El ejército de EEUU reconoce que tiene armas en el espacio

The United States Army announced on Monday that it possesses weapons in space for the first time, as China and Russia expand their military programs in orbit. According to U.S. Army Secretary Troy Meink, the country now has space-based weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile actions. While Meink declined to disclose the specific weapon or its capabilities, he emphasized that revealing its exact nature is crucial for deterrence purposes.

Meink also stressed that the U.S. needs to ensure free operation in space, highlighting its importance for American military and economic security.

Meink revealed that the U.S. already has ready-to-fly equipment for space interceptors, a distinctive feature of the Golden Dome system designed to intercept attack missiles in space. However, space security experts warned that the revelation of an orbital weapon could lead to the proliferation of space weaponry among other governments.

The U.S. Space Force defines space control as defensive or offensive activities necessary to contest and control space dominance, aiming for space superiority. Space operations may involve the use of kinetic or non-kinetic weapons. Space control can occur in space or on Earth and may include attacking a ground satellite station or interfering with satellite communications, according to Clayton Swope, deputy director of the aerospace security project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

However, Swope, a former CIA technical intelligence officer, said Meink's announcement was too vague to deter China and Russia. They would need more information about the weapon's destructive potential and the limits—however vaguely stated—that the U.S. would cross before using it, Swope added.

Victoria Samson, director general of security and space stability at the Secure World Foundation, suggested the weapon is a space inhibitor given the U.S. policy of avoiding actions that generate space debris, which would occur in a kinetic attack. Samson added that Meink's announcement could be counterproductive as a deterrent if China or Russia acknowledged having similar weapons, creating a vicious cycle where someone is likely to use one of these weapons.

Sam Lair, a researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, noted that from now on, U.S. adversaries or other countries could use this to justify their space security programs, whether new or not. While skeptical about whether Meink's announcement would trigger entirely new space security programs in other countries, Lair said it would serve as a rhetorical tool for those defending current or newly created programs elsewhere.