ARLINGTON, Va. –
U.S. space capabilities underpin the modern warfighter. As the Space Force component to U.S. Space Command, we are delivering combat-relevant space capabilities in military operations today, said U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Dennis Bythewood April 1, 2026.
“I start on the premise that we are a warfighting service now,” said Bythewood, commander of U.S. Space Forces–Space (S4S) and Combined Joint Force Space Component commander for USSPACECOM, the command responsible for operational control of combat forces dedicated to protecting, defending, and delivering space capabilities around the world. “There isn’t a military operation on the face of the planet that the Space Force is not a part of.”
Bythewood made the remarks during the “Operating a Warfighting Service” panel at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Spacepower Security Forum in Arlington, Va. His comments echoed those of Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, who earlier that day cited Guardian contributions to ongoing military operations as evidence that space superiority is now a mandatory precondition for Joint Force success.
For Guardians executing that mission daily, Bythewood underscored that the stakes are immediate and operational. “There isn’t a Guardian among us who doesn’t understand the implications of failing to do missile warning, failing to provide a PNT solution to put bombs on target, or to ensure that search and rescue happens at the right time,” he said.
The Space Force’s operational reach has expanded through components embedded within every geographic combatant command, giving Guardians real-time visibility into Joint Force requirements - and the ability to elevate those requirements back up the chain, including nominations for terrestrial targets to be addressed through cyber, special operations, or kinetic strike.
“That linkage has also been one that has been blossoming,” he said. “Those combatant commanders understand that linkage, and we’ve been able to both exercise it and see it in operations.” The relationship is reciprocal. Where the Space Force once existed primarily to support other domains, those domains now increasingly operate in support of space - helping protect satellites, ground systems, and communications infrastructure from adversary action.
“We don’t do it alone,” Bythewood said. “We rely on the other services to prosecute terrestrial targets for us to help achieve space objectives.”
Resilience, he emphasized, comes not from any single architectural decision but from multi-domain integration - combining proliferated low-Earth orbit constellations, layered missile warning systems, and allied and partner contributions into a force designed to withstand adversary action.
As we continue to grow capabilities and see proliferated constellations being brought online, we will have to rely on automation to carry much of the operational load, with artificial intelligence and machine learning performing tasks that would otherwise demand significantly larger crews.
“The number of people on the operations floor is not proportional to the number of satellites on orbit,” he said. Orbital warfare, he added, will remain more hands-on and tactically intensive by nature.
Bythewood stressed that the mission Guardians execute every day - whether from operations centers in Colorado or forward-deployed positions - is not theoretical but directly shapes outcomes for the Joint Force. “Our Guardians get it,” he said. “They’re exercising it every time that we run an exercise, and they’re seeing it in operations globally.”