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8 October 2024

Building a Responsible Counterspace Campaign

Luke Widenhouse

At this year's Defense News Conference in September, General Michael Guetlein, the vice chief of space operations, drew attention to the Space Force's theory of success known as "Competitive Endurance." The concept was outlined in a January, 2024 white paper and founded upon three core tenets: (1) avoid operational surprise in space, (2) deny first-mover advantage in space, and (3) undertake responsible counterspace campaigning. The Space Force's efforts to build better space domain awareness and more resilient satellite constellations have contributed substantially to the first two pillars of the strategy. It is the last — responsible counterspace campaigning — that requires the most work to become a reality.

The Space Force's white paper on competitive endurance frames responsible counterspace campaigning as actions by military space forces to "preserve U.S. advantages by campaigning through competition without incentivizing rivals to escalate to destructive military activities in space." At its core, then, responsible counterspace campaigning is a problem of deterrence.


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