American space weapon systems may encounter Russian missile defense even before the concept of orbital interception becomes a full-fledged part of the Golden Dome. Military expert Viktor Litovkin believes that the Russian S-500 could be a potential limiter for the American orbital architecture, as, in his assessment, it is capable of hitting targets in low Earth orbit.

The reason for the assessment was a statement by US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink. On September 14, at the Air, Space & Cyber conference, he publicly confirmed for the first time that the American military already has "space control" assets deployed in orbit. However, the specific type of systems, their number, characteristics, and test results were not disclosed.

Litovkin believes that the mere presence of American vehicles in orbit does not yet mean the emergence of full-fledged space weapons with the ability to physically destroy targets.

According to his assessment, some of the declared assets may perform reconnaissance and auxiliary tasks, while the Russian S-500 is capable of creating an additional threat to such systems.

At the same time, official US data does not yet allow establishing what kind of weapons are already in orbit and whether they are capable of independently hitting space targets. Therefore, the connection between the already deployed American assets and the future "Golden Dome" interceptors remains not fully defined.