U.S. acknowledges for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space

JUST IN: The US acknowledges for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, a landmark admission after years of warning against other nations weaponising the domain.

The United States just admitted it has weapons in space. First time ever, on the record.

For decades Washington's official line was the opposite. American diplomats spent years warning Russia and China against weaponising orbit, calling it a red line for everyone else. Now the Pentagon acknowledges the hardware is already up there. What kind of weapons, how many, aimed at what, none of that was spelled out. The admission itself is the story.

And think about what it does to every arms control conversation going forward. Moscow and Beijing have been accused of testing anti-satellite systems for years, and every complaint from Washington now comes with an asterisk. The domain everyone promised to keep clean has officially been claimed.

The country that told the world not to put weapons in space just confirmed it got there first.

This is Liu Yang, reporting for HIT.