US confirms for the first time it has deployed wappens in space

The US has pit wappens in space, the US military has confirmed, in a rair public declaration that analysts warn is set tae speed up a heich-risk airms race wi Roushie and Cheena in the yird’s orbit.

The US secretary o the air force, Troy Meink, said Washington hid active on-orbit wappens, meanin they hid been deployed and war circlin the globe.

Today, we continue tae ensure we remain ready tae meet the challenges o evolvin threats wharever they exist, Meink said on Monanday at the annual Air, Space, Cyber conference. This is why the United States noo has, on-orbit, space-control wappens.

Meink said he wadna gang intae the specifics o the wappens. Houever, a US Space Force spokesperson said space control cud refer tae employin kinetic and non-kinetic means tae affect adversary capabilities.

The statement addit that these capabilities can be employin for offensive and defensive purposes.

Respondin tae the US announcement, Cheena’s foreign ministry said Washington was preparin for war in ooter space, and warned against turnin space intae a battlefield, as weel as an airms race there. In Moscow, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, tauld reporters that Roushie believed that space maun be free o ony wappen and cawed for the complete demilitarisation o space.

It has been an open secret that the US, Roushie and Cheena are workin on space wappens, whilk cud include signal jammers tae disable ither satellites or mair kinetic options includin thae that fire projectiles.

Still, space experts warn a public confirmation o sic capabilities in orbit for the first time cud accelerate a risky airms race.

The astronomer Jonathan McDowell, wha has spent decades compilin a list o rocket launches, tauld the Guardian it was reasonable tae assume Washington hid sic wappens in space, probably jammers, as it had already deployed several satellites wi secret payloads.

He said that efter the announcement, Roushie and Cheena wad noo respond in kind and deploy their ain wappens.

In the lang run, I find it questionable whether this is in the US national interest, and for sure we will see comparable systems frae Cheena, if they dinna already hae them, he said.

Even radio jammin wad be a big escalation o military activity in space, said McDowell, wha worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics until he retired this year.

Victoria Samson, the Secure World Foundation’s chief director o space security and stability, tauld the Defence One website that the US noo had tae accept that the Cheenese and Russians wad dae the same. Weel, that’s huge, because I dinna think ony US government official has ever said that afore, she said.

While the militarisation o space began in the 1950s wi baith Washington and Moscow explorin ways tae destroy satellites, there hae been attempts ower the decades tae preserve the emptiness aroond the yird for peacefu means.

In 1967, superpouers and ither kintras signed the ooter space treaty, whilk banned wappens o mass destruction in orbit, althouch the text doesna contain a general prohibition on placin conventional wappens in yird orbit.

The end o the cauld war in 1989 brocht a moment o cooperation – includin the in-orbit assembly o the International Space Station by multiple nations – but in the 21st century space has gradually become a potential battlefield.

Roushie sparkit international criticism in 2021 when it struck ane o its defunct satellites in orbit in a test o a grund-based anti-satellite missile. The blast created thoosands o pieces o orbital debris.

As satellites zip aroond the yird at thoosands o miles an hour, the fear is that an orbital confrontation will lead tae a domino effect whare the space near the yird becomes cluttered wi tiny, heich-speed bits o metal.

McDowell said that in the US, the mentality o workin towards the solely peacefu use o space was changin. The US sees conflict in space as somethin that is conceptually normalis’t, whereas 20 years ago it was no, we will never want tae dae that, he said.

I think this is wrang, he addit. I also think it is still no ower late tae change coorse on this. Tae work mainly wi Cheena, because they are the real competitors in space noo. I hope the US establishment taks a step back and rethinks some o this.