When I finished writing the first draft of Trojan SMERSH in September 2022, the idea of Stalin’s World War II counterintelligence death squad still existing well into the 21st century was just that. Since then, I’ve been astounded by the number of things that have come true and made elements of my novel feel more fact than fiction. In 2023, the world learned SMERSH had been resurrected as part of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But a modern SMERSH was not the only world-building element of my alternate history setting. Readers will recall that the more extraordinary lore of Sid Tanner’s world is an ongoing clandestine military space program operating outside the realm of public knowledge, managed by the USAF Space Command and later the US Space Force. Such programs include the Manned Orbiting Laboratory for satellite reconnaissance and interception of enemy satellites, and the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar space bomber. During his time as an exchange officer, Tanner flew such manned military space missions.
These manned military missions, in our reality, were cancelled before USAF astronauts ever flew them. Since then there have been various proposals by the United States and Russia for a revival of space-based weapons programs. Most famously the “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative of the Reagan administration, but such proposals typically went the way of the Dyna-Soar.
But on 14th of September 2026, almost exactly two months after Trojan SMERSH was published, Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Troy Meink publicly announced during his keynote speech at the AFA’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the United States already has space-based weapons.
“Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist. This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.”
~ Dr. Troy Meink, Secretary of the Air Force
Dr. Meink did not specify what kind of weapons the United States has on-orbit, whether they were recently launched or if they have been operating for years. Such details remain classified. The mainstream media and space researchers alike are having a field day with this announcement. While the more fantastical ideas include space-to-surface missiles or kinetic bombardment weapons or laser satellites, some of the more down-to-Earth speculations (pun unintentional) are along the lines of satellites capable of radar-jamming or electronic interference, possibly even anti-satellite missiles or guns to shoot down enemy satellites – for which we have precedents for.
The announcement has received condemnation from China and Russia, and sparked fears of space-based atomic warfare in direct violation of the UN Outer Space Treaty of 1967 – which strictly prohibits the use of nuclear weapons in space. That’s not to say the Chinese and Russian hands are clean. All three nations – the United States, China and Russia – are no strangers to the shooting down of satellites, albeit with ground-launched missiles. And whereas the United States all but cancelled their manned military spaceflights, the Russians went all in with them. The Soviet Almaz 2 military space station was famously equipped with a Rikhter R-23 cannon with the intent on shooting down any hostile enemy satellite and their Buran shuttle was built primarily as a carrier of weapons of mass destruction. As cosmonaut Oleg Kotov told New Scientist fifteen years ago:
“We had no civilian tasks for Buran and the military ones were no longer needed. It was originally designed as a military system for weapon delivery, maybe even nuclear weapons. The American shuttle also has military uses.”
~ Oleg Kotov, Russian cosmonaut
Readers of Trojan SMERSH will no doubt find Dr. Meink’s recent announcement shockingly familiar. While nothing specific has been announced as to what they are, the existence of such unspecified orbital weapons has significantly rocketed the plausibility of Trojan SMERSH’s secret military space premise. Especially if such weapons have been orbiting the Earth for years or even decades. The USAF has confirmed that important military capabilities have been developed, deployed in orbit, and ultimately undisclosed to the public until now.
Do such existing weapons include space-to-surface systems? Perhaps armed with nuclear warheads? Could some eventually involve crewed spacecraft to deploy them? Is that not what the Dyna-Soar’s spiritual successor, the X-37B, is ultimately planned for? Or have such classified manned military systems already been operating for far longer than the public knows, as is depicted in Sid Tanner’s world? Who knows! For now, I leave the United States government to confirm or deny just how closely my art has imitated life. Or has life been imitating art?