India, Sept. 16 -- The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, a remarkable revelation after previous warnings about countries such as Russia possibly weaponizing a global frontier long agreed in treaties to be used for only peaceful purposes.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday that the US has fielded "on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action."

Meink did not detail what the weapons were, how they work or if they were targeting other objects in space or on Earth. The US had warned two years ago that Russia was developing a new space-based, anti-satellite weapon, though the White House said the danger wasn't imminent at the ti...