On Monday, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink acknowledged that the United States has weapons in Earth’s orbit to protect Americans from evolving threats.
“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action,” Meink said at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, according to ABC News.
A Space Force representative told the outlet that “these capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes at the direction of combatant commands.”
“The U.S. has warned about Russian and Chinese weapons testing and operationalization since 2007,” the representative added.
“Due to their actions, it is no longer a question that space is a warfighting domain. Open communication strengthens deterrence, prevents adversary miscalculation, and normalizes space operations alongside the other services.”
Meink said the U.S. will “dramatically increase” combat power by “adding large numbers of highly autonomous systems,” and estimates the Air Force will be “radically” revamped by 2032, CNBC reported.
This marks the first-ever public acknowledgement of the Space Force deploying weaponry into space, although it has long been thought to exist, as both sides of the political aisle have debated placing weapons throughout the final frontier.
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“We are increasing readiness against existing threats, and the United States has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action,” the secretary stated.
The Air Force public affairs office also issued a news release outlining the agency’s mission to “defend the homeland, deter all adversaries, and… if necessary… win in combat.”
“Today, we face a mix of rapidly changing technologies, adversaries moving aggressively to employ them, and a budget process for a different pace of warfare,” Meink explained.
He cited “one-way attack drones” in Europe that have replaced artillery as the “primary killer” and said that armor often “sits idle.”
As for artificial intelligence, Meink described it as “revolutionizing the battlefield” by allowing “countries that would not have had the resources in the past to quickly adapt and scale their combat capabilities.”
Due to this rapidly changing landscape, America “must increase our combat power and innovate faster than anyone else, affordably,” he declared. “We need cost-effective combat power.”
Much of the new autonomous technology will be able to carry out missions that were previously assigned to manned fighters.
Two such autonomous aircraft, the FQ-42 and FQ-44, have been named Vengeance and Fury.
Additionally, Meink stressed the importance of allocating funds to these projects, saying, “In today’s rapidly changing threat environment, we cannot expect a world-class military if we choose not to invest in it.”
“Many of the weapons, components, or systems we have to buy have outrun the cost curve,” he concluded.
“They perform extremely well, but the costs are growing faster than the rate of inflation. We need that to change to maintain our military advantage and economic security.”
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