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Armies have soldiers, navies have sailors and an air force has airmen and the US space force has ‘guardians’. This name for the Space Force personnel was announced by Mike Pence in December 2020, when he was vice president of the United States. Now six years later, on September 15, 2026, the US Air Force secretary Troy Meink has stated that these guardians would also have an offensive role in future. Meink has announced that the US has now deployed weapons in space and would use them to defend the country and its forces, if required. He argued that the US needs such capabilities in orbit as a form of deterrence. He claimed that this is a signal to adversaries that the US can respond effectively to any hostile action in the space domain.

It is unfortunate that the US has positioned weapons in space. This development is expected to rapidly make space warfare a reality, which is not in the interest of any country in the world.

Probable threats to space systems have been debated and discussed for many years. This debate became shrill particularly after China conducted an anti-satellite test (ASAT) during 2007. There was a global response to this too and subsequently such tests have also been conducted by the US (2008), India (2019) and Russia (2021). Such tests could be viewed more as a demonstration of capability. For some years now, there have been efforts mainly by China and Russia to develop various kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities as counter-space weapons.

Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.

In response to such efforts, Trump 1.0 decided to establish a separate military vertical for space and thus the birth of the US Space Force happened during 2019. During 2024, the Biden administration had claimed........

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