As it looks to pave the way for a new Space Force, the Pentagon is also reexamining the possibility of putting weapons, especially anti-missile systems, into orbit. But the U.S. military will need help getting them there and private space launch firm SpaceX says it could do the heavy lifting if asked. On Sept. 17, 2018, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell took the stage at the Air Force Association’s annual Air, Space, and Cyber conference to tout the company’s space launch capabilities. She also promoted the firm's growing relationship with the Air Force, which is presently responsible for procuring the bulk of the U.S. military’s satellites and launch services, and took questions from the audience about the ever-growing importance of space to military operations.

“Would SpaceX launch military weapons?” someone asked. “I’ve never been asked that question,” Shotwell said. “If it’s for the defense of this country, yes, I think we would.”

It’s not surprising Shotwell hasn’t considered this issue. The U.S. government largely brought serious discussions of space-based weapons to a halt in 1993, when President Bill Clinton’s administration brought the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) to an end and shifted focus entirely to terrestrial missile defense systems. By treaty, the United States is barred from placing nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction into orbit, as well, though it has stymied efforts to expand those restrictions to cover conventional weapons. At least officially, the U.S. government’s position is that the newer proposed agreements do not do enough to prevent countries from development ostensibly peaceful systems that could double as weapons. A particular point of contention is the matter of small, highly maneuverable space-based “inspectors,” which primarily exist to examine and potentially repair other satellites, but could also disable, damage, or destroy an opponent's satellites. Whether or not this is the real reason the United States has opposed new space-based weapons treaties has come into question recently after Congress inserted language into the annual defense policy bill cover the 2019 fiscal year that orders the U.S. military to start development of orbital anti-missile systems. The provisions express a hope that the Missile Defense Agency-led effort will have a workable prototype or prototypes by 2022 – less than four years from now.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory An artist's conception of a "brilliant pebble" space-based kinetic missile interceptor inside its "life jacket" satellite. This was one of the concepts the United States developed as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative.