{"id":65966,"date":"2026-09-15T19:54:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T19:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=9da27f866b138be0e473e921647d8340"},"modified":"2026-09-16T03:52:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T03:52:05","slug":"us-space-force-says-it-operates-weapons-in-orbit-our-aim-is-deterrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/09\/15\/us-space-force-says-it-operates-weapons-in-orbit-our-aim-is-deterrence\/","title":{"rendered":"US Space Force says it operates weapons in orbit: &#8216;Our aim is deterrence&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <p>The U.S. Space Force is opening up about its operation of orbital weapons, but not much beyond admitting that they exist.<\/p><p>During a \"State of the Space Force\" address at the Air & Space Forces Association\u2019s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Tuesday (Sept. 15), Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglas Schiess stated unequivocally that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/us-space-force-history-mission-capabilities\"><u>Space Force<\/u><\/a> uses active <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/24870-what-is-space.html\"><u>space<\/u><\/a>-based weaponry to support United States national defense. <\/p><p>\u201cLet me be crystal clear: Today, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/us-space-force-personnel-guardians\"><u>Guardians<\/u><\/a> operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the joint force against space-enabled attacks,\u201d Schiess said, referring to the official name for Space Force personnel.  <\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/CLl9DXMq.html\" id=\"CLl9DXMq\" title=\"Gen. Douglas Schiess confirms use of weapons in orbit in State of the Space Force address\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>Space is central to national security infrastructure and warfighting efforts, and serves a critical role in how the military communicates, navigates, conducts operations and tracks threats globally. It\u2019s become an increasingly contested domain, with adversaries developing technologies designed to disrupt or destroy satellites in orbit as well as hypersonic weapons that challenge ground-based-only defenses. <\/p><p>Schiess didn\u2019t specify what kind of weapons the U.S. operates in orbit, how many there are, or what exactly they do. But the revelation that the Space Force is operating those kinds of assets is by itself a pretty hefty admission. The news expands the known scope of U.S. military activity in the final frontier, which already included the use of satellites for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/gps-what-is-it\"><u>GPS<\/u><\/a>, communications, missile warnings and other targeting and intelligence operations. <\/p><p>\u201cSpace is both a battlefield and the backbone of our joint force,\u201d Schiess said. \u201cWe face determined and credible adversaries who are building counter-space systems at incredible speeds to target directly the United States\u2019 space advantage.\u201d <\/p><p>The chief adversaries are China and Russia, experts have said. Both nations have developed a range of counterspace capabilities intended to threaten or interfere with other satellites, including through electronic warfare and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/anti-satellite-weapons-asats\"><u>anti-satellite<\/u><\/a> (ASAT) systems. Russia <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/russia-asat-launch-test-space-debris-field\"><u>demonstrated as much in 2021<\/u><\/a>, when it destroyed one of its own spacecraft with an ASAT missile, which created a cloud of more than 1,500 pieces of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16518-space-junk.html\"><u>orbital debris<\/u><\/a>. <\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/fohPraml.html\" id=\"fohPraml\" title=\"President Trump's Golden Dome space defense on \"This Week in Space\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>The U.S. has been rapidly expanding its own military presence in orbit over the past decade or so, and is ramping up those efforts even more with plans for the implementation of President Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/satellites\/space-force-orders-36-more-golden-dome-missile-tracking-satellites-for-usd1-75-billion\"><u>Golden Dome<\/u><\/a> missile interception system. In the last year alone, the Space Force has awarded more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/satellites\/spacex-wins-usd4-billion-space-force-contract-for-satellites-that-target-airborne-threats-anywhere-on-earth\"><u>$12 billion in major contracts<\/u><\/a> to companies like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\"><u>SpaceX<\/u><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/rocket-lab.html\"><u>Rocket Lab<\/u><\/a>, L3Harris and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/the-boeing-company\"><u>Boeing<\/u><\/a> for a wide range of services, including national security launches, space-based tracking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/24839-satellites.html\"><u>satellites<\/u><\/a> and other defense technologies.<\/p><p>Schiess pointed to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/1-private-spacecraft-intercepts-another-on-space-forces-groundbreaking-victus-haze-mission\"><u>Victus Haze<\/u><\/a> mission as an example of how the Space Force is getting ready to react to orbital threats on short notice. Rocket Lab carried out Victus Haze in June, launching an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/electron-rocket.html\"><u>Electron rocket<\/u><\/a> and interceptor spacecraft within just 17 hours of receiving notice from the Space Force, setting a launch turnaround record. <\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:1216px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"F65e8M7RCQHK2RPLQ2ECp5\" name=\"l3harris-golden-dome-missile-tracking-constellation.jpg\" alt=\"a constellation of satellites shoots beams to each other and down to Earth.\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/F65e8M7RCQHK2RPLQ2ECp5-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"1216\" height=\"684\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Illustration of part of a Golden Dome satellite constellation. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: L3Harris)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>Schiess also highlighted the Space Force\u2019s critical role in Operation Epic Fury and the ongoing engagement of U.S. military forces in Iran. \u201cGuardians are not supporting from the sidelines as a nice-to-have, but we are delivering space power directly into the fight as a need-to-have,\u201d he said. Schiess even gave an anecdotal example of the actions of one Guardian, \u201cSpecialist Gray,\u201d in the heat of battle.<\/p><p>\u201cEven as alarm red sirens were blaring and incoming missiles targeted her site, she courageously held the line, protecting forces, denying adversary capability, and delivering space effects until her commander had to literally pull her from the console to safety,\u201d Schiess said. <\/p><p>Schiess described her operations before she was pulled from that console, giving some clue as to what exactly is meant by \u201con-orbit weapons.\u201d <\/p><p>He said the Guardian in question needed to \u201creconfigure her weapon system and execute critical non-kinetic fires,\u201d and went on to add, \u201cShe locked onto the target, optimized her weapon system and waged electromagnetic warfare against a determined adversary.\u201d<\/p><p>Those descriptions offer at least some clues about the technologies involved. Phrases like \u201celectromagnetic warfare\u201d and \u201cnon-kinetic\u201d could point to signal jamming technology or other non-physical means of disrupting a target. <\/p><p>Schiess said the Space Force intends to continue expanding its combat power with more robust architectures and the ability to respond with increasing speed to evolving threats. That proliferation on behalf of Golden Dome and other national security programs stands to deliver substantially more military hardware into orbit in the coming years, but Schiess framed the buildup around the prevention of conflict, rather than its provocation.<\/p><p>\u201cOur aim is deterrence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Space Force is opening up about its operation of orbital weapons, &#8220;that can defend the joint force against space-enabled attacks.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-satellites","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65966"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65966"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65979,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65966\/revisions\/65979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}