It used to be that the U.S. military thought that testing an anti-satellite capability in orbit was a bad idea because of the debris field it would unleash, but since Russia, China, and India have all done it, that thinking may be changing. “I was on the ops floor in 2007 when the Chinese shot their own satellite down,” Air Force Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said during an Oct. 16 Aerospace Nation forum sponsored by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, reported Defense Daily on Oct. 20. “That was a clarifying event, and I can almost chart from there the establishment of the Space Force, because suddenly space was contested.”
“We knew there was other kinds of [space] contesting going on, but that kinetic attack on a satellite really shook the foundations that this is no longer a benign environment, and we started asking the questions about are we properly structured and organized and doing the right kinds of things to be able to maintain our advantage,” Saltzman said. “And so, to some degree, the aggressive behavior of our competitors has clarified what we need to do as a nation and in the Department of Defense.”
When asked if the U.S. was pursuing its own ASAT capability, Saltzman said “I will tell you that I think the best defense sometimes is a good offense.”
