Space Force Weighing Options to Space Attacks

Article by Rachel S. Cohen                                           March 3, 2021                                           (airforcemag.com)

• During a National Press Club event on March 3rd, Chief of Space Operations General John W. “Jay” Raymond said that U.S. officials are trying to hash out the ground rules for space combat. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for what could be considered an act of war or a ‘proportional response’. “I think it depends on the strategic context that’s going on in the world,” said Raymond.

• There’s no such thing as a “space war,” Raymond said. “It’s just war. How nations might choose to conduct operations in that war, that conflict, either on the sea, or in the air, or on the ground, or now in space, … is just integrated into that larger strategic conflict.”

• “You can’t put weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and you can’t militarize a planet, a celestial body. Other than that, there’s no rules,” Raymond said. That ambiguity may complicate global discussions of norms of behavior in outer space. Space Force is trying to drive that conversation to constrain bad behavior and shape a common understanding of what’s acceptable on orbit. “I’m not naive to think, if there was a set of norms of behavior, that everybody’s going to follow them,” said Raymond.

• “The challenge for space strategists is to anticipate how this gradual shift from… information operations to physical operations will proceed,” a recent report on space defense from the Center for Strategic and International Security (CSIS) pointed out. “Further analysis and gaming are needed to explore… when it is advantageous (or not) to do nothing in response to an attack or threat of attack.”

• Though Space Force is quick to note various technologies in development by China, Russia and others that could look to damage U.S. assets, Raymond declined to talk about what offensive and defensive capabilities his service has in the works. The CSIS report recommended that Space Force own “non-kinetic active defenses, such as onboard jamming and lasing systems, … to thwart kinetic attacks against high-value satellites.”

• “A physical seizure capability should also be explored,” the report added, “that could double as a (non-aggressive) inspector and on-orbit servicing satellite,” such as the Russian spacecraft which Moscow said was an inspector satellite and test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in space last year.

• Raymond noted that Space Force will debut its plan for streamlining the Pentagon’s space acquisition agencies in “another week or so,” and that he expects to see a Space Force dress uniform prototype in about a month. Officials will finalize which parts of the Army and Navy departments will transfer to the Space Force in the next couple of months.

• Despite less discussion on the subject from the Biden White House, the federal government’s renewed emphasis on space superiority and exploration hasn’t waned, Raymond said. “This is not a political issue,” he stressed. “This is about our national security and the foundation of all instruments of national power, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to build this service.”

U.S. officials are trying to hash out the ground rules for extraterrestrial combat more than a year after standing up a Space Force to fend off threats on orbit.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for what actions by a satellite could be considered an act of war. Proportional response in a war that extends to space will depend on a broader context than earlier conflicts where the U.S. might respond to a barrage of rockets with its own airstrike, the Space Force’s top general said March 3. The U.S. could counter a satellite attack with a strike in cyberspace or against terrestrial facilities, for example.

“I think it depends on the strategic context that’s going on in the world,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said during an event hosted by the National Press Club.

There’s no such thing as a “space war,” he said—it’s just war.
“How nations might choose to conduct operations in that war, that conflict, either on the sea, or in the air, or on the ground, or now in space, … is just integrated into that larger strategic conflict,” Raymond said.

That ambiguity may complicate global discussions of norms of behavior in outer space as more countries grow their civil, military, and industrial presence away from Earth. The Space Force is trying to drive that conversation to constrain bad behavior and shape a common understanding of what’s acceptable on orbit.

“You can’t put weapons of mass destruction in orbit, and you can’t militarize a planet, a celestial body. Other than that, there’s no rules,” Raymond said. “I’m not naive to think, if there was a set of norms of behavior, that everybody’s going to follow them.”

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