Schiess Highlights Need for Advanced Defenses and Real-Time Space Awareness

Published Sept. 29, 2025
By Stacie N. Shafran
U.S. Space Forces - Space Public Affairs

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md -- The Space Force must move faster to harden its defenses, expand real-time awareness, and speed up decision-making if it’s going to keep U.S. forces safe against rapidly evolving threats, Lt. Gen. Doug Schiess said Sept. 24, 2025, at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“When I think of my colleagues and my sisters and brothers on aircraft carriers, 5,000 men and women of the United States out there, they are depending on us,” said Schiess, commander of U.S. Space Forces–Space. “We have to make sure that we can deny, degrade, disrupt, and even if we have to damage or destroy that red kill chain so they can get in and do their mission.”

Speaking on the panel Achieving Space Superiority with Lt. Gen. David Miller, commander of Space Operations Command, and Maj. Gen. Jim Smith, commander of Space Training and Readiness Command, Schiess said adversaries are developing capabilities that threaten U.S. forces at ranges never seen before.

He pointed to three areas where the service must close gaps: stronger defensive systems, persistent space sensing, and faster command and control. Programs like SILENT BARKER - a constellation of smaller, harder-to-target satellites - are a start, but not enough.

Current tracking methods, he argued, are designed for peacetime, not for an environment where satellites maneuver unexpectedly or new threats emerge without warning. “We need to go from the catalog of yesterday to where we are sensing all the time,” Schiess said.

He also pushed for mission authority to move down the chain of command so operators can respond immediately in contested environments.

Schiess, who also serves as the Combined Joint Force Space Component Commander for U.S. Space Command, said the Space Force has shifted from a supporting role to a combat-ready posture. “We are the joint force. We are a part of the joint force,” he said, stressing that Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine units must now coordinate space operations through S4S via his Space Operations Control Authorities.

Underscoring the service’s combat credibility, Schiess added, “We are ready to fight tonight, and today is not the day to test the United States. With the best people, the best technology, and the best allies, the United States will win.”

That shift is reflected in the Department of the Air Force’s Space Warfighting Framework, released earlier this year. Schiess cited Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 as proof of concept. Space Force electromagnetic warfare capabilities supported B-2 bomber missions, showing how space-based fires and domain awareness can directly enable combat operations.

He also underscored the importance of coalition ties as part of the command’s Multinational Forces–Operation Olympic Defender framework, which brings partner nations with like-minded space goals together to deter aggression through, from, and in the space domain. At the Combined Space Operations Center, located at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Royal Canadian Air Force Brig. Gen. Kyle Paul serves as one of his deputies. Recent operations with the United Kingdom in geosynchronous orbit and similar efforts with France highlight how allies are increasingly operating side by side.

“No nation can accomplish all objectives alone,” Schiess said.

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Schiess Highlights Need for Advanced Defenses and Real-Time Space Awareness