2026年9月15日 美国东部时间下午4:13 / 福克斯新闻
美国空军部长特洛伊·梅因克表示，太空部队现已拥有“在轨太空控制武器”，但拒绝透露其细节
作者：摩根·菲利普斯 福克斯新闻
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美国空军部长本周罕见公开承认五角大楼长期保密的能力时透露，美国拥有绕地球轨道运行的武器，可用于保卫美军免受太空攻击。
美国空军部长特洛伊·梅因克周一表示，太空部队目前拥有“能够保卫联合部队免受敌方敌对行动的在轨太空控制武器”，但拒绝透露这些武器是什么、如何运作以及何时部署的。
这番措辞谨慎的披露标志着美国军方对在轨武器的公开态度转变，此前中国和俄罗斯一直在发展各自干扰、瘫痪或摧毁卫星的能力。
特朗普将太空飞行从奇观转变为常态 目标日均发射3次
（环球历史档案馆/盖蒂图片社）
“在座各位难道会怀疑，中国或俄罗斯是否一直在研发这类武器吗？”梅因克在马里兰州国家港（华盛顿特区郊外）举行的空军与太空部队协会航空、太空与网络会议上发言后对记者表示。
他继续说道：“十多年来，我们一直在谈论中国和俄罗斯正在研发太空武器的事实，并表达了担忧。我们需要专注于确保自己能够在该环境中开展行动并保护自身安全。”
美国究竟将何种武器送入了轨道至今仍是个谜。
美国此前曾讨论过在太空部署武器，包括在唐纳德·特朗普总统的“金穹顶”导弹防御系统框架内，部署能够摧毁来袭导弹的天基拦截器的计划。
但梅因克的披露更进一步：太空部队已经拥有用于“太空控制”任务的在轨武器，其目标是保护美国进入太空的权利，并在必要时阻止对手使用太空。
五角大楼历来极少透露为该任务研发的武器细节，美国公开已知的反太空能力大多基于地面。
（安娜贝尔·戈登/路透社）
“美国此举意在制造轰动效应，”战略与国际研究中心航空安全项目副主任克莱顿·斯沃普告诉福克斯新闻数字频道。“哇，美国之前从未如此谈论过太空武器。”
“这次披露的特别之处和新闻价值就在这里，”斯沃普说。“美国表示，我们正在太空部署武器，以确保对手无法使用太空，或者确保我们能够继续使用太空。”
梅因克似乎明确表示，围绕这些武器的模糊性是有意为之。他告诉记者，他的措辞“经过了深思熟虑”，并拒绝透露这些系统是动能武器还是非动能武器。动能武器会物理撞击或摧毁目标——比如炸弹、子弹和导弹——而非动能系统则可以在不炸毁目标的情况下干扰或使其瘫痪——比如网络攻击或无线电干扰。
“我们谈论这些事情时会考虑很多因素，”梅因克解释道，公开披露某项能力有助于威慑，但透露过多细节则会削弱这一优势。
“我们不会谈论我们正在做的事情的具体细节，无论我们是否进行过测试，诸如此类的都不会说，”他说。这留下了广泛的可能性空间。
福克斯新闻数字频道联系太空部队询问武器细节，但未收到回复。
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斯沃普表示，“太空控制武器”可以涵盖多种能力，从能够向其他卫星发射导弹或投射物的动能系统，到干扰卫星通信的干扰器，或是设计用于暂时压制成像传感器的激光。
“我们掌握的信息实在太少，无法确切知道我们谈论的是哪一类能力，”斯沃普说。“我们到底在谈论哪种武器，真的只能靠猜测。”
（洛克希德·马丁公司）
致命空难暴露美国航班面临的日益严峻的GPS威胁
但无论五角大楼部署了何种武器，将武器部署在轨道上而非从地球发射，可能带来一项潜在的重大优势：速度和突袭性。
从地球发射的针对卫星的武器可能会给对手发出攻击即将来临的预警。而已经部署在轨道上的能力则可以大幅缩短这一预警窗口。
“原本可能需要数十分钟的反应时间，可能会被压缩到仅几分钟，”斯沃普说。
“你可能不会察觉到卫星上的干扰器已经开启，直到你的信号突然受到干扰，”他补充道。
“如果你能在对手不知情的情况下迅速采取行动，如果你能出其不意，这将为你带来作战中的战略或不对称优势，”斯沃普说。“在轨系统就能做到这一点。”
即便只是观察航天器本身，也几乎无法得知其功能。
“太空是一个非常透明的环境，”斯沃普说，并指出各国政府和民间观察员可以追踪卫星的位置、运行速度和轨道。
“但你通常只会看到，哦，这是一颗卫星，”他说。“它是很多搭载太阳能板和天线的技术设备，除此之外你所知甚少。”
例如，一颗配备干扰其他航天器信号设备的卫星，外观可能与普通通信卫星极为相似。
“任何信号都可能成为干扰信号，”斯沃普说。“关键在于它是你想要接收的信号，还是有人试图用来干扰你的信号。”
在轨运行武器的概念并非新鲜事。斯沃普指出，苏联早在20世纪60年代就开展了共轨反卫星武器的研发工作。俄罗斯一直在持续发展反太空能力，包括设计用于在其他卫星附近轨道运行的系统。
中国也已经研发并测试了可能威胁航天器的技术，包括具备合法民用用途的卫星维修和碎片清除系统，但这些技术也有可能被改用于干扰其他卫星。
（路透社/凯文·拉马克 当日TPX图片）
其他形式的干扰已经司空见惯。
“当我们谈论对太空系统的干扰、欺骗和网络攻击时，这些攻击时有发生，来自俄罗斯、中国以及朝鲜和伊朗等其他国家，”斯沃普说。“目前世界各地发生的干扰和欺骗行为几乎无处不在。”
这些攻击可以针对GPS和卫星通信等系统，而无需物理摧毁航天器。
这一区别在冲突期间可能至关重要。干扰、欺骗或网络攻击可能仍处于不会引发大规模军事回应的阈值之下，而物理摧毁卫星则可能代表重大升级。
“如果你轰炸卫星地面站，或是向太空中的卫星发射导弹，这两者有着天壤之别，”斯沃普说。“这是大幅升级。”
stakes are particularly high because modern U.S. warfare is deeply dependent on space-based systems for communications, navigation, intelligence, missile warning and targeting.
“太空是联合作战的赋能者，”斯沃普说。“如果没有卫星，没有太空系统，我们就无法像现在这样开展军事行动。”
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中国也日益面临同样的依赖问题，因此太空控制权可能在两国之间的冲突中起到决定性作用。
“谁掌控太空并能阻止对手使用太空，谁就能在冲突中获得巨大的不对称优势，”斯沃普说。
“中国也依赖太空，他们在联合作战中对太空的使用与美国非常相似，”他补充道。“我甚至可以说，两国都依赖太空来开展地球上的军事行动。”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405097912112
