COLORADO SPRINGS — After years of open skepticism about US Space Command’s push for development of satellites with the ability to move freely on orbit over long periods of time, the Space Force now is embracing the concept as a foundation for orbital warfare.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters on Wednesday here at the annual Space Symposium that the service is working very closely with SPACECOM on orbital warfare, and to explore the technology and the operational concepts to enable on-orbit maneuverability and satellite refueling as part of its 15-year Objective Force plan.
SPACECOM head Gen. Stephen Whiting has been an unflagging advocate for on-orbit mobility and logistics over the past year, as was his predecessor Gen. James Dickinson. Whiting in his Tuesday symposium presentation called for a new space maneuver warfare strategy, explaining later to reporters that “it is a strength of the United States Joint Force that we we outmaneuver our adversaries, and that’s what we want to bring to the space domain as well in ongoing operations.”
Space Force officials have historically been more hesitant about mobility operations, questioning its near-term “military utility.” But this week Saltzman suggested he has come around, saying, “When [Whiting] says ‘dynamic maneuvering’, I agree. We need a maneuver force.”
But he said key questions remain. “Okay, what does that look like? Let’s model it. Let’s simulate it. If they can maneuver, do you need as many or does that drive a different set of requirements? … [W]e have a starting point: the Future Operating Environment, the Objective Force.”
He explained that the purpose of including space mobility in the Objective Force plan was to raise those questions, including “what are the unknowns that we need to resolve in the coming years so we can get our programming and our resourcing and our acquisition strategies right?”
Saltzman said the Space Force “will work closely with US Space Command on war games, modeling and simulation. … We will have to do continual analysis and then refinement as it marches its way closer and closer.”
The Future Operating Environment and the Objective Force, both released by the Space Force on Wednesday, are aimed at defining threats and the service’s future needs — ranging from kit to personnel to infrastructure to training — in five-year increments through 2040.
The Objective Force plan asserts that due to “competitors” seeking to degrade US space capabilities, “the most successful” space architectures will be designed to include “maneuverable and serviceable platforms.”
It calls for demonstrating on-orbit refueling and fielding operational “space tugs” that it characterizes as “Augmented Maneuver” systems between 2025 and 2030. Between 2030 and 2035, the plan envisions making re-fueling operational and demonstrating “high thrust reusable” orbital transfer vehicles. Finally, between 2035 and 2040, the plan calls for fielding an “initial on-orbit logist