US Space Force Names China Active Space Adversary — SkimNews
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- Space Force named the People's Republic of China as an active space adversary, with Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon saying "potential adversaries such as the PRC are actively pursuing activities" in orbit and beyond.
- Gen. Dan Caine, Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Air, Space and Cyber Conference on September 16, 2026, that the military must prepare to fight "from the seabed to cislunar space" — the region between high Earth orbit and the moon.
- Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed at the same conference that the U.S. has fielded "on-orbit space control weapons," the article's first public acknowledgment of deployed U.S. space weaponry.
- China established its own military space troops in 2024 to boost capability to manage space crises, according to the article.
- Lt. Gen. Gagnon declined to state what Space Force or broader U.S. military policy is on weapons such as bullets or projectiles in space, directing questions to the Pentagon, which did not immediately respond.
- The U.S. aims to double Space Force to roughly 25,000 service members over the next five years, with about two-thirds of growth focused on Combat Forces Command.
Why it matters: The announcements directly challenge the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's peaceful-use framework, with the U.S. now publicly treating the orbit-to-moon region as a warfighting zone. Space Force's planned expansion to 25,000 personnel — two-thirds in combat units — makes that posture concrete, even as Gagnon declined to clarify policy on projectiles in space.
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