

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

The comment marks a departure from how top U.S. Space Force and Air Force officials have generally discussed the subject. Gen. John Raymond, the U.S. Space Force’s first chief of space operations, said in 2022 that “our primary purpose is to deter war.” Senior officials have more often cited national security concerns as a reason to avoid confirming specific orbital weapons capabilities.

Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation, told Defense One she could not recall a prior instance of a U.S. government official making a comparable statement.

“Well, that’s huge, because I don’t think any US government official has ever said that before,” Samson said.

She said the admission could prompt China and Russia, the U.S. military’s principal competitors in space, to be more open about their own orbital weapons programs.

“The US also now has to accept the Chinese and Russians doing/saying the same. I don’t think that this is going to be in the interest of US national security,” Samson said.

Meink’s silence on specifics left outside experts guessing at what the capability might be. Kinetic weapons, such as missiles designed to physically strike a satellite, generate orbital debris that can threaten other spacecraft, including those belonging to the country that fired the weapon. Senior military officials have repeatedly cautioned against their use for that reason.

Maj. Gen. Chris Povak, deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office, said earlier this year that “our commitment to responsible space operations is fundamental to our mission assurance and our role as stewards of the space environment.”

Samson pointed to that pattern of statements from officials as a reason to rule out a kinetic weapon.

“I’m going to guess what he’s talking about is not a kinetic space-control weapon due to multiple comments government officials have said about avoiding debris causing counter space,” she said. “So I’m going to go with my first guess: space-based jammers, electronic warfare.”

Meink used the same speech to disclose progress on two other space programs, according to Defense One. He said prototype satellites for the space-based Airborne Moving Target Indicator constellation, which is designed to track moving targets from orbit, will launch this month.

He also said space-based interceptors, the technology at the center of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense program, are now “flight ready.”

The interceptor effort has faced funding uncertainty. Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, Golden Dome’s direct-reporting program manager, warned last month that the project would be in dire straits if Congress does not commit additional money. Guetlein said at the time that initial development work on the interceptors was underway and that the Space Force had completed two “phenomenally successful” tests.

“All of the providers that are part of the competition are progressing exceptionally well,” Guetlein told reporters at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium.

Meink framed the disclosures around competition from rival powers developing their own counter-space capabilities.

“As everybody knows, there have been many who are developing capabilities to take those away from us, to threaten those things,” Meink said. “So, it is critically important that we maintain our dominance not only in the air but in space, and so that we’ve had to take steps to make sure that when we’re threatened, we can take care of that.”

The Air Force secretary did not disclose a timeline for revealing further details about the on-orbit weapons, and the Department of War has not issued a follow-up statement expanding on his remarks.