Space Control Weapons: Why the US Is Considering Jammers, Lasers and Other Counterspace Systems

Space control weapons include directed-energy systems such as lasers, radio-frequency jammers and kinetic weapons capable of physically destroying targets. These systems can be deployed on the ground or in space.

In 2025, Gen. Chance Saltzman, who served as the Space Force’s director of space operations until last month, said other countries—likely China and Russia—are pursuing all six categories of space weapons. “We haven’t pursued all of them yet,” Saltzman said at the time.

However, Saltzman argued that the United States may need to develop the full range of capabilities. “There are good reasons for having all these categories,” he said.

Space Force unveils the Meadowlands satellite jammer

The Space Force unveiled its first authorized weapon system in June, announcing the acceptance of Meadowlands, a ground-based mobile satellite jammer.

Victoria Samson, chief director of space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation think tank, speculated that the “space control weapon” Meink announced on Monday could be an orbital jammer.

“Both China and Russia are believed to have space-based jamming devices,” Samson wrote in an email to Ars. “I always thought the United States must have them too.”

Why the US favors non-kinetic counterspace weapons

US officials have repeatedly expressed a preference for “counterspace” weapons that do not produce space junk. According to Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a kinetic weapon deployed in space would leave behind a cloud of debris that could endanger countless satellites in orbit, including the US military’s own assets.

There is no public indication that the United States has tested a space-based kinetic weapon, although the US military has demonstrated ground-based anti-satellite weapons.

How jammers, spoofers and laser dazzlers work

Non-kinetic counterspace weapons include signal jammers, spoofers and laser dazzlers. These systems can disrupt or interfere with satellites without physically destroying them or creating an orbital debris field.

“From an internal hardware perspective, such weapons are doppelgangers of technologies that have already been discovered on a large scale in orbit,” Swope said. “Any radio transmitter can be a jammer. Optical links between satellites can be laser dazzlers. Certainly jammers and dazzlers can also be purpose-built.”

The growing focus on orbital jammers and other non-kinetic systems reflects the challenge facing military planners: developing ways to counter satellites while limiting the risk of debris that could threaten spacecraft across orbit.