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US Space Force leadership has conducted their first international trip as a combatant command team to the Indo-Pacific region.
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US Space Command Commander General Stephen N Whiting and USSPACECOM command senior enlisted leader Space Force Chief Master Sergeant Jacob Simmons travelled to the region from 18 to 28 April.
“It is a privilege to be here to represent the women and men who work tirelessly to fulfil our moral obligation of providing global space capabilities to the Joint Force, our nation, and our alliance partners, and to discuss ways we can expand our cooperation and contributions to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Whiting said.
“Like USINDOPACOM, we are seriously focused on our pacing challenge, the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
“And we find that when we operate in a unified fashion with our allies and partners, that builds deterrence and ensures that there will never be a day without space for our militaries and for our national populations.”
The first stop of the multi-day trip included meetings in Hawaii with US Indo-Pacific Command, military service component commanders, and USSPACECOM’s Joint Integrated Space Team.
Discussions focused on multi-domain threats posed by the PRC, concerns with increasing cooperation between competitor nations including the PRC, Russia, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as well as opportunities for greater Joint Force and partner nation integration.
“The People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities, but they’re also using space to make their terrestrial forces more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging,” Whiting said.
“As we have seen with the events in the European and Central Command theatre of operations, the value of space is just foundational to all that we do in the military arena, and so we must protect and defend our space capabilities.”
While in Hawaii, Simmons participated in a first-of-its-kind subject matter exchange with 30 senior enlisted leaders from 21 nations at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. The exchange was initiated in 2023 and developed to enhance regional professionalism across military forces.
“Space is not just a supporting domain, it’s a pivotal domain,” Simmons said, emphasising the evolving challenges and opportunities that space presents.
He spoke on integrating space capabilities with terrestrial military operations to ensure comprehensive defence readiness and the importance of collaboration among Indo-Pacific nations in promoting responsible behaviour in space, ensuring a sustainable and secure environment for all.
