The Secret $1.2 Trillion Space War Raging Above Earth

A series of unexplained SpaceX launches this month has led to an extraordinary confirmation from the US military: weapons designed for use in space are now operating in orbit around Earth.

SpaceX had described the missions only as classified launches for the US Space Force. The company sent two rockets into orbit from its California facility within a span of just days, offering no details about their secret cargo.

General Douglas Schiess, chief of space operations and the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the newest branch of the US military, told the Daily Mail that orbit has quietly become a contested military arena. He said the United States is locked in a strategic rivalry with other major powers over control of space.

“Space is both a battlefield and the backbone of our Joint Force,” Schiess said.

He warned that the United States faces determined and capable adversaries that are rapidly developing counterspace technology intended to undermine America’s advantage in orbit.

“Let me be clear: Today, Guardians [Space Force personnel] operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the Joint Force against space-enabled attacks,” Schiess added.

A Space Force spokesperson identified Russia and China as key concerns, saying both countries have spent roughly two decades testing and advancing systems that could be used in military operations beyond Earth.

The Pentagon has not said what the September 2026 missions delivered to orbit. However, the White House has made clear that one priority is President Donald Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” — a global network of sensors and missile-interceptor satellites intended to detect and stop incoming threats.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said on September 14 that the interceptors had advanced from the design stage to “flight-ready hardware” in under a year, a rapid development timeline that surprised defense observers.

Addressing the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Meink said the United States was preparing for “evolving threats.” He did not explain the weapons’ offensive potential or disclose when they may have been deployed in orbit.

Established in 2019, the US Space Force was initially tasked with defending the satellites that support military communications, navigation and surveillance operations.

But a military spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the threat has expanded, with hostile satellites potentially capable of attacking American assets from orbit. The official compared the space surrounding Earth to a battlefield located just miles above the planet’s surface.

“The US has warned about Russian and Chinese weapons testing and operationalization since 2007,” the spokesperson said. “Due to their actions, it is no longer a question that space is a warfighting domain.”

The official added that publicly demonstrating America’s ability to defend against space weapons could help deter aggression. With orbit increasingly contested, the spokesperson said, the Space Force was created as the nation’s sixth military service to protect US interests in space.

Officials have not disclosed the capabilities of the newly deployed systems, the dates they entered orbit or the way they are designed to operate.

The dangers of military hardware in orbit were underscored in 2021, when Russia demonstrated the destructive potential of an anti-satellite missile by successfully carrying out a hit-to-kill test.

The device obliterated a defunct, Soviet-era spy satellite launched in 1982, sparking condemnation from around the world.

It is believed that the Golden Dome, which the White House wants completed by the end of the decade, will consist of sensors and tracking satellites, ground and sea-based missile platforms and a planned ‘constellation’ of space-based interceptors.

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Similar to the defense missile used by Israel, the ‘dome’ would act like a layered shield meant to detect and shoot down missiles and other airborne attacks on the American homeland.

The interceptors in space would sit in orbit and, if used, try to ram an enemy missile early in flight before it can drop warheads or decoys.

Besides the interceptors, Golden Dome is also expected to feature sensor and enemy tracking platforms sitting in orbit.

Those satellites would watch for missile launches from foreign nations or other adversaries, follow the threat across the sky and feed targeting data to the interceptors on land, at sea or in space.

Officials want them there because a missile can appear with only minutes of warning, and space is the only place that can see almost the entire surface of the Earth at one time.

While the Pentagon has not revealed the specifics of these new systems moving into the ‘flight-ready’ status, lawmakers in Washington have already done the math on how many interceptors will need to be launched to complete Trump’s plan.

According to a May 2026 report from the Congressional Budget Office, the US would need approximately 7,800 interceptor satellites in low Earth orbit to effectively defend the country.

That estimate came from an assessment of what it would take to stop ten long-range missiles, possibly nuclear-capable ICBMs, which were fired at America at the same time.

The CBO report also laid out a jaw-dropping $1.2 trillion price tag for the Golden Dome. This would cover the development, deployment and operation of these satellites for the next 20 years.

There is one type of weapon that the US has agreed to not launch into space – nuclear missiles or other weapons of mass destruction. These typically include chemical and biological weapons.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the US signed and ratified, states that countries may not place nuclear devices or other similar weapons into Earth orbit, on the Moon or elsewhere in outer space.

However, that does not ban conventional weapons, signal jammers, missile interceptors or military satellites. 

There are more than 110 ‘states parties’ – meaning countries which are legally bound to obey it – that have signed the agreement over the years.

All major countries which have ventured into space are parties, including Russia and China.

Despite that, US lawmakers, including Republican Mike Turner, the former head of the House intelligence committee, have claimed that Russia is prepared to violate that agreement and take the space arms race nuclear.

In 2024, Turner demanded that the Biden Administration declassify all intelligence on a ‘serious national security threat’ that was believed to involve Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in space.

Moscow denied the claim. Putin said Russia opposed nuclear weapons in space, and then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said there were ‘no such projects.’