U.S. confirms for first time it has weapons deployed in space

BREAKING: US confirms for the first time it has weapons deployed in space, with Air Force Secretary Troy Meink saying America has 'on-orbit space control weapons'.

The United States has weapons in space. Officially. For the first time ever.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, that's him here, told a conference on Monday that America has what he called on-orbit space control weapons. What kind, he wouldn't say. When they went up, he wouldn't say that either. One analyst told CNBC that could mean anything from jamming a satellite to physically destroying one, and the silence is deliberate.

Here's why the admission matters. Washington, Moscow and Beijing have all been testing counterspace tech for years, everyone in the room knew it, and nobody said it out loud. Now the U. S. Just did. The expert view is Russia and China respond diplomatically first, accusing America of militarizing space, and then decide whether to show their own cards.

Meink also promised a radically different Air Force by 2032, packed with autonomous systems. So the quiet part is now the stated policy. There are weapons orbiting over your head, and the Pentagon wants you to know it.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.