Feed aggregator

The United States has acknowledged for the first time that it already has weapons deployed in orbit, with Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealing the previously undisclosed capability as the Pentagon confronts growing space-based threats from China and Russia. Meink did not disclose what the weapons can do, how many have been deployed, when they were launched, or whether they are kinetic or non-kinetic systems.

The disclosure comes amid heightened U.S. concern about the military use of satellites by Beijing and Moscow, including recent allegations that Chinese entities supplied Iran with satellite imagery of American military facilities.

Meink made the revelation Monday during the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference in Maryland, publicly confirming the existence of American orbital weapons while keeping virtually all operational details classified.

“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,” said Meink, per DefenseScoop.

“This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary actions.”

Meink said publicly revealing that the weapons exist was intended in part to strengthen deterrence, even as the Pentagon continues withholding information about their capabilities.

“It’s important from a deterrence perspective,” the secretary added. “It is critically important that we maintain our dominance not only in the air, but in space, and so we’ve had to take steps to make sure that when we’re threatened, we can take care of that.”

President Donald Trump has placed a major emphasis on expanding America’s military capabilities in space. He established the U.S. Space Force during his first term and has since championed the Golden Dome missile-defense initiative, which envisions a network of sensors and space-based interceptors designed to protect the United States from missile attacks.

Under current Pentagon plans, Golden Dome is expected to eventually include a constellation of orbital missile interceptors along with sophisticated detection and tracking systems capable of identifying incoming threats before they reach American territory. Meink said the Space Force’s space-based interceptor program has already advanced from an initial contract to flight-ready hardware in less than a year.

Defense officials are aiming to field an initial space-based interceptor capability as early as 2028, although Golden Dome remains a developing system and the weapons Meink disclosed Monday were not identified as those future interceptors.

China reacted sharply to the announcement, arguing that Washington was contributing to the militarization of outer space.

“China has long been committed to the peaceful use of outer space and safeguarding the security in space,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters.

“We oppose any arms race in outer space or any attempts to weaponize it or turn it into a war zone. We urge the U.S. to stop expanding military buildup in outer space and safeguard global strategic stability with concrete actions.”

American officials, however, have repeatedly pointed to China and Russia’s own development of counter-space technologies as a reason the United States needs capabilities capable of protecting its satellites and other assets. Meink said Monday that both countries have been pursuing such systems for more than a decade.

Both Moscow and Beijing have pursued technologies that have generated concern among U.S. military officials, including anti-satellite systems and highly maneuverable spacecraft capable of operating near other countries’ satellites. The increasing dependence of modern militaries on satellites for communications, intelligence, navigation and targeting has made control of space an increasingly important element of military planning.

In 2024, then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) triggered widespread attention when he issued an unusually cryptic warning about a Russian capability under development. U.S. officials subsequently said intelligence indicated Moscow was considering a nuclear anti-satellite capability that could threaten large numbers of satellites.

Russia has denied that it intends to place such a nuclear weapon in orbit. At the same time, Moscow has repeatedly confronted the military implications of commercial satellite constellations such as Starlink, which has provided crucial communications capabilities to Ukraine during its war with Russia.

Starlink’s architecture makes disabling the network particularly difficult because it consists of a large constellation rather than a small number of individual satellites. An adversary attempting to eliminate the service would therefore have to disable numerous spacecraft rather than destroying a single satellite.

Exactly what the newly acknowledged American weapons are capable of doing remains unknown. Possible space-control technologies can include kinetic systems designed to physically damage an adversary’s spacecraft as well as non-kinetic capabilities such as electronic jammers, spoofing systems or directed-energy technology. Meink specifically declined to say which category the deployed American systems fall into.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits placing nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit. The treaty does not, however, impose a blanket prohibition on conventional weapons in space, leaving considerable legal and strategic territory surrounding emerging military space capabilities.

Meink indicated that the Pentagon intends to keep the details of the newly revealed systems secret, arguing that disclosing their existence can contribute to deterrence while revealing their precise capabilities could undermine that purpose.

“We’re not going to talk about the specifics of what we’re doing, whether we’ve tested, not tested, or anything else,” Meink said. “I would just say that the space environment is critical for military and economic security, and we need to make sure that the U.S. can operate freely there.”

