Now that the US has a branch of the military dedicated to space, the US needs enemies in space. In an interview published on the Pentagon’s website on Wednesday, US Space Force Gen. John Raymond described the threats the US faces in space.
Raymond discussed Operation Desert Storm, which is when the US military first used satellite-guided missiles on a large-scale. “It was the first war where we integrated strategic space capabilities into theater operations,” he said.
But Raymond says things are different now, and space is now a contested domain. “We have to train our operators differently, we have to have different space architectures, and we have to have partnerships,” he said.
The general said China and Russia caused this shift in the environment and that the two countries want to cut off US access to space. “I think there’s a realization amongst nations that access to space is no longer a given. We’ve got to make sure that we stay ahead of this growing threat.”
As an example of the threats facing the US, Raymond pointed back to 2007, when China shot down a satellite. China tested a missile on one of its weather satellites in 2007, decades after the US first tested an anti-satellite missile in 1985.
Raymond’s comments came after China launched its first lunar mission. Beijing launched a robotic spacecraft on Tuesday that will collect rocks and other samples from the moon to help scientists understand more about the moon’s origins and formations.