You are correct (AFAIK) about the real military capability of the STS. But the Russians, when analyzing the program, came to the conclusion that the stated reas

You are correct (AFAIK) about the real military capability of the STS. But the Russians, when analyzing the program, came to the conclusion that the stated reason the shuttle was being developed was bogus. They believed that it would never be cheaper to launch satellites using the shuttle than using regular expendable rockets, and so if the stated reason is bogus they concluded it's a cover for a military program. And then they invented military applications that such a system can have, even if you need to slightly modify the shuttle to achieve them. And then they decided to build their own to achieve parity with the West. The US military's idea of military capability of the shuttle was to covertly launch a spy satellite from California going south, release it over the pole and land without completing a full orbit. This would, hypothetically, evade Soviet radar. Because the Earth rotates under the shuttle while this happens, the shuttle comes over far away from the launch site (and from the runway), and so it needed the large cross range ability (1100 miles) and this required the wings, etc. AFAIK, the Soviets said they booby-trapped their military satellites so retrieving them from orbit would be hard. Shooting at satellites from the shuttle is weird - a first strike requires shooting down many satellites, so you would need your weapons platform in many orbits at once. Just shoot from the ground or use something like the ASM-135 ASAT.