The US has to win in space if it doesn't want to lose future wars, a top Marine general says

• The US must prioritize space capabilities and technologies in future wars, a top Marine general says.
• Multiple nations are racing to control space and develop tech and counter-tech.

Future wars may not be decided solely by who can strike the fastest or hardest. Instead, it may come down to space, a domain that multiple top military powers see as full of endless possibilities.

And in order for the US to win future wars, a top Marine general says, it must prioritize space capabilities and control the final frontier.

"Space is the most resilient capability we have," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, the deputy commandant for information, said at a conference on Monday, according to Defense News. "I'm telling you right now: We don't win the space domain? Don't even bother."

The US military has made major jumps in space capabilities, but the quantity and quality of threats in space have also increased significantly in recent years, officials have said. Glavy called it "stiff competition."

"No space, no chance," he said.

The Pentagon has stated repeatedly in official policies and strategies that space-based capabilities are "critical to overall military effectiveness across the entire Joint Force," but it argues that rivals, namely China and Russia, have "weaponized space" in a way that puts US and allied capabilities at risk.

Among the US military's priorities, developing advanced and resilient technology, such as satellite and communication networks, is key given threats posed by Russia and China. The latter, officials have noted, have fielded various counter-space weapons that could hypothetically hold US satellites at risk should there be conflict.

These have been key concerns for years now. The 2020 Defense Space Strategy states that "China and Russia present the greatest strategic threat."

Officials have continuously pressed the need for future investment in space in order to support operations on other military domains, like air, sea, and land.

"For the Department of Defense space is essential to how we compete and fight in every domain," John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said in April. "It provides us with a missile warning and missile tracking critical to defending our homeland. It provides position navigation and timing to strike targets with precision. And it provides communication in austere environments to support global command and control."

"To put it simply, space-based missions are essential to the US way of war," he told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee at the time.

Leaked US intel documents from earlier this year suggested the US military believes that while Russia's space program is declining, despite the development of ground-based and spaced-based kinetic anti-satellite weapons, China's ability to hold US and allied space assets at risk has improved. India, too, has tested anti-satellite missiles.

US President Joe Biden's space budget for fiscal year 2024 is the largest ever — $33.3 billion — and is a roughly 15% increase from the previous year.