Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed the US already has weapons in orbit but declined to identify them or explain how they operate.

The X-37b is everything you could want in an orbital surveillance, espionage and sabotage platform and it has existed for years…?

A good recent article on the x-37b

https://migflug.com/afterburner/fr/x-37b-space-force-mystery-spaceplane/

Officially, it tests reusable spacecraft technologies and carries experiments for the government. Unofficially, its knack for changing its orbit and vanishing from where trackers expect it has made it a favourite Cold-War-style headache for America’s rivals — a point a former Air Force secretary once made with unusual candour.

“It can do an orbit that looks like an egg, and when it’s close to the Earth it’s close enough to the atmosphere to turn where it is. Our adversaries don’t know where it’s going to come up next, and that drives them nuts. And I’m really glad about that.”

Heather Wilson — former U.S. Secretary of the Air Force (Aspen Security Forum, 2019)

  • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
    21·
    7 days ago

    Isn’t the guard to be able to identify and intercept this platform? Sounds challenging at this scale, but so was air missile/drone interception, and it was achieved. I bet the USA and China are already working on this or even already achieved it.

    • supersquirrel@lemmy.caOP
      4·
      7 days ago

      Nope, hitting an object in a predictable orbit is easy, this is a dynamic spaceplane capable of adjusting its trajectory arbitrarily.

        • supersquirrel@lemmy.caOP
          1·
          7 days ago

          The absolute hardest thing to hit with a missile is a satellite that can arbitrarily change orbits without excessive fuel use (aerobreaking), i.e. a spaceplane. Is it possible? Of course, but it is 1000 times harder than a traditional satellite.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
        31·
        7 days ago

        Iran has missiles that do that, so it’s not a stretch to think Russia, China, Israel have them too, and tbh maybe Iran.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
            11·
            7 days ago

            Of course, how could I forget? No one comes close to American exceptionalism.

            • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
              3·
              7 days ago

              In this case I think it’s the exceptionally large amount of money that the US spends on “defense”.

              Trillions of dollars spent and decades of it is incomparable to any other nation.

            • supersquirrel@lemmy.caOP
              1·
              7 days ago

              Where is your nation’s space shuttle program again? What space shuttles have your country produced and used over decades that would give them the practical experience necessary to build a spacecraft like the x-37b?

              Yes, this is an exceptional capability of the US…