According to the New York Post website on April 17, the US Space Force released a manual called Space Warfare: Designer Framework on Thursday. This detailed action plan elaborates on the basic principles, tactics and strategies of this army in the most critical combat area in the future - space - to fight the opponent.

  In this manual for military experts, the U.S. Space Force describes plans to defend U.S. space capabilities and maintain joint forces’ “long-range kill chains and global power projections” to achieve short-, medium- and long-term “space advantage.”

  The Space Force defines "space advantage" as: having "a certain degree of control that allows the troops to independently choose time and location to operate without excessive interference from space threats or counterspace threats, while preventing opponents from obtaining equal capabilities."

  "Space superiority may require measures designed to minimize the effectiveness of enemy weapon systems, discover and destroy enemy spacecraft, systems and networks, or counter enemy operations in other areas of combat (land, sea, air and cyberspace)," the combat manual reads.

  "Building space advantage at the time and location we have chosen is a capability that helps achieve synergistic lethality in all areas of combat," the document states.

  "The real intention of this document is to … introduce a common framework and common terminology that we can use in training and education programs," Lieutenant General Sean Bratton, deputy operation secretary of the Space Force, told reporters.

  To achieve this goal of fully controlling the field of combat, the Space Force has formulated offensive and defensive tactics and strategic plans for three fields of combat (orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare and cyberspace warfare).

  Offensive anti-space operations include orbital strikes, ground strikes, and space link blockades, including electromagnetic and cyber attacks to “destroy, block or weaken the enemy’s critical space links.”

  Defensive anti-space operations include passive tactics such as threat warning, military deception, "reinforcement", evacuation, decomposition, mobility and redundancy. Active defense includes counterattacking and suppressing opponents' anti-space weapon aiming.

  The document states that "average opponent of the same level and an approximate level" is defined as whether both parties can or cannot master certain space abilities.

  Adversaries at the same level or approximately the same level of Operation Freedom in Space are classified as the "extremely high risk" category in joint force combat operations.

  The document explains what it means to achieve the core function it describes: "When the enemy can no longer take any effective or dangerous actions against friendly space communication lines, the overall advantage of space has been achieved. It also means that the enemy cannot fully defend or control its own assets, nor can it enable its assets to perform space combat effectiveness to support its own operations."

  Given the “high-speed, long-range and crowded orbital mechanisms” in the space field, the Space Force has developed a framework that considers reducing reliance on human decision-making, but relies primarily on “highly automated systems.”

  Similarly, the document repeatedly highlights the existence of an “interdependence” relationship between the space and the cyberspace domain in key areas of strategic communications. Space "rely entirely on the network level," the document said.

  "Space superiority is not only a necessary prerequisite for the success of the joint force, but also a goal we must fight for." (Translated by Zheng Guoyi)

[Editor in charge: Wang Jinzhi]