WASHINGTON — Since the U.S. Space Force stood up five years ago, it has delivered warfighting effects to the point that the U.S. can now contest the space domain, Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Thursday during Defense One’s “State of Defense 2025: Air Force and Space Force” digital event.
He said those warfighting capabilities include proliferated warfighting, space architecture and proliferated low-Earth orbit satellite communications.
“We’re developing missile tracking capabilities. We’re still providing all the GPS functions that enable the internet online banking. It’s a pretty good deal for the American taxpayer if you think about what all we provide,” Saltzman said, noting his service has over 15,000 people and is just 3.3% of the Defense Department’s budget.
He said the service’s top three priorities are space domain awareness to provide accurate real-time information to decision-makers, resilient satellite architecture to better defend space capabilities and counter-space capabilities to hold at-risk adversaries’ use of space against the joint force.
Saltzman said space requires six categories of counter-space weapons — three ground-based and three space-based — jammers, directed energy and kinetic capabilities, like missiles. Homeland defense has always been a central part of the National Defense Strategy, he said, noting the Space Force will play a significant role in making the Golden Dome a reality.
The Golden Dome, which will be similar to Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, will be designed to defend the U.S. against aerial attacks.
The general said industry would play a big part in space domain transformative technology and praised the work done by companies in delivering those capabilities to the Space Force.
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