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US confirms it has weapons in space
The US has confirmed it has weapons in Earth’s orbit, being the first time the country is acknowledging such offensive capabilities.
US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink who spoke at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference on Monday, said the weapon was necessary to safeguard US forces against actions from hostile enemy.
Meink said the US was ready for evolving threats, even as China warned on Tuesday against an arms race in space.
AFP quoted a foreign ministry spokesman saying: “We urge the US side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space.”
While details of the weapon’s operationality is yet to be disclosed, a US Space Force spokesperson said: “Space control encapsulates 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 at the direction of combatant commands.”
Dr Bleddyn Bowen, from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said on Radio 4’s Today Programme that it was possible for the US to have been referring to “some kind electronic warfare or radio jamming platform”.
Bowen said an alternative would be “a kinetic kill vehicle of some sort – so a vehicle that would release a projectile of some sort that would ram into a satellite and destroy it”.
He however stated that such was less likely because a physically destructive tool would likely create too much debris.
To protect the US from missiles and other airborne threats, the Trump administration had earlier stated that space-based capabilities – and interceptor missiles – are integral to its planned “Golden Dome” defence system.
