US Space Command Official Calls Orbital Weapons Acknowledgement a 'Landmark'

A senior US Space Command official has described this week's acknowledgement by the US Air Force chief that the Pentagon possesses weapons in orbit as a "landmark" moment in the growing militarisation of space, saying the disclosure is central to preventing deterrence from failing.

Speaking at a space-defence conference in Paris on Tuesday, Richard Palmer, director of the Capability and Resource Integration Directorate at US Space Command, said the admission was "fundamental to ensuring that we prevent deterrence from failing, and that we are postured and ready should deterrence fail to employ them effectively."

His remarks followed a statement on Monday by US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink at a conference in Washington, who said the United States "has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action." It was the strongest public admission yet by a Pentagon official on the presence of US weapons in space, at a time of rising space tensions with Russia and China.

Palmer said there are "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," Palmer added. "We are ready in the U.S. to preserve that."

The acknowledgement underscores how the world's major space powers are preparing for the prospect of conflict extending into space. Satellites have become indispensable to modern warfare, as the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have demonstrated. For decades they 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 jamming or laser dazzling, or even capturing enemy spacecraft.

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. He has argued that the US must adopt a more active warfighting posture, including calling for orbital interceptors and other weapons.

Other countries are also looking to develop orbital weapons. Germany has a 35-billion-euro military space spending plan aimed at countering growing threats from adversaries. Major General Michael Traut, the head of German Space Command, has previously said the country will channel funding into intelligence-gathering satellites, sensors and systems designed to disrupt adversary spacecraft. Traut emphasised that Germany would not field destructive weapons in orbit that could generate debris, but said a range of non-kinetic options existed to disrupt hostile satellites, including jamming, lasers and actions against ground control stations.