Space Force lacks ‘warfighting ethos,’ experts say
By Courtney Albon
Feb 19, 2025, 01:25 PM
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman speaks to senior leaders at Space Operations Command headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. (Dave Grim/U.S. Space Force)
U.S. policies around weapons in space, its over-classification of space capabilities and a lacking “warfighting ethos” are undermining public perception of the Space Force and “subverting” its legitimacy as a separate military service, according to a new study from the Mitchell Institute.
The study, released Wednesday, is the byproduct of a two-day workshop the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence held in October. The event convened 55 space experts from across the military, industry and academia to consider how the Space Force’s current operational concepts might hold up amid a range of potential crises over the next 25 years — from a deployed Russian nuclear antisatellite weapon to an attempt by China to hijack a futuristic “luxury space hotel.”
The workshop highlighted gaps in how the general public, and even some in the Defense Department, perceive the role of the Space Force and a disconnect between rhetoric that labels space as a “warfighting domain” and the actual policies that govern the military’s operational approach.
https://www.defensenews.com/space/2025/02/19/space-force-lacks-warfighting-ethos-experts-say/
