Congress should approve any deployment of weapons in orbit before it happens

Defence of a state against external and internal threats, spanning intelligence services, military operations, counterterrorism and the classification of information. Covers the tension between secrecy and oversight, and the agencies whose work is largely conducted beyond public view.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced on September 14, 2026, that the U.S. Space Force had deployed on-orbit space-control weapons, the first public U.S. acknowledgment of weapons stationed in Earth orbit. The Pentagon withheld the systems’ identities, capabilities, and deployment dates.

President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome, directed by Executive Order 14186 on January 27, 2025, is a Pentagon initiative for a layered homeland defense against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise, and advanced aerial threats. Congressional funding and system architecture remain unsettled amid Senate scrutiny of cost and feasibility.