Are you sure they haven't only tested/demonstrated that capability? I haven't heard of an actual satellite warfare incident yet. That would be a very huge deal.
Information about satellite warfare incidents is tightly classified. Nonetheless, it is a bit of an open secret that these types of incidents (not necessarily lasers) have escalated markedly in recent years. The countries most affected by this tend to be those that are not traditional space powers but nonetheless have many space assets e.g. Western Europe.
You cannot hide satellites or debris from a satellite being destroyed. Everything close to Earth is large enough to be spotted from reflected light. Everything far away is spotted with radar. There are many private and government players across the globe who care deeply about what is occupying what orbits because it is a finite resource.
“tightly classified” … as is everything that would embarrass or expose the ever increasingly crooked and immoral people that have accumulated in the US government. Otherwise, the “citizens” may start realizing it’s basically all just lies, fraudulent, and fake; which is a bit of a problem for a multilevel Ponzi scheme.
I'm getting superfluous search results because of recent news, but yes, this was a decent news story many years ago. The US basically said "fair enough."
I think more likely I just upgraded "jammed" to destroyed - its not like I was imagining an explosion, just overwhelming its optical sensors. Problem is I remember some diplomatic back and forth, too.
So maybe I was misremembering, but I really wouldn't be surprised if a sattelite was put out of comission before, but was just not disclosed or admitted to.
