Washington has spent the past 72 hours making its military posture in space more explicit. On Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported that Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed the United States has on-orbit space-control weapons and described space in explicitly warfighting terms.

A day later, the Washington Examiner reported that Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told service members to prepare to fight, endure, and win in contested environments stretching from the seabed to cislunar space. The sequence matters: Washington is not merely acknowledging a capability. It is making the military character of the domain more legible in public.