Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made headlines recently by confirming the U.S. has deployed weapons in space. He did not, however, detail what the weapons were, how they work or if they were targeting other objects in space.
It’s not just U.S. efforts regarding space weapons that remain shrouded in mystery.
Meink, speaking at a defense conference, said the U.S. has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action,” referring to U.S. forces. It remains unclear which type of weapon Meink was referencing.
Such resources as the 2026 Global Counterspace Capabilities Report, published by the nonprofit Secure World Foundation and based on publicly available information, help provide an overview of potential space weapons.
The report lists five categories of counterspace capabilities. It examines systems being developed by 13 countries, among them the U.S., Russia, China, India, Australia, France, Iran, and Israel.
These include satellites designed to maneuver near, inspect, disable or destroy spacecraft. The report also examines ground, air, or sea-launched missile interceptors designed to destroy satellites kinetically.
Furthermore, the report highlights electronic warfare, such as jamming, in addition to lasers or high-power microwaves meant to blind or damage satellite sensors. The report also lists cyber operations targeting space networks.
Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the foundation, which advocates for the peaceful use of space, says the existence of various satellites and their physical location in orbit is fairly transparent but their capabilities and intended uses are harder to understand.
For example, the Vienna-based U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs supports transparency in space by maintaining a register that links each object to its responsible country. States who signed on to a 1976 agreement are required to provide information on launches by governments and private companies as well as the general function of the space object, but are not required to provide details on their purpose.
As an example of something that could be used for both military and nonmilitary purposes, it became known in 2021 that China had tested a satellite with a robotic arm that can maneuver to a system, grab it, and move it out of orbit. In 2022, China used such a system for the first time to tow one of its dead satellites out of orbit.
Furthermore, the U.S. warned two years ago that Russia was developing a new space-based, anti-satellite weapon, though the White House said the danger wasn’t imminent at the time.