Pentagon reveals secret space weapons are already in orbit — but won’t say what they do
September 15, 2026 4:13pm EDT / Fox News
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said the Space Force now has ‘on-orbit space control weapons’ but declined to describe them
By Morgan Phillips Fox News
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The U.S. has weapons orbiting Earth that can be used to defend American forces from attacks in space, the Air Force secretary revealed this week in a rare public acknowledgment of capabilities the Pentagon has largely kept secret.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday that the Space Force now has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” but declined to say what the weapons are, how they work or when they were deployed.
The carefully worded disclosure marks a shift in how openly the U.S. military talks about weapons in orbit as China and Russia develop their own capabilities to disrupt, disable or destroy satellites.
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GPS satellite in Earth orbit.(Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
“Is there any question in the room, by anybody, about whether or not the Chinese or Russians have been developing these sorts of weapons?” Meink told reporters after his remarks at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland — right outside of Washington, D.C.
“For over a decade, we’ve been talking about the fact, and we have expressed concern, that the Chinese and Russians were developing weapons for space,” he continued. “We need to focus on making sure we can protect ourselves operating in that environment.”
Exactly what the U.S. has put into orbit remains a mystery.
The U.S. has previously discussed placing weapons in space, including plans to deploy space-based interceptors capable of destroying incoming missiles as part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system.
But Meink’s disclosure goes a step further: The Space Force already has weapons in orbit for “space control,” a mission aimed at protecting U.S. access to space and, if necessary, denying an adversary the ability to use it.
The Pentagon has historically revealed little about the weapons developed for that mission, with publicly known U.S. counter-space capabilities largely based on the ground.
Troy Meink(Annabelle Gordon/Reuters)
“What the U.S. is going for is a wow factor here,” Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital. “Wow. The U.S. has never talked about space weapons like this before.”
“That’s really what is exceptional and newsworthy about this revelation,” Swope said. “The U.S. is saying we’re putting weapons in space to make sure that our adversaries can’t use space, or to make sure that we can continue to use space.”
