"We are seeing a wide range of weapons being produced by our strategic competitors," said General Bradley Chance Saltzman, US Chief of Space Operations, to a small group of reporters

A growing arms race has "fundamentally changed" space in just a few years, according to a US general, who singled out China as the "most challenging threat," followed by Russia.

"We are seeing a wide range of weapons being produced by our strategic competitors," said General Bradley Chance Saltzman, US Chief of Space Operations, to a small group of reporters, including AFP.

"The most challenging threat is China, but also Russia," he said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference late Saturday, listing technologies such as anti-satellite missiles, ground-based directed energy, and orbit interception capabilities.

"We must account for the fact that space has fundamentally changed as a contested domain. The nature of how we operate in the area must change, owing primarily to the weapons that China and Russia have tested and, in some cases, operationalised "He stated.

His words carry even more weight in light of rising US-China tensions, which were highlighted Saturday in Munich by tense exchanges between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Beijing's top diplomat Wang Yi over a suspected Chinese spy balloon.

Blinken warned Wang not to repeat such an "irresponsible act" of sending a balloon over US airspace, while Wang said Washington's reaction, which was to shoot down the craft, had harmed their countries' relations.