China has been using experimental satellites to practice “dogfighting” in space, the U.S. Space Force’s No. 2 officer said March 18, the latest in a series of revelations as to how America’s adversaries may seek to disrupt U.S. space operations in the future.
The Chinese maneuvers include a series of what the Space Force calls “proximity operations” that were conducted in low-Earth orbit last year.
Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said the operations involved “five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity, and in control.”
“That’s what we call dogfighting in space,” he said at the McAleese and Associates annual Defense Programs Conference. “They are practicing tactics, techniques, and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another.”
Though Guetlein did not identify the country that conducted the maneuvers at the conference, a Space Force spokesperson later said that he was referencing Chinese activities which were documented in commercially available information.
“China conducted a series of proximity operations in 2024 involving three Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two Chinese experimental space objects, the Shijian-6 05A/B. These maneuvers were observed in low earth orbit,” the spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Guetlein said these activities by U.S. adversaries explain why the Space Force needs to transform itself into a service that no longer treats space as a benign environment and are validation for its existence and funding, which at $30 billion a year is the lowest budget among the DOD’s military services.
At the AFA Warfare Symposium on March 3, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said “space superiority” was now a “core function” for the service.
“Space superiority is the reason that we exist as a service, and the vagaries of warfighting must inform everything we do if we are going to succeed,” Saltzman said.
But what worries Guetlein the most is what might be to come.
“Unfortunately, our current adversaries are willing to go against international norms of behavior, go against that gentleman’s agreement, and they’re willing to do it in very unsafe and unprofessional manners,” Guetlein said. “The new norms of behavior in space, unfortunately, within the past three years: jamming, spoofing, dazzling … cyber hacks are happening all around us on a day-to-day basis.”
The new capabilities adversaries are seeking include Russia’s effort to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite weapon, for example. Adversaries already have the “ability to laze our current … intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites,” Guetlein said.
“We’ve got to change our culture. We’ve got to change our training. We got to change our [tactics, techniques, and procedures], our [concept of operations]. We’ve got to change our kit going forward. Because this is the most complex and challenging strategic environment that we have seen in a long time—if not ever.” Guetlein said. “We need a credible fighting force, and we need the capability to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggression. That is the inflection point that you’re seeing today.”