The US Space Force’s ongoing cold war in space against China and Russia was highlighted during a recent symposium, where the deputy commander of the US Space Force, John Shaw, declared that American satellites, which project power across the planet, are inadequately defended and that the US is under threat in the space domain advising the leadership of Russia or China’s People’s Liberation Army to go after the United States space capabilities.
To address the threats posed by China and Russia, Chance Saltzman, the Space Force’s chief of space operations, suggested that the US needs to be in perpetual competition with those countries and form alliances to deter them, emphasizing that the US’s concept for domain control in space cannot depend on overwhelming destructive force, and winning won’t be defined in traditional warfaring terms.
He added, “If you do this right,” there will be no fighting.
Both officials accurately portrayed the fine line between hard and soft power in spacefaring and the global competition between the US, China, and Russia. Shaw recommended that the US rethink how it does its space architectures to be more agile.
Besides the space competition, the US faces stiff resistance in almost all spheres of domination from Russia and China. We can conclude that this may be why the US sees with more sensitivity any endeavor by the Chinese and Russians as a perpetual and existential threat.
But it is yet to be seen how the US reacts to these threats and what options the Chinese and Russian authorities have as the US takes a tougher stance.