on orbit. And that includes Chinese and Russian satellites and satellites from all other countries. And if we see that those satellites are going to potentially run into a piece of debris, we send out warnings to the owner-operators of those satellites. And you may say, well, “Hey, General Whiting, why does Space Command send those warnings out to China and Russia?” Well, again, because we don’t want their satellites to run into debris and create more debris, which pollutes the very environment in which we have to oper- ate. And that would increase risk to the satellites that we care about, too. Now, that notification process is only as effective as China and Russia make it by registering the right contact information with us, so we can provide that information. I would welcome the opportunity to have a standing routine path to pass space safety information with China. And we’ve seen them try to make some space safety notifica- tions back to us, but it’s not routine, it’s not through a commonly understood path, and it’s certainly not the same volume of the information that we send to them. Q In the list of integrated priorities for SPACECOM that you presented to the Joint Staff, you listed space fires at the top of your list. Can you discuss what space fires are exactly and why they are critical for “establishing space superiority?” A. Fires is one of the joint functions that’s defined in doc- trine, and every domain and every AOR [area of respon- sibility] needs access to the joint functions to be able to operate effectively. Let me just highlight what those seven joint functions are: Fires, which you asked about, Sustain- ment, Intelligence, Movement and Maneuver, Command and Control, Protection, and then Information. Those are all the things that a Joint Force needs to be successful. And as we think about defending American interests in the space domain, we need access to all of those same kinds of capabilities. So, fires is defined in joint doctrine as being the ability to affect or influence some- thing. And so, as we carry out what I call our three moral responsibilities, two of them require the ability to affect or influence. And those three more responsibilities are: Number one, we have to provide space effects to the Joint Force. The Joint Force is sized with the assumption they will have ac- cess to space capabilities like satellite communications, GPS, missile warning, ISR, weather from space. The second moral responsibility is to protect and defend the constella- tions we have today against the threats that we see in the space domain. And to do that, we’ve got to again be able to affect or influence those threats. And then, third, we have to help defend the Joint Force from space-enabled attack. I talked about that ISR or C5 ISRT system that is designed to find, fix, track, and target U.S. and allied terrestrial forces. Well, we’ve got to help the Joint Force defend against that C5 ISRT system. And again, we want to be able to affect or influence that. So that’s the role that fires would play
as a joint function that we need in our domain, just like all other domains do. Q In the near term, what technological developments are the acquisition community providing that will improve SPACECOM’s ability to operate in an increasingly contested space environment? A. I always address technological needs with a great deal of humility. Yes, our gaps inform what those technology needs may be. But I also recognize there are some incred- ibly smart technologists and research and developers out there who are coming up with things that we can’t even conceive of today, that may very well help us. So, this is definitely a technology pull from us, but I also need a tech- nology push from those who are on the cutting edge be- cause, 15 years ago, if we had been talking, who could have ever believed that we would be having reusable rockets landing? That seemed like sci-fi. Now, of course, it’s just something we take for granted. But to answer your question, I would point to three classes of technologies that we would find very helpful here at U.S. Space Command. One is technologies that would enable what we call sustained space maneuver or dynamic space operations. Now you may say, “Hey Whit- ing, everything in space is moving.” And it’s true. In low- Earth orbit, objects in orbit are moving 17,000 miles an hour. But they’re in energy neutral states and, in fact, to literally move them out of that energy neutral state re- quires a lot of fuel, a lot of energy. And so, every time we want to move a satellite, we are debating with ourselves, A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster carrying a payload of two WorldView Legion satellites launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., May 2, 2024. This launch marked a collaboration between the U.S. Space Forces – Space and Maxar Technologies, a commercial space company. This mission was supported by U.S. Space Forces - Space (S4S) Commercial Integration Cell program, which fosters collaboration between the DoD and commercial space companies to deliver criti- cal space capabilities. Source: U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Leroi
10 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | March-April 2025
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