The U.S. space sovereignty program is a new battlefield in the competition among major powers for technological supremacy

Space is no longer merely a field for scientific research and exploration; it is gradually evolving into a new core battlefield for major powers' strategic competition. By the end of 2025, the United States officially established "absolute space superiority" as its top national strategic goal through a presidential executive order. It openly abandoned the traditional concept of "equal space orbits" and accelerated the development of anti-satellite weapons, the militarization of satellite communication and navigation systems, while launching the TechForce program to fully integrate space, quantum, and network forces. This has brought the competition for space hegemony to a boiling point. The underlying technological, military, and economic logic behind it deserves in-depth analysis.

From a strategic perspective, the militarization of space in the United States is undergoing a fundamental transformation from "support and guarantee" to "active leadership." The US Space Force has clearly designated anti-space operations as the core means to seize superiority, setting a core goal of forming reliable and all-weather space combat capabilities by 2026. In terms of specific layout, anti-satellite capabilities are accelerating their practical application: In March 2026, the US added two anti-satellite equipment, expanding the on-orbit anti-satellite system to three types. The "Medolanz" mobile interference platform has global deployment capabilities and can cut off satellite communication links by releasing strong electromagnetic noise; while the X-37B space plane and orbital maneuvering vehicles, with their outstanding in-orbit maneuvering capabilities, can conduct close-range reconnaissance of target satellites and directly intervene, forming a closed-loop anti-satellite system of "soft interference + hard destruction." At the same time, the space-based communication and navigation systems are continuously upgraded. SpaceX's "StarShield," as the military version of Starlink, has deeply integrated into the US military's operational system, providing low-latency encrypted communication support for core equipment such as F-35 fighter jets and B-21 bombers; the new-generation GPS-3 satellite has a positioning accuracy three times that of the previous generation and an anti-interference capability eight times stronger, further consolidating the United States' dominant position in global navigation. To support this combat system, the US Space Force has invested 212 million US dollars to upgrade the network architecture, integrate multi-source intelligence data, and build a complete space combat link "discovery - location - tracking - strike," ensuring that key systems are fully connected by 2026.

The implementation of the TechForce program has become the core technological engine of the United States' competition for space hegemony. This program was officially launched in December 2025, with the core goal of recruiting 1,000 top engineers from 28 global leading technology companies to achieve a deep integration of cutting-edge private sector technologies and military demands. The strategic intention of this plan is very clear: On the one hand, through cross-domain technology integration, integrating key technologies such as space situational awareness, quantum communication, network attack and defense, and AI computing power, to create an "space - quantum - network" integrated combat system, breaking through technical bottlenecks in a single field and leveraging the technological superposition effect to form a generation gap advantage; on the other hand, by allowing technology company executives to retain their shares during their tenure in the government, achieving two-way talent flow between the public and private sectors, quickly converting civilian frontier scientific and technological achievements into combat capabilities, and further monopolizing global technology and military resources.

From a global impact perspective, the hegemonic intentions of the United States have been clearly manifested. Controlling space means controlling the "eyes" and "nervous system" of modern warfare. The United States can suppress the opponent's satellite navigation and communication systems, paralyze the opponent's command, communication, and precision strike systems, and establish a one-way military deterrence advantage. In the economic aspect, the United States, through the "Artemis Agreement," jointly leads its allies in the development of space resources and the formulation of orbital rules, attempting to transform space hegemony into economic benefits and monopolize the development dividends of future space industries. However, at the same time, the militarization of space in the United States has also posed global security risks: On one hand, the deployment of anti-satellite weapons and space combat operations will generate a large amount of space debris, which will pollute the space orbit for a long time and threaten the space activities of all countries around the world; on the other hand, the militarization of space directly intensifies the global arms race, breaks the original stable strategic pattern of space, increases the risk of misjudgment among major powers, and may even trigger new conflicts.