https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/15/weapons-in-space-us-air-force-meink.html
U.S. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air and Space Cyber Conference that the U.S. has “on-orbit space control weapons,” as he outlined a broader push to modernize the Air Force and Space Force in response to advances by U.S. adversaries, AI, and the growing use of autonomous weapons.
He did not specify what kind of weapons in space had been deployed, or when, according to the official Air Force account.
Was anybody falling for it? They've been talking about wanting to do this since the 60s and have what is effectively an infinite budget. And then there's the X37b. I don't think it's necessarily the Rods from God system, though. A more realistic system would be something like a satellite that releases a black paint in the orbit of an enemy satellite to make it overhead and shut down. Insidious things like that.
To argue against myself, there's also the definition of "weapon" that the military uses that includes any technology that allows them to get an edge over the enemy. Recon is a weapon under that definition.
I think paint would cause collateral damage. X37b with a grapple is all you need. Grab an enemy satellite and drag it into an orbit it can't survive.
GIVE STATEHOOD TO THE MOON FOR A PERMANENT REPUBLICAN MAJORITY
CAPITALIST COMMUNIST SPACE BATTLE FOR THE MOON LET'S GOOOOO
@Solomonsatoshi Is the PRC even TRYING??
Deal with the real world bro-
The middle east for example, if you wanna understand China.
The Middle East and Chinas influence model-
'The region, which has traditionally aligned with the US, is seeing growing competition between the two powers. But this rivalry does not mean that China is seeking to replace the US. It is approaching the region through trade and technology – something that fits into the Gulf’s own economic and development interests.
The US model China does not want
The US remains the Gulf’s most important external military partner. Its defence partnerships, intelligence ties, weapons systems, naval capabilities, and military presence remain central to regional security.
For years, Washington has measured Chinese influence against its own military power. By those standards, China remains far from being able to replace the US. But that is the wrong measure of strategic success.
China has shown little interest in competing with the US on military reach in the Gulf. That is because it has benefitted directly from the security Washington has provided in the region.
For decades, the US Navy helped secure maritime routes through which Gulf energy reached Asian markets. US military power in the Gulf region contributed to the stability that allowed Chinese companies to trade, invest, build infrastructure, and purchase energy.
From the Chinese perspective, this arrangement cost little and delivered significant returns. Replacing the US security system would mean assuming the political, financial and military costs of becoming the Gulf’s security guarantor, which would not be in its interest.
Instead, China has concentrated on sectors where it can build economic leverage, seeking to become as important to Gulf states’ economies as Washington is in the region’s security architecture.
Today, Chinese state-owned firms hold stakes in key Gulf infrastructure, such as ports. For example, COSCO Shipping Ports holds a controlling stake in the joint venture operating the CSP Abu Dhabi Terminal at Khalifa Port in the UAE.
Chinese companies are also increasingly connected to sectors that will shape the region’s future, including renewable energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, logistics, electric vehicles, and digital infrastructure.
Once these systems become interconnected through financing, contracts, and trade, disengagement carries substantial economic costs. An aircraft carrier can leave, and a troop deployment can be reduced, but leverage and stakes in ports, factories, telecommunications networks, and supply chains are harder to undo.
China’s approach does not require Gulf governments to become politically pro-Beijing. It only needs an openly anti-China position to become economically too costly.
The Gulf interest
For the Gulf states, there is no contradiction in seeking strong ties with both powers. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar each want US security cooperation and advanced Western technology while also seeking Chinese markets, manufacturing capacity, investment, and access to Asian economic networks.
Their objective is to avoid excessive dependence on either power. Their strategy is pursuing diversification, hedging, and strategic autonomy in an increasingly multipolar international system.
The US-Israel war on Iran, which has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and damaged US bases across the Gulf, including Al Udeid in Qatar, demonstrated why this strategy is so crucial. Excessive dependence on a single actor or area creates vulnerability, whether that dependence involves a single security provider, export market, shipping route, technology ecosystem, or source of capital.
For the Gulf states, diversification is therefore a necessity, a form of risk management. They are positioning themselves for an international system in which US power remains important but is no longer the only source of economic, political, and technological influence.
Diversification is being pursued not just in the security sphere. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and other regional states are attempting to build economies beyond hydrocarbons. Artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, and logistics are becoming central to their national strategies.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in particular shows what is at stake. Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN and the UAE’s G42 reflect national ambitions to build AI industries. AI in turn depends on advanced chips, data centres, energy, computing infrastructure, capital, and skilled workers.
The Gulf states are seeking partners who can contribute to the capital, technology, infrastructure, and industrial partnerships required to build these more diversified economies.
Presence is not the same as power
Washington should therefore reconsider how it measures strategic power.
The decisive question may no longer be how many bases a country possesses in a region, but how difficult that country is to remove from the regional system.
The US remains deeply embedded in the Gulf through defence relationships, intelligence cooperation, financial institutions, universities, technology companies, and diplomatic partnerships.
China is creating a different form of integration, as trade, infrastructure, technology, and investment generate long-term interests that markets can translate into leverage.
Washington need not force Gulf governments to choose between the US and China in every sector. Legitimate security concerns remain over advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, sensitive data, and dual-use technologies. Those sectors require clear safeguards.
The US’s better option is to compete. It should offer superior technology, credible financing, and deeper industrial partnerships, playing a meaningful role in the Gulf’s economic transformation.
Security guarantees remain essential, but they no longer guarantee primacy across every sector.'
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/9/15/china-does-not-need-to-replace-the-us-in-the-gulf
Wall of nonsense. All that matters is whether we can block oil shipments from the Middle East to the PRC.
We can.
You didn't notice Chinas vast oil storage capacity which has been used to moderate global oil prices?
Wooooooooooooosh!
$10/gallon for the Mid Terms?
Nope. Again, everyone knows blue states already have double the price for no good reason.
Denial of science and collective responsibility is the basis of Trumpian end of empire moral and economic bankruptcy.
Trump is scared of the Houthis.
Trump is outta Interceptors.
Dang!
There it is. "Collective responsibility." The core of your empire's moral rot.
"I'm poor because of your ancestors so give me money."
No. I owe you nothing. Go starve and cry about it. Ask me again and I'll napalm your water supply.
Enjoy your increasing isolation , irrelevance and poverty.
The Petrodollar Empire is tired and increasingly incapable.
US government watchdog confirms hit to weapons stockpiles
A US government watchdog report released on Monday officially confirms that the military is facing strategic inventory shortfalls and severe supply bottlenecks for advanced weapons following months of direct war with Iran.
The joint assessment, compiled by inspectors general from the Defense Department, State Department and USAID, offers Washington’s first official accounting of critical munitions depletion alongside extensive physical damage to American assets across the Middle East.
According to expert estimates cited in the report, it will take defence contractors up to three years to restore advanced missile and interceptor stockpiles to pre-war levels.
The report also details widespread physical losses, revealing that Iranian strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of structures across US bases in eight countries: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Jordan. Dozens of American aircraft and drones were also damaged or destroyed in the strikes.
Wow! That must mean they don't.
Seeing is believing; it's propaganda to intimidate their adversaries... just like during the Cold War.
That’s a pretty scary step. I really hope space doesn’t turn into another battlefield.
China put out a paper in the last few years claiming rods from God wouldn't be as effective as previously believed... What an interesting thing to study.