Kendall: Space Force must move faster to field counterspace capabilities
As the Space Force works to address adversary capabilities that threaten the United States’ military satellites in orbit, outgoing Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall warns that the service needs to develop and field technology at a faster pace.
“The place where I think we should be moving faster is counterspace. We need to protect the joint force from the targeting and sensing that China, in particular, is fielding now,” Kendall said Thursday during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute. “And we need more effective and efficient ways of sending a single interceptor against a single satellite.”
Counterspace weapons are capabilities able to disable, destroy or disrupt space capabilities through physical, electronic or cyber means. Although the U.S. has kept details about the types of counterspace weapons it has in development or deployed behind closed doors, the Defense Department has routinely sounded alarms over adversary capabilities — such as China’s work on anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons.
Kendall acknowledged that the Department of the Air Force has done significant work to identify ways to address the problems posed by enemy counterspace capabilities but warned that much more needs to be done.
In its budget request for fiscal 2025, the Space Force allocated $37.4 million in research-and-development funds towards at least two counterspace systems. The first is the offensive Counter Communications System, a mobile electronic warfare device able to block adversary satcom signals. The second is the defensive Bounty Hunter system, which will geolocate satellite communications and detect electromagnetic interference on radio frequencies from allies and adversaries.
As Kendall prepares to depart from his role as secretary of the Air Force, he said there has been “very good progress” made in the last four years in initiating development and fielding for other space-based capabilities.
“We’ve largely moved to more resilient architectures, distributed communications [and] distributed missile warning,” he said. “We’re looking at sensing, we’re looking at [ground-moving target indication] capability moving there.”
With a new administration and leadership coming to the Pentagon when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, Kendall emphasized the importance of prioritizing development of key space capabilities — including satellite communications, sensing, targeting and missile warning.
“Increasingly, we’re moving capabilities into space,” Kendall said. “The joint force is going to be very dependent upon space, and I think, quite frankly, the Space Force and space capabilities are going to be decisive in a future conflict, particularly with a peer competitor.”
