India, Sept. 16 -- Troy Meink, the US secretary of the Air Force, said on Monday that the US has weapons in orbit. As civilian head of the Department of the Air Force, Meink oversees both the Air Force and the Space Force, a military branch President Donald Trump created in 2019 during his first term.

Meink said the US has "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action". Joint Force is the Pentagon's term for the US services operating together.

Reuters said it was the strongest admission yet by a Pentagon official of US weapons in space, and AP reported it as the first such confirmation. Meink did not say what the weapons were, how they work or whether they target objects in space o...