MAUI — The head of US Space Command (SPACECOM) acknowledged today that the command lacks the full range of capabilities required to engage adversary space systems in a conflict.
“To effectively neutralize threats in space, we must be able to find, fix, track, and target them. Space targeting is evolving, but it remains a work in progress,” said SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting at the annual Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) conference.
“We don’t yet have the robust target folders that the Joint Force maintains in other domains,” he noted.
He added that once a target is engaged, SPACECOM requires “real-time battlespace awareness to execute effective battle management.”
Whiting explained that offensive operations against adversary space systems during a conflict fall under the concept of “space control.”
Space control, in his words, is a “cornerstone” of US military operations, given the growing proliferation of adversary space systems and counterspace capabilities.
“It encompasses the full spectrum of activities needed to actively contest and dominate the space domain, with the ultimate objective of achieving space superiority. This is not passive defense — it is proactive warfighting that includes active and passive measures, kinetic and non-kinetic fires, and reversible and nonreversible effects. At its core, space control involves both offensive and defensive actions collectively known as counterspace operations,” Whiting said.
However, space control cannot be achieved without robust space domain awareness (SDA), he emphasized.
“As Sun Tzu taught us, complete victory requires knowing the enemy, ourselves, the terrain, and the weather. SDA draws on these multi-disciplinary insights to transform orbital data into the actionable intelligence that underpins surveillance, protection, prevention, and negation. Without it, we are navigating blind in a contested domain where threats can emerge from any orbit or angle,” Whiting said.
“SDA truly is the bedrock of space control,” he added.
SPACECOM is also increasingly focused on closing gaps in baseline technologies — most critically SDA — that are essential for operations across the vast expanses of cislunar space and beyond, Whiting said.
Due to the laws of physics, objects in space at greater distances from Earth are subject to varying levels of gravity, magnetic interference, and solar radiation that affect how spacecraft operate.
“[A]s we expand our operations into cislunar space and beyond, we must ensure the SDA architecture is scalable — otherwise, we risk leaving deep space unmonitored and vulnerable to exploitation by our opponents,” he said.
Furthermore, Whiting said the US military currently lacks capabilities in positioning, navigation, and timing; satellite communications; and “even a standard format for discussing positional states in cislunar space.”
“This represents a concern, and USSPACECOM is focused on addressing it,” Whiting said.