The Integrated Priorities List reflects Space Command’s assessment of capability gaps based on emerging threats, planned Pentagon investments and technologies under development. Whiting said the list is intended to direct the attention of the military services, government laboratories, research organizations and industry toward problems the command believes are not being adequately addressed. “This isn’t just a wish list. It’s a clear demand signal to several audiences describing the warfighting capabilities we need to meet our mission,” Whiting said.<\/p>\n
The list places what Whiting called integrated space fires first and counter-pLEO capabilities second, followed by joint integrated space command and control, dedicated space domain awareness for space engagements, and sustained space maneuver. “We’re a combatant command and we fight to win wars,” Whiting said in his keynote. “To win, we need credible, acknowledged, kinetic and non-kinetic fires. They are a key component of how we establish space superiority and restore credible deterrence.”<\/p>\n
Whiting declined to identify specific weapons or programs but said some U.S. capabilities must be publicly acknowledged to contribute to deterrence. He described existing U.S. policy against testing debris-producing direct-ascent anti-satellite weapons as still in force. On proliferated constellations, he said attacking individual satellites in networks of thousands “is not going to be a winning hand,” and the command is seeking ways to affect the critical nodes of such constellations. “I don’t want any U.S. forces to be put at risk because somebody else might have a proliferated low Earth orbit constellation that could find, fix a track and target them,” he said.<\/p>\n
Whiting emphasized that countering space-enabled targeting will not fall to the Space Force alone. “If we are going to prevent an opponent from tracking us, targeting us from space, that is not a problem that the Space Force will solve alone,” he said, adding that capabilities will need to move with Army, naval and other forces. On command and control, he called for enhanced machine-to-machine connectivity to support battle management on tactically relevant timelines. On space domain awareness, he urged adopting a target-quality track mindset. On maneuver, he said satellites limited by launch fuel create a psychology of scarcity that must change, potentially supported by in-space refueling and servicing.<\/p>\n
Whiting framed the priorities as central to establishing space superiority and restoring credible deterrence, which he described as having three elements: making clear what the United States intends to protect, denying an adversary the benefits of an attack through resilient systems, and being able to impose costs in response. “We want to have a credible deterrent force so that we don’t have a war that starts in space,” he said.<\/p>\n
Space Command does not procure the systems on its list. Its role is to identify operational requirements, after which the Space Force and other services must determine what programs, technologies and funding are needed to meet them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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