Space Force Charts Shift to Warfighting Force for 2040

Space Force is reshaping its satellites, operations and force structure as it prepares to fight in an increasingly contested space domain, Lt. Gen. David Miller, Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, said Wednesday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“There was no air-moving target indicator mission in this Space Force doing space-based sensing and targeting two years ago. That capability is already starting to be fielded,” he said. “Every one of our constellations will begin to move to some resilient proliferation and distribution, and we will disaggregate from a force that was extremely good but built and engineered for efficiency to a force that is built to fight.”

New technology capabilities and the strategic integration of data operations across all domains have moved space into the warfighting realm. Miller said Space Force’s space data network is serving as the backbone for the military’s multi-domain data network strategy.

Space Force’s 2040 Plan

In April, Space Force published its Objective Force 2040 plan, which details the service’s plan to restructure into a fighting force over the next 15 years. The plan was quickly followed by the Space Warfighting Environment 2040 framework that lays out the trend and implications it must consider moving forward.

As Space Force works toward that future force, leaders are weighing tradeoffs in its restructuring to meet new mission demands.

John Trumpfheller, Space Force’s director of force design and analysis, said the service is determining the right balance between the “exquisite” satellite systems traditionally designed for long-term operation and more proliferated constellations built for resilience.

Another major shift is toward maneuver warfare in space, said Maj. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, Space Command’s director of global space operations. Satellites have traditionally operated in predictable orbits, but Mastalir said that predictability can create vulnerabilities in a contested environment.

“Historically, we’ll park something, let Kepler [Communications] determine where it’s going to go. It’s very easy to calculate where it is a few days later. It makes it incredibly easy to target,” he said. “It’s like putting all of your aircraft wingtip-to-wingtip on the tarmac and never moving them. The air domain would never do that, and we shouldn’t accept that in the space domain.”

Where AI Fits In

Space Force is also considering how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and greater autonomy should factor into the design of future systems.

“As AI becomes more dominant, how much autonomy do we want built into our systems,” Trumpfheller said. “Do we want that built in up front, do we want the flexibility to bolt that on later as it advances, keeping in mind that we still need to develop Guardians and their expertise and operational ardor, the space warfighting. We also need to leverage those technological advances that we know are going to be part of the future force.”

When asked what success for Space Force looks like in 2035, Mastalir said it would be along the lines of combatant commanders considering how many space systems they’d need to achieve a mission in the same way they’d consider their number of fighter squadrons and what adversary satellite assets might need to be eliminated alongside them.

 “This is the kind of thinking that Space Force service components, as well as U.S. Space Command bring to the process. If that continues, we will truly have joint all-domain military operations, which is what we are all striving for,” he said.