It’s official now. Space is a warfighting domain. This is declared in the new capstone doctrine document of the U.S. Space Force, released on April 7. “Space Force Doctrine Document 1—The Space Force” manifests Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman’s push for a Space Force that goes beyond enabling other military branches through navigation, timing, intelligence, and communications, to a fighting force capable of defending its assets in space and of putting those of rivals at risk, reported Air & Space Forces Magazine.
“In conflict, space will be a contested environment,” Saltzman wrote in a foreword to the document. “We are the military service dedicated to fighting in [space]. We do not merely provide support functions—we also employ military force to achieve space superiority in order to ensure our freedom of maneuver.”
The doctrine rests heavily on “Space superiority,” which term appears in the document at least a dozen times. “The Space Force will do whatever it takes to achieve space superiority,” Saltzman declared at the March 3-5 AFA Warfare Symposium.
