US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink said Washington had launched “on-orbit” weapons to defend US forces against hostile threats. He did not provide details on the type or number of weapons involved.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia believes space “must be free of any kind of weapons” and called on the international community to continue efforts toward the complete demilitarization of outer space. China also warned against turning outer space into a battlefield and raised concerns about a potential arms race.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to which the US, Russia, and China are parties, prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit, but does not ban all military activities or conventional weapons in space.
