US admission of orbital weapons seen as landmark moment in race with China, Russia

The US acknowledgment this week that the Pentagon is operating weapons in Earth’s orbit marks a landmark moment in space militarization aimed at deterring what US officials describe as aggressive orbital activities from China and Russia, officials and analysts said.

US Space Force chief Douglas Schiess said on Tuesday, September 15, that enlisted members of his military branch “operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the Joint Force against space-enabled attacks.” The service will make “disciplined and responsible choices” as it scales its orbital defense arsenal in the coming years, he added.

Schiess’ remarks at a conference near Washington came a day after US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the US “has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.” That was the clearest admission yet by a Pentagon official of US weapons in orbit amid rising space tensions with Russia and China.

The remarks this week by Washington’s top military-space officials are part of “the increasing comfort level of the US government to speak about aggressive actions in space” that has been building up in recent years, said Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the nonprofit Secure World Foundation.

“We’ve gone from not talking about counter-space capabilities…to now saying flat-out we have weapons in space,” Samson said. “The pendulum keeps on shifting over that way.”

Schiess and Meink declined to say what types of weapons they were referring to when they spoke to reporters after their remarks.

Responding to the US admission of orbital weapons, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on X that Beijing “stands for peaceful use of the outer space and keeping it safe, and opposes any arms race in outer space or any attempt to weaponize it and turn it into a warzone.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the acknowledgement that Washington had deployed orbital weapons ignored the possible consequences of a conflict and threatened long-term stability in space-based activity.

Conflicts could extend into space

The US, China, and Russia — the world’s top three space powers — have raced for years to build and deploy an array of satellite networks and maneuverable spacecraft bearing capabilities that could be used to attack or tamper with other spacecraft.

But as military norms, strategic precedent and laws of war in the relatively unfamiliar battleground of space remain underdeveloped, no nation is known to have taken the more consequential step of physically attacking another’s satellite in space.

Still, the US remarks underscore how quickly developments in spacecraft technologies have escalated into increasingly open preparations for the prospect of conflict extending into space, while battles from Ukraine to the Middle East prove how indispensable satellites have become in supporting modern warfare on Earth.

“The acknowledgment of these space-control capabilities is fundamental to ensuring that we prevent deterrence from failing, and that we are postured and ready should deterrence fail to employ them effectively,” Richard Palmer, the director of the Capability and Resource Integration Directorate at US Space Command, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a space defence conference hosted by consulting firm Novaspace in Paris, Palmer added that there were “some actors across the globe who are very much interested in undermining the collective interests of the countries and allies gathered here in this audience and across Europe and the rest of the world.” He declined to discuss the nature or capability of those weapons.

“The bottom line is that our joint force and our allied forces require space. Our economies require space,” added Palmer. “We are ready in the US to preserve that.”

Preparing for war in space

For decades, satellites have provided communications, navigation and intelligence services to armed forces on Earth, and once placed in orbit typically remained on fixed paths.

Increasingly, however, militaries view them as active weapons platforms capable of launching attacks by disrupting a satellite’s operations through signal jamming, using lasers to blind sensors, or even capturing enemy spacecraft.

China in 2022 demonstrated it can command a satellite to grapple onto another spacecraft and move it in orbit.

The US recently conducted its largest orbital exercise, called Apollo Maneuvers, designed to demonstrate dynamic space operations. It involved satellites in multiple orbits simultaneously plus participation from international and commercial partners.

Despite the intensifying demonstrations, US officials still have not openly discussed the specific weapons themselves, leaving room for assumptions and interpretations that will shape how US adversaries respond and risk accelerating an arms race in space, said Craig Albert, graduate director of the Master of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies at Augusta University.

“In the absence of complete information, competitors may assume the systems threaten their own space assets and invest in counterspace capabilities or comparable weapons,” Albert said.

The head of US Space Command has warned that adversaries are developing capabilities to deny the United States access to key systems and reduce military effectiveness, and that adversaries would likely seek to target US space assets early in a conflict.

Some other countries are also looking to develop counter-space weapons. That includes Germany, which has a €35-billion ($40-billion) military space spending plan aimed at countering growing threats from adversaries. – Rappler.com