SPACECOM Wants to Proliferate Ground Stations—and Counter Adversary Proliferation

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—The head of U.S. Space Command said Aug. 12 that operations in Iran have shown just how vulnerable ground-based space assets—particularly missile defense systems—are to attack and called for a more resilient, mobile architecture. 

“If current overseas operations have taught us anything, it’s that our adversaries are targeting space and missile defense assets like never before,” Gen. Stephen Whiting said in a speech here at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. “Let’s be blunt and specific. Iran is a medium-sized military power and they’re choosing to fire at space and missile defense targets. When bullets cost so much, you take great care of your aim; you only shoot at your adversary’s most valuable targets.”

At the same time, Whiting also said his command needs the ability to counter adversaries who have made their satellite and ground stations more resilient through proliferation.

Iran

Since the start of Operation Epic Fury in late February, Iranian missiles and drones have struck and damaged U.S. radar sites throughout the Middle East, according to multiple media reports. Whiting told reporters following his speech that while he’s proud of what space capabilities have contributed to the fight, the Defense Department must improve its resiliency on the ground. 

The Space Force in recent years has evolved its on-orbit architecture from one that relies solely on small numbers of large satellites in geosynchronous orbit to larger constellations of small satellites in low Earth orbit. The thought behind this shift is that there is strength in numbers—proliferation brings redundancy, and a large fleet is harder for an enemy to wipe out. 

Whiting advocated for the military to adopt a similar approach to its ground architecture, moving away from single-node systems to a more distributed, resilient footprint.

“Anywhere we are reliant on fixed, centralized nodes, we need to really think through how are we making that as resilient as a pLEO constellation is resilient compared to the traditional constellations we have,” he told reporters. 

A new U.S. Space Command vision-casting document—which lays out the conditions the command expects to face between now and 2040—highlights ground systems as “the physical anchor of spacepower,” making them attractive for enemies to disrupt through kinetic or cyber attacks. Indeed, without resilient ground capabilities, the benefits of a proliferated satellite constellation could be quickly lost if an enemy targets its terrestrial operations hub. 

“Static ground nodes, once the norm, will become liabilities,” the report states. “They represent single points of failure that adversaries can attack through cyber intrusion, directed energy, precision fires, or sabotage. In a future where space effects must persist through the first strike, fixed infrastructure will be targeted early and often.”

Proliferating the ground architecture and incorporating more cloud-native and commercial solutions is one option for increasing resiliency, the report notes—both today and in that future operating environment.

“To preserve advantage, ground infrastructure must evolve into a resilient, mobile, distributed network, one that blends military, commercial, and coalition capabilities; one that shifts C2 from static to adaptive; and one that allows warfighters to focus on winning the fight rather than fighting the network,” the report states. 

Countering Proliferation

Even as Whiting highlighted the need to protect on-orbit assets by hardening and distributing ground architectures, he and other officials here also advocated for the U.S. to strengthen its own arsenal of weapons that can take out an adversary’s proliferated constellations by targeting single nodes to effect multiple satellites.

In fact, Whiting said the ability to attack an enemy’s proliferated LEO, or pLEO, systems is one of the most urgent capability gaps the command wants to fill in the coming years. The capability is at the top of his “integrated priority list” for fiscal 2029 through 2031, a document that’s meant to send a demand signal to the department, industry, and academia what technologies SPACECOM needs to perform its mission. 

Whiting said Space Command needs capability options that allow it to disable large swaths of satellites rather than impact a single spacecraft, a concept that SPACECOM’s deputy commander, Army Lt. Gen. Richard Zellman, discussed in an Aug. 11 panel. Zellman said both cyber and directed energy weapons could serve as what he and Whiting called a “one-to-many” effects.

“We are asking industry, we are asking research and development firms, the government labs, to please put their time, effort, attention this problem area so that we can develop some solutions,” Whiting said, later adding: “I don’t want any U.S. force to be at risk because somebody else might have a proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation that could find, fix, track, and target them, for example.”

Beyond counter pLEO, other items on Whiting’s priority list include:

Kinetic and non-kinetic fires, which Whiting said must be both credible and acknowledged in order to serve as a deterrent 
Joint, integrated command and control
Dedicated space domain awareness to support advanced fires
Sustained space maneuver, both for positional advantage and to avoid on-orbit threats