Pentagon Reportedly Set to Declassify Space Laser Capable of Destroying Satellites, Spacecraft
Screen Capture (Star Trek Online)
The Department of Defense is reportedly working to declassify a new weapon capable of neutralizing targets that include hostile spacecraft.
The effort is being led by Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten, sources told Breaking Defense. The sources said the unveiling was likely to include a “real-world demonstration of an active defense capability to degrade or destroy a target satellite and/or spacecraft.” The sources also said the declassification initiative — which began under President Donald Trump — might have come to fruition at this week’s National Space Symposium, but that events in Afghanistan led officials to delay the announcement.
It isn’t clear whether the weapon is terrestrially-based or deployed in space, though advanced capabilities in the former area would not be especially new or groundbreaking. Experts said the system could range from a “mobile laser used for blinding adversary reconnaissance sats to on-board, proximity triggered radio-frequency jammers on certain military satellites, to a high-powered microwave system that can zap electronics carried on maneuverable bodyguard satellites.”
The weapon falls under Special Access Program clearance, meaning the declassification effort requires sign-off from both Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and President Joe Biden.
“The declassification thing is a disaster,” one source told Breaking Defense. “The genesis [for classification] is supposedly for deterrence, but those doing it lack basic understandings of deterrence. It’s a f*cking shitshow.”
The development comes amid the United States’ effort to counter similar advancements by Russia and China. American satellites have become “increasingly vulnerable” to ground-based lasers, the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center’s Henry Sokolski and Brian Chow noted in an op-ed last year, including five Chinese five facilities with laser capabilities.
“It is absolutely a true problem,” Deputy Space Force Commander Gen. David D.T. Thompson said at an event in July. “I wish we owned our own destiny in that regard, but we don’t. It’s part of a broader activity, and we just have to work through that. What I will say is, I think we’re on the verge of a couple of significant steps.”
