The U.S. Space Force released a framework for “space warfighting” that outlines its vision for “achieving and maintaining space superiority while ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the space domain,” the Space Force said.
The document highlights the importance of the United States having “space superiority,” ensuring military success.
Counterspace operations are to be conducted across three areas- orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare, and cyberspace warfare.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said in a statement, “It is the formative purpose of the Space Force to achieve space superiority—to ensure freedom of movement in space for our forces while denying the same to our adversaries. We must be prepared to employ capabilities for offensive and defensive purposes to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggressors that threaten our vital national interests.”
According to the framework document, space superiority “may shift from defense to offense and be conducted within the vicinity of enemy, friendly, and commercial spacecraft, or along shared lines of communication in both space and cyberspace.” It may also involve “seeking out and destroying an enemy’s spacecraft, systems, and networks through measures designed to minimize the effectiveness of those systems, or countering enemy efforts in the other warfighting domains (land, maritime, air, and cyberspace).”
Space warfare features “highly automated systems that filter or reduce human decision making,” the document explains, noting that the systems are “necessary for space vehicles to operate in the domain featuring high speeds, long distances, and congested orbital regimes. Detailed analysis must help us characterize how and when humans interact with these systems.”
“USSF Field Commands and Direct Reporting Units will act on this framework when formulating plans, operational concepts, lines of effort, military objectives, and specified tasks,” the document says, adding that warfighters “must understand the principles and, when necessary, break the rules to uncover the military genius in spacepower.”
