Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, left, and Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir, commander of United States Space Forces, Indo-Pacific, at the Nov. 22, 2022 stand up of the Space Force’s INDOPACOM theater component at Camp HM Smith, Hawaii. (US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anthony Rivera)
WASHINGTON — The Space Force’s new Indo-Pacific component command intends to “embed” allied military representatives and is studying what key space capabilities regional partners can “bring to the fight” — with an eye firmly on China’s growing space power.
“We’re still evaluating … what can best be built by an ally,” command head Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir told reporters today on the margins of the Air Force Association’s annual spring AFA Warfare Symposium. “I’ve gotten offers to embed allies within the component, and we are absolutely going to do that. We just haven’t made any final decisions.”
Mastalir took up his role last November, when the Space Force’s first theater-level component was stood up at Indo-Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii. The role of that component is to improve the integration of space capabilities into theater operations, he explained, and support US Space Command’s ability to protect and defend space systems so that their capabilities remain available to regional forces including during conflict.
For example, Mastalir said, satellite communications networks are key to INDOPACOM operations given the vast geographical distances involved, including large swaths of ocean where landlines obviously are not possible. Missile warning is another high-priority for the theater, he said, noting that 562 “missile events” were recorded in the theater in 2022. Lastly, he noted that assured positioning, navigation and timing services via GPS satellites are “obviously important.”
The Indo-Pacific space component also is seen as a beachhead for improving space coordination and cooperation with regional allies and partners. Space Force and Space Command leaders consider bolstering ties with allied governments, and industry, as a key to building the resilience of US space systems against attacks from Russia, and in particular, China.
In its annual threat assessment released today, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) found that by 2030 China “probably will achieve world-class status in all but a few space technology areas.” Beijing’s space activities, the report asserts, are designed to “strengthen its attempts to erode U.S. influence across military, technological, economic, and diplomatic spheres.” Further, the report reiterated earlier Intelligence Community findings that China’s military continues to pursue a wide variety of counterspace capabilities aimed squarely at US space systems.
China “has got a lot of satellites, just within the last five to six years. There’s a lot of capability on orbit,” Mastalir said. “Many of those are intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites designed to find, fix, track and target US forces and allied forces. They’re designed to help kill sailors, airmen, soldiers, and Marines.”
At the component command, having Guardians integrated with regional forces provided by the other services, demonstrating “combat capability across all the domains,” is an “incredible deterrent” to hostile Chinese space activities, he said.
“Maximizing” the Space Force’s ability to contribute to such integrated deterrence and ensuring that conflict doesn’t expand into space are the primary goals of Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman’s “theory of success” unveiled Tuesday. Dubbed “competitive endurance,” that theory lays out three foundational efforts for the service to pursue: creating a resilient force structure, enhancing its capabilities to keep tabs on potentially hostile space activities, and building its own counterspace arsenal to put Chinese and other adversarial space systems at risk.
Saltzman told reporters Tuesday in a round table at AFA that the Space Forces fiscal 2024 budget request will show investments in all those efforts.
“I think when the budget rolls out, you’ll find that we are investing in space domain awareness capability. You’ll find that we’re investing in more resilient architectures and trying to get there as fast as we can. I think you’ll find that we’re investing in counterspace capabilities, with a with a mind of responsible behavior and space,” Saltzman said.
President Joe Biden is expected to release the overarching federal budget, including the top-line request for the Pentagon, this week. The details of the DoD request, however, are not expected to be released until next week.