Dogfighting in space? Not too far-fetched, Space Force chief says

Space Force’s second-in-command made headlines in March when he likened Chinese satellite maneuvers to training for “dogfighting in space.” 

And in a conversation hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, a think tank, in late March, Space Force’s top officer doubled down on the language, saying the image of space-based dogfights was both informative and not too far off from reality. 

General Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of Space Operations, told an audience at the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington, D.C. that the service had used its observation capacity to view “five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control,” an exercise he likened to “dogfighting in space.”

“They are practicing tactics, techniques, and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another,” he said, according to CNN, which later confirmed through a spokesperson that Guetlein was referring to space objects belonging to China.

While some might scoff at the image this conjures of Star Wars-esque fighters strafing each other in high-velocity encounters in the dark void of space, the chief of Space Operations said the picture is more accurate than some might guess.

In response to a question from Mitchell Institute Executive Director Doug Birkey, who said the imagery “may have caused professional space practitioners to cringe, given that the technical reality is far different from that Top Gun [sic] analogy,” Gen. B. Chance Saltzman pushed back.

“If we can’t make our case to the American people, then members of Congress become less interested in it, and if members of Congress that are less interested in it, it’s harder to advocate for the resources. That’s the connection,” Saltzman said. “It doesn’t mean that they need to have a Ph.D. level of understanding, but they certainly need to understand it well enough.”

Related: Leaders discuss future warfighting in unpredictable battlespace

Dogfights have an undisputed hold on the public imagination. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, long criticized for the complexity of its logistics chain, delivery delays, and budget overruns, also struggled to win over the public because it lacked the awe-inspiring aerial maneuvers of legacy platforms like the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Plans for an F-35 flyoff against the beloved A-10 Warthog close air support aircraft drew interest and curiosity for years – all despite the reality that the F-35, with its stealthy features and sophisticated software, was never really intended for dogfighting.

But, Saltzman said, dogfighting in space is not just a word picture designed to draw public interest. A missile and space operations officer who spent most of his career in the Air Force, Saltzman said a lot of the principles of future space warfare dovetail with the air warfare that has been practiced for decades.

“If you were to think about a two-circle fight at night with no onboard sensors, and you’re getting everything from ground-based [ground-controlled interception], that’s the kind of dogfighting you’re talking about. And if you’re relying on offboard sensors to cue you in a tight fight, there’s a lot of trust there,” he said. “You’ve got to really count on high-fidelity, low-latency information getting to you … spacecraft-aircraft, that’s the problem we’re facing, And so that’s the real trick, is making sure that we have the right sensors that can collect the data, provide the operators that are in that dogfight the situational awareness they need to make the right decisions to keep that positional advantage.”

A two-circle fight is a conventional manned dogfighting maneuver in which both aircraft are flying away from each other and encountering each other when their circular flight arcs merge.

Related: More than missing guns: Why America lost dogfights over Vietnam

Aside from the physics differences between maneuvering an aircraft in the atmosphere and operating in space, there’s also the reality that, at least in the foreseeable future, fights in space would likely be unmanned – two satellites or vehicles battling via their ground-based operators. To date, even such space-based battles have been the subject of future-looking conversations, rather than current reality. Yet, Saltzman emphasized that the Space Force is expecting and planning for the space domain to get much more hostile and contested in the near future.

“We redesigned our force generation model to make sure that we carve out time for our operators to be able to train against a threat, train against a thinking adversary, get the reps and sets on their tactics so that they are prepared if things go bad in the space domain,” he said, adding that Space Force has invested “heavily” over the last few years in simulators that allow Guardians to train against an “aggressor force” that puts their skills to the test.

Nor should the severity of satellite warfare be discounted: as Guetlein described in his talk, China’s training activities may be geared toward future operations designed to disrupt or disable U.S. communications and surveillance activity, which may have destructive and even life-threatening consequences on earth. Ukraine’s war of self-defense against Russia has demonstrated the critical role of satellite-based communications and intelligence in modern warfare. Notably, Russia is another space power that has been reportedly developing destructive space weapons that could destroy satellites and alter the operating space for a long time to come. 

In light of the terrifying unknowns contained in space warfare, the image of dogfights may make the prospect less overwhelming as well as easier to grasp. 

“It won’t surprise anybody that the sun at your back works in space the same way as it works in the air. It’s the same exact issue,” Saltzman said. “So I kind of like the analogy, because I think it’s easy to get your head around.”

Feature Image: Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman delivers a keynote address on the state of the U.S. Space Force during the Air and Space Forces Association 2024 Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., Feb. 13, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)

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