Meink appeared to make clear that the ambiguity surrounding the weapons is intentional. He told reporters his language was “very well thought out” and declined to say whether the systems are kinetic or non-kinetic. Kinetic weapons physically strike or destroy a target — think bombs, bullets and missile — while non-kinetic systems can disrupt or disable it without blowing it up — like cyber attacks or radio jams.
“There are a lot of factors that roll into how we talk about these things,” Meink said, explaining that publicly revealing a capability can contribute to deterrence while disclosing too much about it can undermine that advantage.
“We’re not going to talk about the specifics of what we’re doing, whether we’ve tested it, not tested it, or anything else,” he said. That leaves a wide range of possibilities.
Fox News Digital did not hear back from the Space Force when reached for details of the weapon.
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Swope said “space control weapons” could encompass everything from kinetic systems capable of firing missiles or projectiles at another satellite to jammers that interfere with satellite communications or lasers designed to temporarily overwhelm imaging sensors.
“We really don’t have enough information to know precisely which one of these types of capabilities we’re talking about,” Swope said. “It’s really anybody’s guess what type of weapon we’re talking about.”
Golden Dome will need space-based radar capabilities.(Lockheed Martin)
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But whatever the Pentagon has deployed, putting a weapon in orbit rather than launching it from Earth could offer one potentially significant advantage: speed and surprise.
A weapon launched from Earth toward a satellite could potentially give an adversary warning that an attack was underway. A capability already positioned in orbit could dramatically shorten that window.
“Maybe something measured at dozens of minutes could be compressed into just mere minutes,” Swope said.
“And you wouldn’t have any indication that maybe a jammer was turned on, on the satellite, other than all of a sudden your signal is being interfered with,” he added.
“If you can act fast without your adversary knowing, if you can have surprise, that gives you a strategic or an asymmetric advantage in combat,” Swope said. “And having systems in orbit do just that.”
Even observing the spacecraft itself may offer few clues about what it can do.
“Space is a very transparent place,” Swope said, noting that governments and civilian observers can track where satellites are, how fast they are moving and what orbits they occupy.
“But what you’ll see often is, oh, it’s a satellite,” he said. “It’s a lot of technology with solar panels and antenna on it. And you don’t really know much beyond that.”
A satellite equipped to jam another spacecraft’s signals, for example, might look much like an ordinary communications satellite.
“Any signal can be a jamming signal,” Swope said. “It just depends on if it’s the one you want to receive, or the one that someone’s trying to use to jam you.”
The concept of weapons operating in orbit is not new. Swope pointed to the Soviet Union’s work on co-orbital anti-satellite weapons dating to the 1960s. Russia has continued developing counterspace capabilities, including systems designed to operate in orbit near other satellites.
China has also developed and tested technologies that could threaten spacecraft, including satellite-servicing and debris-removal systems that have legitimate civilian uses but could potentially be repurposed to interfere with another satellite.
President Donald Trump makes an announcement regarding the Golden Dome missile defense shield next to War Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Oval Office of the White House, May 20, 2025. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque TPX Images of the Day)
Other forms of interference are already widespread.
“When we talk about jamming and spoofing and cyberattacks against space systems, these happen all the time, both from Russia and China and other countries like North Korea and Iran,” Swope said. “There is so much jamming and spoofing happening around the world right now, it’s almost ubiquitous.”
Those attacks can target systems such as GPS and satellite communications without physically destroying a spacecraft.
That distinction could become critical during a conflict. Jamming, spoofing or cyberattacks may remain below the threshold that prompts a major military response, while physically destroying a satellite could represent a significant escalation.
“If you drop a bomb on a satellite ground station or you shoot a missile at a satellite in space, that’s a big difference,” Swope said. “That’s a huge escalation.”
The stakes are particularly high because modern U.S. warfare is deeply dependent on space-based systems for communications, navigation, intelligence, missile warning and targeting.
“Space is an enabler of joint operations,” Swope said. “We can’t do military operations the way that we do them today without satellites, without systems in space.”
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China increasingly faces the same dependency, making control of space potentially decisive in a conflict between the two powers.
“Whoever has space and can deny that to their adversary has a huge asymmetric advantage in a conflict,” Swope said.
“China depends on space as well, and their use of space for joint operations looks very much like the United States,” he added. “Both countries, I would go so far as to say, depend on space to conduct military operations on Earth.”
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6405097912112
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