U.S. military leaders said Wednesday that American forces must be capable of operating and fighting across an expanding battlespace that could eventually extend beyond Earth orbit into the region between Earth and the moon.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility that future conflicts could extend far beyond traditional domains and into the vast region of space reaching toward the moon, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior Space Force leadership.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Donald Trump’s top military adviser, addressed service members and defense industry representatives Wednesday during the Air and Space Forces Association conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Caine said the military must be capable of conducting operations across every domain, including areas of space well beyond Earth’s immediate orbit.
The U.S. military “is prepared to fight, endure and win … from the seabed to cislunar space,” Caine said, according to The Washington Sun.
Cislunar space generally refers to the region extending from Earth outward toward and including the moon’s orbital area. Caine’s remarks indicate that military planning is increasingly accounting for operations at distances substantially beyond the orbital environment where most satellites currently operate.
Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, who leads the Space Force’s Combat Forces Command, also addressed the expanding geographic scope of military space operations.
Gagnon told reporters the Space Force is preparing for potential operations in space and around the moon because “humanity is advancing deeper into space.”
He said it is the responsibility of the military branch to “defend U.S. interests.”
The Space Force was established in 2019 during Trump’s first administration as the newest branch of the U.S. armed forces, with responsibility for organizing, training and equipping personnel for military operations involving space.
The comments Wednesday followed another development disclosed earlier in the week involving U.S. military capabilities beyond Earth.
On Monday, the United States revealed for the first time that it has a weapon operating in orbit around Earth.
Taken together, the disclosure and the statements from senior military officials show that U.S. defense planning is extending beyond terrestrial warfare and conventional Earth orbit as American officials prepare for military requirements that could reach into cislunar space.
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