The current Space Force policy of seeking to compete militarily with China to prevent a future space war has left America vulnerable to Beijing’s control over the vital domain, according to a think tank report made public on Wednesday.
The U.S. force’s guiding philosophy in confronting China’s and other hostile powers’ aggressive advances in space weaponry and control over satellites and other assets is insufficient, according to the report by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
The current approach is outlined a 2023 military concept backed by Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, which called for “competitive endurance” to ensure access to space while preventing competition with China and Russia from moving into open conflict.
The new report, written by retired Space Force Col. Charles S. Galbreath and retired Air Force Col. Jennifer K. Reeves, is based on an October conference of space warfare experts. It concludes that “prioritizing endurance over victory may undermine a warfighting mentality and the core of the Guardian identity.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has stated that increasing military lethality and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs are his top priorities.
Guardians are the space troops of the relatively new service created during the first Trump administration. The force is currently an offshoot of the Air Force similar to the Marine Corps’ relations with the Navy.
Despite its existence for just over five years, the Space Force during the Biden administration made few advances. The warfighting service has announced its deployment of a single space weapon — an electronic jammer that can temporarily disrupt satellites. Other weapons are said to be developed in secret.
By contrast, the report said China has already deployed multiple space weapons, including anti-satellite missiles capable of knocking out satellites in different orbits. The Chinese military has built directed-energy weapons, cyber weapons and robot satellites that can attack orbiting space systems.
Russia, too, has deployed and tested anti-satellite missiles and is working on a space “nuclear blast” system that could destroy satellites or disrupt their electronics.
Currently, the Biden and Trump administrations and Congress have imposed restrictions preventing the Space Force from deploying such offensive and defensive space weapons, the report said. The report urged both governmental bodies to loosen the controls and build new weapons that will normalize space combat forces, in line with counterpart services prepared for combat at sea, in the air, on the ground and in cyberspace.
Deploying space weapons will bolster the Space Force’s posture and better deter threats to American satellite systems, threats that the report notes are vital elements of both military capabilities and civilian functions.
Congress also needs to immediately increase funding for the Space Force and for troops to support a new warfighting concept “not only built to endure, but to eliminate adversary space capabilities that would support their warfighting effectiveness in the terrestrial domains.”
“This will further enable military options that impose costs on China and not just endure in competition indefinitely,” the report authors argue.
A Space Force spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the report.
“Defensive and offensive counterspace operations to gain domain superiority must be normalized, like warfighting operations in all other domains performed by the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps,” the report said.
The force’s success as a military service depends on making the policy shift, the report said. Current policy is designed to complicate enemy space attacks and perpetually delay attacks — not pursue capabilities and a force structure that can win a war, the report said.
Excessive secrecy in the Space Force also was criticized in the report. Experts familiar with intelligence reports said more is known about foreign space weapons than U.S. space arms development, the report said.
Competitive endurance policies do not normalize space as a future battleground and prevent Guardians from achieving victory and space superiority, the report said.
“If this loophole is not addressed, the Space Force and U.S. Space Command could find itself in a death spiral of waning support and funding, ultimately precluding the fielding of capabilities and conducting of operations necessary to secure U.S. interests in space,” the report said.
The report is based on a conference that gathered 55 military space experts and examined a number of crisis scenarios, including a Russian deployment of a nuclear anti-satellite weapon; and a Chinese military blockade of Taiwan during a hurricane in Florida that disrupted U.S. satellite launches, at the same time a Chinese satellite launch created the cascading destruction of 50 low-Earth orbit satellites.
In another scenario, space experts attempted to address a fictional launch of dozens of Chinese military satellites “with significant offensive and maneuver capabilities” in a “space blockade,” the report said.
Retired Air Force Lt. David Deptula, now with the Mitchell Institute, said Gen. Saltzman, the Space Force chief, is dedicated to instilling a warfighting attitude in his troops.
“But these efforts are hampered by a historic view of space as a sanctuary and the fact that for years, any discussion of space warfare was prohibited,” Gen. Deptula said. “What is lacking is not strong leadership within the Space Force, but a larger budget, more personnel and authorities for the Space Force.”
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.