NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. –
Gen. Stephen Whiting, U.S. Space Command commander, joined colleagues across three other combatant commands to address the complex threats facing the Joint Force as part of the annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association September 17, 2024, here.
Held annually, the three-day conference provides a forum for former and current Department of Defense leaders to discuss the Department’s state of readiness.
As part of the “Dangers We Face” panel on day two, Whiting was joined by Gen. Gregory Guillot, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command; Gen. Timothy Haugh, U.S. Cyber Command; and Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, U.S. Transportation Command.
For each command, the significance of cyber – from the domain to the importance of neutralizing threats to cyber operations – was highlighted as critical to their distinct mission sets. Particularly, Whiting noted, for U.S. Space Command.
“Cyber really enables the entire space enterprise,” he told panel moderator, retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, Dean of the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“Not only are space networks by definition, global, but they extend out to 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit…we've got to defend all of that novel cyber terrain … because we're only as strong as the weakest link in our cyber chain,” Whiting said.
For each command, the People’s Republic of China remained the most consequential strategic competitor, but the threats that Haugh sees in his area of responsibility impact not only his supported combatant commands, but nearly all citizens who use cyber systems in our country.
“We have now done extensive reporting at an unclassified level around what type of threat that the PRC is – to both our economy, to the department, and to our critical infrastructure,” he said. “We’ve exposed how [the PRC] targets our critical infrastructure, and what it means…to have a competitor that is willing to use those type of tactics to target not only the department, but our citizens.”
Similarly in the space domain, Whiting emphasized the breathtaking pace at which competitors are developing counterspace systems, and the need to be able to achieve space superiority to protect the joint force from space-enabled attack.
For USCYBERCOM, Haugh emphasized similar requirements.
“We owe multi-domain options, and our ability to be able to generate options in cyberspace … gives our policy makers and the Secretary of Defense, different options in a crisis,” Haugh said.
Generating those options takes a unity of effort from across the combatant commands, services and industry to ensure not only the protection of cyberspace systems, but the ability to leverage those capabilities when needed.
Sixteenth Air Force, a service cyber component to USCYBERCOM, also supports USSPACECOM through improving the resilience of space architecture and hardening networks against hostile cyber operations.
“I'm very fortunate that … three of my component commanders, are also component commanders for General Haugh, so I get to leverage that capability,” Whiting said.
To effectively counter threats, it’s vital to ensure both the security of critical infrastructure and the readiness to respond to adversarial actions in space and cyberspace. Whiting laid out what some of those threats look like.
“It's reversible, non-kinetic jamming of SATCOM and GPS. It's cyber, which can be non-reversible as well. It’s high energy lasers, it’s direct ascent ASAT weapons, it's co-orbital ASAT weapons on-orbit,” Whiting said.
Whiting also took the opportunity to address the concerning potential for Russia to place on orbit a satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon.
“The world can't and shouldn't accept that somebody would place a nuclear weapon on orbit,” Whiting said. He went further to address the importance of the Outer Space Treaty that has been in place for decades to ensure the safety and security of the domain.
And while he emphasized that the U.S. military has had time to think about that threat for many decades, noting “our most important missions are prepared for that,” the potential impact could have indiscriminate effects on the space domain, affecting all satellites, regardless of what nation owned them.
While each combatant commander faces a number of threats in their respective domains, space and cyber remain at the forefront for all, as they are pivotal to the success of the mission of the Joint Force.
“The most present and persistent threat that we face on a daily basis is the cyber threat,” Guillot said. “And I think the fastest growing threat that we see is in space.”
As the threats evolve in all domains, USSPACECOM remains committed to protecting and defending the space capabilities it knows the Joint Force relies on.
“You do not want to be a military that is not space-enabled on a modern battlefield. You're not going to survive very long … you want your forces to have all the advantages from space,” Whiting said. “That drives a requirement on us, U.S. Space Command, to protect and defend those capabilities so (the Joint Force) can have the confidence that they'll be there in a conflict.”