America’s X-37B Space Plane Practicing Orbital Warfare

China and Russia, beware. The Air Force’s Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), also known as the X-37B, is a small space shuttle-looking vehicle about a quarter the size of our old shuttle. Beyond its much smaller size, its primary difference is its two canted tail fins in lieu of a single vertical stabilizer and rudder.

The final big difference is that it is pilotless.

Launched by conventional rocket, and returning to land like a plane, or like the old space shuttle, It generally operates in low Earth orbit (LEO). It has demonstrated tremendous space endurance, logging a record 900-plus days in space.

It was originally built as a NASA technology demonstrator in the 1990s as a way to explore a possible follow-up to the space shuttle. In the 2000s it moved to DARPA at the Pentagon, and then the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office where it was resized, hardened and turned into the X-37B OTV.

It is now flown by Space Force.

But what does this thing do, and should China and Russia be concerned by it?

Well, most of its missions have been highly classified, but from what analysts have been able to publicly infer, the X-37B is more than a testbed; it is a working operational capability with space warfare written all over it.

Russian officials have theorized that we could use the X-37B as a “space bomber,” carrying nuclear weapons in orbit to swoop down to attack without warning.

This is unlikely since an orbital bomber is less efficient, more vulnerable, and more expensive than the ballistic missiles and submarine-launched systems we already have. We are also still clinging to the idea of keeping nukes out of space.

Though, for how much longer, no one knows.

Even if it’s not a space bomber, from a Russian or Chinese perspective, a vehicle that can ride to orbit on a standard launcher, shift its path, open a payload bay, and stay on station for years has definite military space potential.

As the National Security Journal notes, more serious and grounded concerns center on what the X-37B could potentially do to other countries’ satellites:

An unmanned space plane with a small internal bay could:

-Carry sensors to inspect foreign satellites at close range.

-Test small “inspector” spacecraft that can be released near a target and loiter there.

-Experiment with cyber or electronic-warfare payloads designed to interfere with another satellite’s operations.

In its last completed mission, OTV-7, which landed in early 2025 after a year in space, the X-37B demonstrated its capabilities in potentially contested operations in space.

It showed its ability to move between orbital regimes, adjust its track, and potentially rendezvous with, or maneuver to avoid, other spacecraft, all while conserving valuable fuel.

The reality is that our space plane is helping us test how to fight and survive orbital warfare.

The technologies tested and deployed on recent missions clearly show this. They include better power systems, more efficient propulsion, resilient communications, alternative navigation when GPS is jammed, and the ability to maneuver between orbits economically.

These are all critical technologies and capabilities when our adversaries are building ways to blind, jam, or destroy U.S. satellites.

National Security Journal explains. “In that sense, X-37B is less a ‘space weapon’ and more an insurance policy: a platform for figuring out how you maintain an edge when space is no longer a sanctuary.”

Next up, we take a look at China’s recent answer to the X-37B, the Shenlong, or ‘Divine Dragon,’ an operational reusable space plane first launched on a Long March rocket in 2020 and relaunched several times since.

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