US weapons in space: Beijing and Moscow react strongly

The arms race is breaking through Earth’s boundaries to reach space. The recent admission made by Troy Meink, Secretary of the Air Force, during the annual conference in Maryland, marks the crossing of a historic threshold: the official and public deployment of weapons in orbit.

The narrative put forward by Washington, which is entirely in line with the legacy of the Trump administration – which established the Space Force in 2019 – is based on the tried-and-tested paradigm of pre-emptive defence. ‘Ensuring we are ready to face the challenges of evolving threats,’ stated Meink, justifying the possession of capabilities capable of defending US forces against hostile actions. Yet, behind the reassuring rhetoric of protection, there lies a marked acceleration towards the militarisation of space, unhindered by previous diplomatic caution.

Reactions from China and Russia, the two poles of what Washington regards as the main axis of competition, were not long in coming. Beijing has condemned the transformation of space “into a battlefield”, denouncing an arms race which, according to US reports, it itself is helping to fuel through its own military modernisation. The Kremlin, through Dmitry Peskov, is calling for the demilitarisation of orbit, despite being accused by the US of viewing space supremacy as the decisive factor in future conflicts.

The lack of a timeline and technical details regarding the American assets deployed – whether they be traditional kinetic weapons or non-kinetic instruments, such as lasers to blind satellites or electromagnetic jamming systems – only serves to heighten the uncertainty surrounding this new scenario.