The United States confirmed on Monday that it keeps weapons positioned in Earth orbit, the first time Washington has officially acknowledged this type of offensive capability in space. The statement came from the Secretary of the Air Force, Troy Meink, during the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, and was followed by a note from the US Space Force, created in 2019 as the first new branch of the American armed forces in more than 70 years.
Meink said the orbiting weapon is needed to protect US forces against hostile actions and that the country is ready to face "evolving threats". No official gave details on the system's capabilities or on when it entered orbit. Bleddyn Bowen, a specialist in the military uses of space quoted by the BBC, said little is publicly known about the technology and speculated it could be an electronic warfare or radio jamming platform, a type of weapon that already exists on Earth; a kinetic kill vehicle seemed less likely because it would create large amounts of debris. In its note, the Space Force described what it calls space control:
"Space control encompasses the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain, employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities through disruption, degradation and even destruction, if necessary. These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes under the direction of combatant commanders."
For Brazil, the announcement lands on a country that has long treated space as diplomatic ground. A party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, Brazil defends the peaceful use of space at the United Nations and fields no anti-satellite weapons. Its presence in orbit comes down to communication and observation satellites, such as the Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC-1), run by the state company Telebras with the Defense Ministry, and the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) series, built with China since 1988. Brasília also signed a 2019 agreement allowing launches with US technology from the Alcântara base, in the state of Maranhão. A clash in orbit, spreading debris that could knock out any country's satellites, would hurt nations that take no part in the race.
China and Russia respond
China and Russia reacted on Tuesday. "We urge the US side to stop expanding its military capabilities and stop preparing for war in outer space", Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told journalists, also warning against an arms race. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said his government believes "space should be free of any weapons" and counts on broad international consensus to work toward the full demilitarization of space, Folha de S.Paulo reported, citing the AFP news agency.
The call for demilitarization comes from two governments that, in Washington's account, are building similar power. In the same note, the Space Force says China "develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy" and that Russia "views space as a warfighting domain" and sees space supremacy as a decisive factor in future conflicts. In 2024, the United States said Russia had launched a satellite believed capable of attacking others, which Moscow never publicly addressed. In February, it emerged that two Russian satellites had probably intercepted the communications of at least a dozen European satellites since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
An old race
Militarization has shadowed the space age since its start: after the Soviet Sputnik satellite in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to arm equipment in orbit and destroy that of rivals. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by the two countries and other powers, bans only weapons of mass destruction in orbit; conventional capabilities, such as attacks on satellites, were left out of the text. Since then, the United States, Russia, China and India have developed ways to operate militarily in space without breaking the treaty.
Monday's confirmation follows years of signals. Senior military commanders had already said they planned to expand military capabilities in space, citing Russian and Chinese programs. Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order stressing the Space Force's role as an attacking force, and his administration links space-based capabilities to Golden Dome, the defense system planned to protect US territory from missiles and other airborne threats.