Iran war demonstrates a ‘combat credible’ Space Force, top guardian says
Space Force troops helped U.S. forces “to achieve a variety of complex military objectives across the battlespace” in the war with Iran, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said this week. He added that Space Force has proven itself to be a “combat credible” part of the U.S. military.
Saltzman, the top officer in Space Force, laid out just how guardians are carrying out space-centric missions as part of Operation Epic Fury, including while taking fire. He also said that when people see the U.S. military carry out joint operations around the globe and recently in the war with Iran, they are “seeing combat spacepower at work.”
Speaking at the Space Foundation’s 41st Space Symposium on April 15, Saltzman said that electronic warfare specialists in Space Force were launching attacks at Iranian systems, with some guardians taking indirect fire from Iranian munitions. In another instance, a pair of guardians oversaw a “hasty” redeployment of an electronic warfare system into the CENTCOM area of responsibility to help overall mission planning. In another case, Saltzman said, one guardian was in charge of tracking where every guardian in CENTCOM was, and was able to keep that up despite dealing with “enemy fire, power outages, communication blackouts.”
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Last month, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper alluded to Space Force’s role in the war, saying that they were degrading Iranian capabilities and helping to protect American forces, although he did not go into detail. Saltzman’s remarks this week offered a look into just how Space Force operates in combat missions and how it integrates with the wider military. As he put it, there are “asymmetric benefits derived from owning the high ground of space.”
“Just a few years ago, we were debating theories, thinking about our doctrine, designing uniforms. Today, we’re a combat credible force,” Saltzman said in his address. “Allied by design, collaborating with industry, executing combat operations around the globe, every day, on the invisible front line.”
A large part of Space Force’s mission involves early warning and missile detection operations, alongside satellite communications and electronic warfare, although that is not limited to guardians. One soldier, assigned to Army Space and Missile Defense Command, died from wounds from a March 1 attack on an American base in Saudi Arabia.
Space Force has been building out its terrestrial and orbital infrastructure of satellites and weapons — kinetic and otherwise — for months, developing tactics for what it calls “orbital warfare.” Although Space Force leadership hasn’t been tight-lipped about what it intends to counter and overcome, Saltzman’s address pointed to specific threats.
“Our battlefield is filled with hazards like ground-based microwave and laser weapons, all capable of damaging satellites overhead; jammers that can disrupt GPS and communications satellites; and even threats of nuclear-capable anti-satellite weapons on-orbit. And that’s just what we face today,” he said.
Saltzman’s remarks come three months after top military leaders revealed Space Force’s operational role in the attack on Venezuela. That mission, which resulted in the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, saw guardians join other parts of the military to disrupt Venezuelan defenses. Notably, Space Force and U.S. Cyber Command both worked to help clear a path for American special operations teams to breach Caracas airspace. The Pentagon also revealed afterwards that Space Force’s element in U.S. Southern Command had been operating informally for weeks before it was officially established.