US troops must prepare to fight around the moon, Trump’s top military adviser says

American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth’s orbit but around the moon, President Donald Trump’s top military adviser said on Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the US revealed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space.General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told service members and industry figures at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference outside Washington that the US military should adapt now so it “is prepared to fight, endure and win … from the seabed to cislunar space”.Space Force, the newest military service, which was created by Trump in 2019, is preparing to fight in space and around the moon because “humanity is advancing deeper into space – the Space Force’s job is to help be prepared to defend US interests,” Lieutenant General Gregory Gagnon, head of the force’s Combat Forces Command, told reporters separately.The announcement that the US military is ready to fight in the area between high Earth orbit and the moon itself comes days after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink revealed at the same conference that the US has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons”.The spate of announcements about space weaponry from military officials over recent days flies in the face of long-standing conventions and international understandings that have held outer space as only to be used for peaceful purposes and remain non-militarised.US General Dan Caine testifies at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in Washington in July. Photo: APWhile multiple nations, including the US, have shown the ability to shoot down satellites in Earth orbit, those demonstrations have taken place from the ground against their own satellites.However, according to Gagnon, “the intelligence community has been clear that potential adversaries have been seeking to extend warfare into space” and that the US military needs to react.