Pigs in space: Trump finds a whole new way to waste money and threaten lives

On Monday, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink made a statement that has genuinely out of this world implications.

“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.”

What kind of weapon was not made clear. However, the announcement is likely to jump-start a new race to weaponize space at a time when the U.S. military has been seriously weakened by Donald Trump's war in Iran, the number of satellites is growing rapidly, and their use is becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life.

The cost of such a military space race is likely to be, in a word, astronomical. Victory is a long way from assured.

The idea of orbital weapons isn't new. A large part of the space race in the 1960s was driven by fears that the Soviet Union would seize what military planners at the time referred to as "the ultimate high ground."

Researchers considered such weapons as telephone-pole-sized tungsten cylinders that could be sent screaming down from orbit with the power of a tactical nuke — so called "rods from God." And, like a half-dozen Bond villains, they studied how to make a laser powerful enough to take out ground targets from orbit.

Thankfully, most, if not all, of these designs proved to be either impossible, ineffective, or ludicrously expensive. No matter what Marjorie Taylor Greene may think, the energy requirements for an orbiting laser that could destroy ground targets remains far out reach. So does the ability to orbit thousands of 9-ton metal rods. (Though, if reusable rockets such as SpaceX's Starship deliver the drastic reduction in cost-to-orbit some are predicting, both of these "problems" could be swiftly resolved.)

That doesn't mean that space weapons don't exist. It's only that, for now at least, what happens in orbit, remains in orbit; these are weapons designed to disable or destroy other satellites.

Space weapons break down into two broad categories: kinetic weapons, which involve some form of physical projectile; and energy weapons, such as lasers or other intense pulses of electromagnetic power. The first type includes "suicide satellites" that are designed to simply get in the way of their target. Others satellites may be armed with some kind of gun or designed to explode and generate a debris field.

There are already concerns that some of the satellites that have recently broken up or exploded in orbit might be the results of testing such systems.

The second category of anti-satellite weapons are those that use a laser to blind or damage other targets in orbit. These weapons have the advantage of not requiring projectiles, which could make them usable over a far longer time against multiple targets.

In 2018, Russia revealed an anti-satellite laser system called "Peresvet." They have since announced a more powerful system and Putin has threatened to blind or destroy satellites used to assist Ukraine against his illegal invasion. However, these are ground-based laser systems and it's unclear if they actually work. So far, no satellites appear to have been lost.

Another anti-satellite weapon surfaced in 2024 when the National Security Council confirmed that Russia was working on a system that would create a huge "energy wave" in space, possibly using the electromagnetic pulse generated from exploding a nuclear weapon. Such a weapon would definitely violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that bans nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction in orbit. But then, it's not as if Putin has a lot of concern about violating treaties.

China has developed what are thought to be a number of ground-launched anti-satellite weapons based on hypersonic missiles. Additionally, it has launched a number of experimental satellites that have demonstrated the ability to rapidly change orbit and to approach other satellites. Some defense analysts have suggested that China is preparing to "dogfight" in space using these fast-moving satellites. U.S. intelligence believes that China is also developing a series of ground-based lasers that can "degrade" satellites in orbit. The power and number of these systems is thought to be rapidly increasing.

So what kind of weapon has the United States put into orbit?

Since Meink stated that the purpose of this weapon was to defend ground-based forces, the most likely target of the weapon are communications satellites and GPS-analogs used by the Russian and Chinese military.

The easiest, and least destructive, means of affecting other satellites would be by jamming them in some way. That would be difficult to do using a single satellite, but since the description was of "weapons" plural, the U.S. might have an entire network of satellites in position to interfere with communications and to distort positioning signals. (Even these weapons could place civilian aviation and ground traffic, which depend on accurate positioning information from multiple networks, at risk.)

The second possibility would be lasers. The energy to hit ground targets may be highly unlikely with current technology, but hitting other satellites is relatively simple. In fact, some satellites already employ "laser hardening" to guard against damage from both ground and in-orbit attacks.

Since Donald Trump created Space Force in 2019, there has been an increasing desire to militarize space operations. It's possible that this statement is simply meant to show that Space Force is "real military" and not just a toy that Trump likes to dress up in fascist uniforms.

Another possibility is that the military is concerned by all the signals of weakness being broadcast from Trump's costly folly in Iran. For China in particular, it would seem that Trump has laid out a fork and knife after coating Taiwan in ketchup.

Meink may want to let China and Russia know that the U.S. has more capabilities than are obvious from the rusty, leaderless face we're showing the world.

Or this may simply have been one of the most foolish statements by a military leader in recent history.

Most signs point to option three.

On September 10, 2026, a SpaceX Falcon 9 delivered a classified Space Force payload into orbit. The timing of this launch and the announcement are certainly suspicious, but it's not clear if there is any connection. A second, apparently similar, launch is scheduled for today (Sep. 15).