If the U.S. Space Force is to be an armed force then it naturally follows that it will be armed for combat in orbit. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, took this up in remarks to the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs yesterday.
While the Space Force organizes, trains, and equips forces, Space Command is responsible for actual operations in the domain and thus has to think about and prepare to fight, Whiting said. “We are a combatant command, and like all other combatant commands, we must be dominant at warfighting and war-winning,” Whiting said, reported Air & Space Forces Magazine. “And dominant warfighting in space requires credible, acknowledged kinetic and nonkinetic capabilities, fires and weapons. Acknowledging this reinforces a distinct space warfighting ethos, ensures that threats are met with the right capabilities, and restores credible deterrence in space.”
Whiting argued in no uncertain terms that the United States needs “orbital interceptors” to project its military power in space. “And what do we call these?” he said. “We call these weapons, and we need them to deter a space conflict and to be successful if we end up in such a fight.”
