One area where China has "moved breathtakingly fast is the fielding of a suite of counter space weapons," Gen. Stephen Whiting told Breaking Defense in his only press interview on a trip through Australia.
"The US and France recently conducted our first ever bilateral rendezvous and proximity operation to demonstrate combined capabilities in space in the vicinity of a strategic competitor spacecraft," SPACECOM head Gen. Stephen Whiting said today.
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
US Space Command recently updated its commercial integration strategy, that includes advocating for the Space Force to buy technologies deemed useful for operators, said Gen. Stephen Whiting, SPACECOM commander.
The new Space Systems Command effort is focused on establishing integrated C2 networks for four classified weapon systems chosen by the head of US Space Command Gen. Stephen Whiting.
SPACECOM's releases today characterize Operation Olympic Defender as "a multinational effort that focuses to optimize space operations, improve mission assurance, enhance resilience of space-based systems, synchronize efforts to strengthen deterrence against hostile actors and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the Earth."
Space domain awareness is one of the mission areas that SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting said currently needs improved command and control capabilities.
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
“[W]e've heard proactively from the Chinese twice on two things they wanted to talk to us about with space safety related issues,” said SPACECOM Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting. “We think that is very positive ... ”
SpRCO head Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense in an interview that the "operational integration" process involves "tens of force generation elements with POAMS [plans of action and milestones] that take years to close everything out."
Rumors already are flying about who will take over the vice slot at Space Force when Gen. David "DT" Thompson retires next year, with current bets on Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, head of Space Systems Command.
Sources tell Breaking Defense that two names — Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting and Lt. Gen. John Shaw — have been sent to the White House for potential nomination as the new Space Force chief.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
It remains to be seen if the creation of a new Joint Force Space Component Command will help or hurt the chain of command for military space.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, head of Space Operations Command, said that the Space Force is now following 35,000 space objects, a 22% jump in only the last two years.
SMC is "working on innovative relationships with, believe it or not, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and some other places you wouldn't think of as traditional spacefaring nations," says Gen. DT Thompson, Space Force vice.
"We know that cyber attack is where we are most likely to face the enemy in space," said Space Force deputy commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting.