Special to WorldTribune, September 23, 2026 Real World News
Geostrategy-Direct, September 22, 2026
By Richard Fisher
On the eve of his Sept. 23-25 visit to Washington, D,C. for his second summit this year with President Donald Trump, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping got a significant message.
Like the rest of the world, he learned that now the United States, like China, has weapons in space.
On June 19, 2026 for the “Victus Haze” exercise, less than 17 hours after receiving a call, Rocket Lab launched an Electron rocket from its launch pad in New Zealand, carrying its Puma satellite that carried out maneuvering exercises around another satellite. / U.S. Space Force via Richard Fisher
After years of watching China and Russia accumulate military capabilities in space, on Sept. 14 and 15, senior United States Department of War officials used the 2026 U.S. Air and Space Force Association Air, Space & Cyber convention (AFA 26) to announce that the U.S. also has weapons in space.
On Sept. 14, U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink stated:
“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
The next day, Sept. 15 at AFA 26, U.S. Space Force Commander Gen. Douglas Schiess confirmed Secretary Meink’s announcement saying:
“Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our Joint Force. We face determined and credible adversaries who are building and fielding counterspace systems at incredible speeds to target directly the United States’ space advantage.
That is why we don’t just monitor the domain, we stand ready to defend it. So let me be crystal clear: Today, Guardians operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the Joint Force against space-enabled attacks…We will make disciplined and responsible choices about how we build and sustain our combat advantage, which means scaling our ability to respond to threats.”
Neither Secretary Meink nor Gen. Schiess offered details regarding current U.S. space weapons or combat capabilities that the U.S. Space Force controls in orbit, perhaps deciding that “ambiguity” regarding this capability offered the best opportunity to deter Chinese and Russian space aggression.
But Gen. Schiess did make mention of a “Victus Haze” exercise that:
“[E]arlier this year demonstrated the ability to launch and respond to an on-demand to an on-orbit threat in just 17 hours. Space Systems Command, our industry partners, and Combat Forces Command proved to the world that if an adversary targets the United States Space Force, we have the capability to deliver a swift response and we are going to continue working on getting faster and faster.”
For the U.S. Space Force “Victus Haze” exercise, a Rocket Lab Puma satellite captured images of a Jackal satellite made by the U.S. company True Anomaly. / Rocket Lab
On June 19, less than 17 hours after receiving the call to do so, from its launch pad in New Zealand, the New Zealand-U.S. company Rocket Lab launched one of its Electron liquid fueled rockets carrying its Puma satellite that performed maneuvering exercises around the Jackal satellite of the U.S. 2022 startup company True Anomaly.
This exercise demonstrated that the U.S. Space Force has the ability to find a space threat and then to quickly organize and launch an interceptor satellite that can identify and monitor the space threat, with an implied current or future capability to attack that the same threat.
Gen. Schiess also noted:
“Today’s advantage cannot be assumed for tomorrow. We face determined and credible adversaries who are building and fielding counterspace systems at incredible speeds to target directly the United States’ space advantage…That is why we don’t just monitor the domain. We stand ready to defend it.”
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