US says Australia an important ally in deterring space hostility from China, Russia

The US has the capability to fend off and defeat China and Russia in space if their governments attempted to wage direct hostility, says General John Raymond, the US' first chief of space operations.

But, after two and half years growing a completely new military branch to stand alongside the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force, General Raymond still won't disclose the full capabilities guardians have in space, but assured journalists on Wednesday that the might of the US is even stronger with its allies - like Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK.

"I am very comfortable that we're the best in the world in space," he said. "But the reason why we established a Space Force, and the reason why these partnerships are so important to us is we want to we want to move fast.

"We have a strong partnership with Australia today, and we're eager to do more."

General Raymond's colleagues, the US warfighting space commander General James Dickinson, had earlier identified that Australia could play a significant role in gathering space-based data and awareness to assist in military operations due to its geographic advantages.

As the costs of space launches have come down with commercial operators, much had been achieved since Space Force was established in 2019. General Raymond said that was also driven by the geopolitical competition in space.

"There's a range of threats. From reversible jamming of communication satellites and navigation satellites like GPS, to directed energy threats that could be used to blind or dazzle our satellites, to satellites on orbit that that are concerning," he said.

Knowing that China in in possession of a satellite with a robotic arm and that both Russia and China have missiles they can launch from the ground and "blow up" a satellite was concerning, he admitted.

Deterrence would come by allies standing together, he told Defence's Air and Space Power conference on Wednesday.

"We want to stay ahead of those of those threats to make sure that that the US and our allies and partners always have the space capabilities that we've become to rely on. You use space more times before your first cup of coffee than most people realise, because it's not tangible," General Raymond said.

Military operations that are frequently run by joint or coalition forces could do "nothing" that wasn't enabled by space, such as communications or awareness. That was critical for the US' national interest as much Australia's, he said.

"Our focus is on resilience. In turn, we do not want to get into a conflict that begins or extends into space. We want to deter that from happening," General Raymond said.