The U.S. military is looking to develop and test more weapons it can blast into space to fire at targets on the surface of the earth.

According to Defense One, the first plan on the agenda is a space laser that could be used to blow up enemy missiles "coming off the launch pad".

A study to see if this is feasible should wrap up within six months, but only takes up $15m (£11m) of the total budget.

CLICK ON THE SUN FOR MORE

Much of the rest of the cash is going to a project to develop space-based "particle beam" weapons.

While lasers fire high-energy light at targets, particle beam weapons would accelerate a stream of subatomic particles to ludicrously high speeds and direct them at the target.

While each particle only has a tiny mass, enough of them moving fast enough would be able to impart a serious amount of energy in a very short space of time.

The U.S. first tested particle beam weapons in the late 1980s to some success, but the designs for a functional weapon were huge, with some reportedly over 70 feet long.

"We now believe we can get it down to a package that we can put on as part of a payload to be placed on orbit,” according to a senior U.S. military official quoted by Defense One.

The idea is that such weapons could be used to take out missiles very shortly after they launch, when they're blasting up from their launch pads into the atmosphere.

The current plan has such weapons being ready for testing in 2023.

Some worry that if the U.S. developed and deployed these sorts of weapons it would push the likes of Russia and China into developing both missiles that would be resistant to the technology and weapons to take down the satellite weapons.

The development of those new weapons result in "greatly increasing the threat to U.S. assets in space,” according to Kingston Reif, of the Arms Control Association.

No country currently has any official space-based weapons, but plenty have been theorized.

China has upgraded its space technology recently, with U.S. analysts suggesting they already have laser-based weapons capable of crippling American defenses.

This story originally appeared in The Sun.