Newly disclosed FBI records are offering an unusually detailed look at the upbringing, personality and interests of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. Interviews contained in the files portray Crooks as exceptionally withdrawn from childhood, highly intelligent and increasingly absorbed in firearms, technology and privacy in the years before the attack. His motive, however, remains unresolved.

Crooks opened fire from the roof of a nearby building during Trump’s rally, killing rally attendee Corey Comperatore and wounding Trump and two other spectators before being killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper. Congressional investigators later concluded that Crooks fired eight rounds and that major security failures contributed to his ability to carry out the attack.

“When Thomas was born he did not scream and he was always quiet from that point on,” his father, Matthew, told federal investigators.

The newly surfaced material was provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as part of his continuing examination of the Butler assassination attempt and was reviewed by the New York Post.

Among the records are FBI interviews with Matthew Crooks, who told investigators he “never really had a father/son bond” with Thomas. He described his son as stoic and exceedingly difficult to read, saying he seldom displayed powerful emotions and rarely laughed.

Crooks sometimes misbehaved during elementary school because “he was bored,” according to his father. In one incident Matthew recalled, his son damaged a desk and other school property in an effort to attract attention.

By middle school, Matthew and his wife, Mary, “thought Thomas had ADHD,” according to the interview. They also worried for a time that he had begun associating with a “bad” group of children.

Matthew described another incident at home in which Thomas, following an argument, emptied an entire container of fish food into his sister’s betta fish tank.

His son’s seeming lack of emotion frustrated him so much that Matthew said he “pushed” Thomas until the boy finally began crying, in an attempt to draw an emotional response from him.

Matthew noticed additional changes between Thomas’ freshman and sophomore years of high school. His son became “a little more quiet and reserved” and began having “issues with speaking to his teachers.”

At the same time, Matthew said he often observed Thomas talking to himself, behavior that “became more noticeable over the years.”

Looking back, Matthew expressed regret that his “work schedules” prevented him from regularly driving his son to and from extracurricular activities. He wondered whether greater involvement in those activities might have provided Thomas, who largely kept to himself, with a healthier social outlet.

Academically, Thomas placed considerable pressure on himself. His father told investigators that he immersed himself in college-preparation classes because he “feared he may not get into college.” Matthew added, “He was putting a lot of pressure on himself.”

Thomas may have lacked social skills and “street smarts,” as his father put it, but he demonstrated significant academic ability.

According to Matthew, his son earned a 1400 on the SAT the first time he took the exam without preparing for it. On a later attempt, he raised his score to nearly 1500.

Thomas periodically mentioned possible careers but apparently never developed a firm commitment to any of them.

“At one point, Thomas wanted to join the military to work in nuclear submarines, but this was more of just an idea as Thomas thought it would be ‘cool,’” according to FBI notes from an interview with the gunman’s father.

Matthew also told investigators that his son apparently never had a romantic relationship and “never showed interest in girls.” According to his father, Thomas “repeatedly denied” being gay when the subject arose over the years.

Thomas developed a growing interest in firearms and shooting during his teenage years, although that fascination apparently did not extend to traditional outdoor activities. His father said Thomas briefly showed interest in hunting but that he could not picture his son actually killing an animal. Thomas also “hated” fishing.

Matthew said many of his conversations with Thomas during those years were short and centered on guns. At one point, his teenage son asked whether “he would have to do a background check” if he purchased Matthew’s Glock. His father later told investigators that he considered the question “odd.”

Thomas also asked about obtaining firearms that belonged to his grandfather.

Around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomas began visiting a gun club. Initially, according to his father, he was a “terrible” shooter — “he could not hit the paper [target].” Matthew estimated that it took his son four or five years of practice before his shooting improved significantly.

Over time, however, Thomas developed considerable skill. He began bringing targets home from the range to show his father how accurately he could shoot from distances exceeding 100 yards.

When Matthew asked why he was “going out so far,” Thomas told him “he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.”

After purchasing a prism sight, Thomas began practicing at even greater distances. His father said he eventually became “very knowledgeable” about measuring distances and zeroing a firearm, learning precisely how many adjustments were necessary to alter the sight angle. Separate reporting on the newly disclosed federal records has also described Crooks’ increasing focus on long-distance shooting.

As his fascination with firearms intensified, Thomas began receiving numerous Amazon deliveries containing “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.”

He began addressing deliveries to the pseudonym “Bob Dole,” adopting the name after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and fraudulent BetMGM transactions appeared on it.

Thomas apparently concluded that buying products under a false name — in this instance, that of the late Republican presidential candidate — would prevent someone from hacking the purchaser. Matthew tried to explain that using an assumed delivery name would make no difference because the payment would still be charged to a bank account bearing the account holder’s real identity.

Thomas rejected his father’s explanation and continued ordering products under pseudonyms, believing the practice provided protection against having his accounts compromised.

His interest in digital privacy extended further. Thomas showed his father how to use tools including CyberGhost VPN and the Bravenet Browser, arguing that they made users “less likely to be compromised by outside actors.”

Matthew also recalled that his son maintained accounts with several privacy-oriented encrypted email services, including GMX and Mailfence.

Around the same period, Thomas acquired a 3D printer. His father recalled him once arriving home with a large container holding an unidentified substance that Thomas said he needed to clean the printer.

Thomas also attempted to manufacture his own handgun, according to his father, an experiment Matthew said nearly went disastrously wrong.

“Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” Matthew told investigators.

After a single round was fired from the homemade weapon, Matthew became concerned that its frame could explode and refused to allow his son to fire it again.

Thomas’ technical interests went beyond firearms. He assembled his own gaming computer despite his father suggesting that a laptop would be more practical, and he constructed a security camera using a Raspberry Pi, a small and inexpensive computer.

When investigators asked who Thomas considered a role model, Matthew said the closest answer was probably the Marvel character Iron Man.

The newly disclosed records also depict Crooks’ political views as difficult to place neatly within one ideological camp. One person interviewed by investigators, whose identity was redacted, characterized Thomas as a “big history buff” who was “interested in politics,” although he generally discussed political matters in a “nonchalant” manner.

That individual recalled that Thomas “spoke often about Trump and [former President Joe] Biden back when Trump initially got elected,” including things he “liked and disliked” about Trump and other political figures. He also reportedly discussed Secretary of State Marco Rubio frequently.

Matthew gave investigators a similar account two days after the shooting, saying his son did not display particularly strong loyalty to either major political party. When political subjects came up at home, father and son would often end up “making fun of the politicians.”

“Thomas called himself a Republican. Thomas did not like the welfare state and was against the ‘woke’ ideology but never really espoused the Republican ideology,” Matthew said. According to his father, Thomas was more inclined to debate “government policies in a general sense.”

Matthew said his son “expressed shock” over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and “did not believe the 2020 presidential election was rigged.”

Crooks was registered as a Republican, although Matthew told investigators he thought his son had registered that way because Matthew himself was affiliated with the GOP. The father described himself as more critical of Trump’s policies than Thomas was and said he criticized both Trump and Biden.

Matthew was therefore surprised when he learned that his son had made a $15 contribution in 2021 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a Democratic-aligned voter-mobilization organization. The combination of Crooks’ registration, donation and statements described by his father has not produced evidence establishing a political motive for the assassination attempt. The FBI previously said it had not identified a motive or found evidence that Crooks had been directed by a foreign entity.

Thomas was also deeply interested in computer games during high school, playing “Grand Prix, strategic-style military confrontation and first-person shooter games.” After graduating, however, his enthusiasm faded, and he sometimes regretted the amount of time he had invested in building his gaming computer.

His entertainment interests included war and action movies. According to his father, he watched films including “Saving Private Ryan,” “Full Metal Jacket,” “Heartbreak Ridge,” “Anger Management” and the “John Wick” series.

His musical tastes changed as he grew older. Matthew said Thomas enjoyed rap and country music in elementary school but gravitated increasingly toward country music in high school. His father remembered that Thomas would sometimes dance by himself in his bedroom with the door shut.

Despite the behaviors and interests now described in detail in the FBI interviews, Matthew said the family did not view them at the time as warning signs that Thomas was preparing to commit violence.

Matthew told investigators that family members were “racking” their brains trying to understand why Thomas had decided to attempt to kill Trump, an attack that killed one rally attendee and seriously wounded two others in addition to injuring Trump.

Thomas “never showed any signs indicating something was wrong,” his father told investigators.

More than two years after the Butler shooting, the question at the center of the case therefore remains unanswered: what ultimately drove Crooks to climb onto the roof overlooking Trump’s rally and open fire? The FBI has publicly said that its investigation uncovered extensive evidence about Crooks’ activities and interests but did not establish a definitive motive.