Dune, but IRL? The Pentagon warns of ‘warfighting’ in space

You don’t have to be Noam Chomsky to see how US ‘peacekeeping’ efforts often start and end in disaster, or how the nation’s foreign policy is shaped by ulterior motives and greed. Nor do you need to be a rocket scientist to see how expanding these efforts into space could result in interplanetary horrors beyond our comprehension. (See: the evil Empire obliterating whole planets in Star Wars.) And yet, here we are.

US military leaders restated their ambitions for future space-based warfare last week (January 10), during a change-of-command ceremony at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. Specifically, they aimed to frame US Space Force efforts as a “deterrent” to armed conflict beyond Earth’s atmosphere, citing threats from both Russia and China, but let’s be honest... we all know what that means.

At the ceremony, the leadership of US Space Command (which sounds made up, but is actually a very real thing) was transferred from General James Dickinson to General Stephen Whiting, making Whiting the third commander of the force that oversees all US military operations in outer space. Most of the bluster about orbital warfare, however, came courtesy of deputy secretary of defence Kathleen Hicks.

“Both Russia and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] are evolving their military doctrines to extend into space,” said Hicks in a speech at the ceremony (which you can watch here, if you’re into that kind of thing). “They’re both deploying capabilities that can target GPS and other vital space-based systems. And we’ve seen both countries conduct operations against us and our allies and partners to degrade our space advantages.”

These “aggressive actions” suggest that Moscow and Beijing “seek to turn space into a warfighting domain,” Hicks added. The US has also developed its own anti-satellite tech, of course, and is actively seeking ideas for new space weapons, but obviously that’s all in the name of peace! “Conflict is not inevitable in space or anywhere else,” as Hicks says, “and the United States of America is committed to preventing conflict through deterrence by making clear to our competitors that the costs of aggression would far outweigh any conceivable benefits.”

For a nation that claims to be on the side of the Good Guys, this sounds pretty menacing, especially against the backdrop of the Space Race 2.0, which is seeing superpowers all around the world – including the US, China, Russia, and Europe – rush to colonise nearby space objects like the moon and Mars.

Another speech that was delivered during the ceremony, by US Navy admiral Christopher Grady, emphasised that space has already become a vital battleground, given our reliance on satellites and GPS systems for navigation, communication, and surveillance.

“Recent conflicts have starkly illustrated the indispensable role of space in our nation’s defence capabilities,” Grady explained. “In my view, space has emerged as our most essential warfighting domain – integral to our national security, our coalition interoperability, and our global stability.”

Since it was officially launched by Donald Trump back in 2019, the US Space Force has run various training exercises to enhance “space-domain awareness” and achieve “combat readiness” among its service members, who are known as ‘Guardians’. Is it all just a big cosplay, lifted from sci-fi films? Maybe. Or maybe we’re truly witnessing the dawn of a new form of cosmic imperialism. Asteroids are rich in natural resources, after all...