Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday committed Israel to becoming the leading global player in space-attack capabilities.
“One of the central goals which the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” since “as of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability,” said Katz.
The defense minister continued, “If we achieve this, it will ensure the advantage of deterrence, of the ability to attack, destroy, and all of the other matters versus our enemies with large resources.”
Overall, it seemed clear that Katz was referring to Iran.
This is especially true since, during the 2026 war with Iran, Israel struck multiple Iranian spacewar-related facilities, including those working on developing capabilities to attack satellites in space.
It was unclear if he indirectly also wanted to deter Russia and China from assisting Iran in developing these capabilities and in other spheres.
Other countries already have the capability for space attacks
However, Katz’s statement was not entirely accurate. Both Russia and China have performed test attacks on their own satellites in prior years and managed to destroy their test targets.
However, each time they did so, they created perpetually rotating debris around Earth’s orbit that has endangered their still-functioning satellites along with other countries’ satellites and space platforms.
Some have already speculated that Israel could destroy enemy space satellites using the Arrow 3 missile system, given that it already strikes ballistic missiles in space.
Yet, due to the debris issue that Russia and China have already encountered, many countries are working on other techniques, such as paralyzing, damaging, jamming, dragging, or using lasers against satellites in space.
While some Israeli officials have hinted at such efforts, Katz’s public statement is the clearest one to date by a senior Israeli official. In contrast, if Iran or other enemies advanced past Israel in space, they could attack Israeli satellites and reduce their surveillance capabilities.