Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md., on Wednesday that the U.S. must be ready to fight a war—even in the vicinity of the moon. “Our task, my friends, is to adapt right now, so the Joint Force is prepared to fight, endure, and win, in global contested environments, from the seabed to cislunar space,” he said, reported (Defense One). This came after Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and the chief of the Space Force, Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, had already revealed that the U.S. has weapons in orbital space.

Caine later repeated the thought—"today’s modern battlefield operates from the seabed to cislunar space”—but he did not clarify whether he meant on the moon’s surface. Defense One points out that the legal definition of cislunar space is ambiguous, but that’s less important than the intention behind Caine’s words.

“There’s a fear that recent Chinese activity on the moon and in cislunar space might outpace the United States,” said Aaron Brynildson, a space law professor at the University of Mississippi. “China has a relay satellite in cislunar space and is performing robotic missions on the far side of the moon.”