The United States Space Force has released a comprehensive guide titled “Space Warfighting: A Framework for Planners”, offering military strategists a deep dive into the principles, methods, and strategic planning necessary to confront threats in the space domain — which is increasingly seen as a crucial arena for future conflicts.
This newly published doctrine outlines how the USSF aims to defend America’s assets in orbit and ensure the effectiveness of the Joint Force’s global military reach and strike capabilities. The document lays out objectives for near-term to long-term dominance in what it defines as “space-superiority.”
The Space Force characterizes “space superiority” as the ability to maintain operational freedom in space — choosing when and where to operate without major opposition, while denying that same freedom to adversaries.
According to the manual, achieving superiority may include targeting enemy satellites, infrastructure, or communication systems, while also addressing threats that emerge in other domains like land, air, sea, and cyberspace. “Space superiority may involve seeking out and destroying an enemy’s spacecraft, systems, and networks through measures designed to minimize the effectiveness of those systems, or countering enemy efforts in the other warfighting domains (land, maritime, air, and cyberspace),” the manual reads.
The framework emphasizes that control in space is a force multiplier that enhances military power in all other domains. “The ability to establish space superiority at the time and place of our choosing enables joint lethality in all domains,” it asserts.
Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations, explained the broader purpose behind the publication, telling reporters, “This document is really intended … to introduce sort of a common framework, common lexicon that we can use in our training and in our education programs,” as reported by Defense One.
To lay out a path toward dominance in space, the Space Force delineates offensive and defensive methods across three primary mission areas: Orbital Warfare, Electromagnetic Warfare, and Cyberspace Warfare.
Offensive operations in space, according to the document, could include direct attacks in orbit, strikes launched from Earth, or interference with space-based communication systems. These tactics can involve jamming, hacking, or other means to “disrupt, deny, or degrade an enemy’s critical space links.”
On the defensive side, the framework describes both passive and active strategies. Passive defenses include early warning systems, deceptive practices, hardening of systems, dispersion, and redundancy. Active measures involve direct responses, including counterstrikes and efforts to neutralize enemy targeting systems.
The Space Force differentiates between types of superiority depending on how much freedom each side has in space. If both U.S. and adversary systems remain functional, or if neither can operate, this is considered contested space, especially when dealing with nations of similar capabilities — referred to as “peer and near-peer adversaries.” Such a scenario is labeled a “Very High Risk” situation for U.S. forces.
The framework explains that true dominance occurs when hostile forces can no longer effectively use or protect their space infrastructure and are incapable of providing support to their own military efforts. “General superiority of space is achieved when the enemy is no longer able to act in a meaningful or dangerous way against friendly celestial lines of communication, and it also means that the enemy is unable to adequately defend or control its own assets or deliver space effects in support of its own operations,” the document explains.
The guidance acknowledges that warfare in space will lean heavily on automation due to the unique characteristics of the environment — extreme distances, velocity, and a crowded orbital landscape. As a result, the framework outlines a move away from constant human oversight and toward reliance on “highly automated systems.”
Furthermore, the document stresses the vital connection between space and cyber infrastructure, noting that much of what occurs in orbit depends entirely on digital networks. It describes space as “almost entirely reliant on the network dimension.”
USSF Chief of Space Operations General B. Chance Saltzman concluded the document with a sobering warning: “Space superiority is not only a necessary precondition for Joint Force success but also something for which we must be prepared to fight.”

{Matzav.com}