The U.S. Space Force continues to prepare to fight a war in Earth's orbit.
For years, Space Force has been training units to conduct orbital warfare, calling upon American industries to develop new spacecraft and weaponry as well as creating international partnerships to maintain peaceful norms in space. Now, the United States' newest military branch has an official "Space Warfighting" framework that outlines how Space Force leadership can train and prepare units for a war in space.
The document "establishes a common lexicon for counterspace operations" and lays out a "range of responsible offensive and defensive actions Guardians may employ to maintain control of space" and ensure the success of the U.S. military, according to a Space Force statement accompanying its release.
The Space Force's warfighting framework describes both offensive and defensive operations and largely focuses on space superiority, which "may involve seeking out and destroying an enemy's spacecraft", the document notes. Space superiority, like air superiority, broadly defines a military's ability to project military power in space in order to protect its satellites or other assets in orbit, or to use that power to deny an adversary the use of their own spacecraft.
The service's new warfighting framework notes that, unlike warfare in other domains, combat in space will involve highly automated systems that "filter or reduce human decision making" due to the fact that spacecraft operate at high speeds over long distances in orbits that are often crowded with other satellites. "Detailed analysis must help us characterize how and when humans interact with these systems," the report notes.
War in space will actually take place across three different mission areas: orbital warfare that takes place between spacecraft, electromagnetic warfare which aims to control the electromagnetic spectrum (such as radiofrequency jamming), and cyberspace warfare, which involves targeting an adversary's computer networks.
The new document concludes by noting that there are no set rules for fighting a war in space — or anywhere, for that matter — and adds that U.S. Space Force personnel "must understand the principles and, when necessary, break the rules to uncover the military genius in spacepower."
