COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The head of the U.S. Space Command has warned that the United States must harness emerging technological powers if it wants to avoid defeat in a future war with a hostile nation.
Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force’s chief of space operations, speaking Wednesday (April 10) at the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium here in Colorado Springs, stressed the need for the Space Force to partner with private industry to rapidly develop and field new space-based capabilities.
Saltzman said the best and fastest way to achieve that is to strengthen the Space Force’s ties with private industry. “To beat its competitors, the Space Force must take advantage of technological innovation and new capabilities. Otherwise, the Space Force will lose, the joint force will lose, and the United States will lose.”
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The need for rapid innovation in space is driven by the fact that the U.S. is entering a new era of “great power competition” with its main potential adversaries, Russia and China, Saltzman said, citing Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine as an example of why the U.S. needs to strengthen its space presence.
“As Russia has reminded us, war can return quickly and unexpectedly,” Salzman said in his speech, adding that “cooperation between industry leaders and allies has proven particularly effective in countering Russian efforts in Ukraine.”
But this kind of cooperation is not new: “Throughout our nation’s history, military success has depended on support from private industry,” Saltzman said.
The chief cited examples such as the U.S. Navy’s partnership with the coal industry during the Spanish-American War and the more recent U.S. Air Force’s partnership with commercial satellite operators Inmarsat and Intelsat to expand military communications bandwidth.
Citing these historical examples, Saltzman said the Space Force is looking to the future and seeking to modernize its capabilities through expanding and strengthening commercial partnerships.
U.S. Space Command’s Space Operations Commander, Gen. Chance Salzman, testifies during a House Armed Services Committee hearing at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 28, 2023. (Image credit: Getty Images/Alex Wong)
As part of its efforts to modernize Space Force capabilities, the service today released a new commercial space strategy document to strengthen collaboration with industry partners to advance America’s competitive advantage in space.
Saltzman described the document as a tool to “enhance interoperability between government commercial solutions without stifling the innovation, speed and scale of the commercial sector.”
The document outlines four key initiatives — transparency of collaboration, operational and technological integration, risk management and future-proofing — that will enable the Navy to “develop more resilient, warfighting-capable architectures and field them faster, in greater numbers and at a lower cost,” Vice Adm. Sean Bratton, deputy director for Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, said in a statement announcing the document.
Even with this new strategy in mind, modernizing Space Force’s technological capabilities will remain a challenge due to the nature of military funding, which is subject to the whims of Congress and politics. Plus, Saltzman noted, “as we all know, there’s never enough money.”
Speaking separately at the Space Symposium before Saltzman, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall highlighted the service’s frustration with the budget process and the delays it causes to developing and acquiring new technology.
“For the past 15 years, we’ve operated under a continuing resolution, giving up five years – a third of our available time – while waiting for new funding and authorization to arrive,” Kendall said. “It’s hard to win an election when you give your opponent such an advantage.”
“The whole system is holding us back,” Kendall added.
