Outer space has largely been the preserve of astronauts and science fiction, but Air Force Secretary Troy Meink put the world on notice this week that trouble is brewing on the final frontier. On Monday he announced, "the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons."
The technical language partly obscures the importance of this statement. Robust networks of satellites are becoming increasingly vital for militaries and economies around the world. If a war breaks out between major powers, the fight will extend far above the stratosphere. Maintaining America's advantage in space is important, but so is using those capabilities to their greatest effect.
Space weapons followed shortly after space flight became possible. Sputnik, the first manmade satellite, began orbiting Earth in 1957, and within five years both the Soviet Union and the United States tested nuclear weapons in space. One American test, Starfish Prime, damaged more than one-third of the satellites in orbit. In 1963, both powers and the United Kingdom signed a treaty banning further space-based tests, and in the Outer Space Treaty four years later, they agreed to "not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner."
Unsurprisingly, Russia is violating its treaty obligations. In early 2024, House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner warned that Russia was preparing to station a nuclear bomb in orbit, which would directly violate the Outer Space Treaty.
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