Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, highlighted the importance of operating from a common playbook to combine diverse capabilities and achieve a warfighting advantage, USSPACECOM reported Thursday.
“That broader playbook in joint doctrine is defined as something called the joint functions. The joint functions describe those skills and capabilities that we need to bring to the broader Joint Force, and they are the result of centuries of lessons learned and experience in the terrestrial warfighting domains,” Whiting said Wednesday during the Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The general described each of the seven joint functions listed in the military’s doctrinal guidance for joint operations, Joint Publication 3.0.
Those joint functions are intelligence, information, command and control, fires, protection, movement, and maneuver and sustainment.
According to the document, such functions must be integrated into plans for all operational environments, including the space domain.
Table of Contents
Command and Control Joint Function
Whiting designated 2025 as the combatant command’s year of command and control. With this, USSPACECOM will prioritize the revitalization of the ‘space command and control’ concept of operations and reassessment of the space area of responsibility and work with the Department of the Air Force, Space Force and acquisition organizations to ensure the procurement of the right effectors and sensors for the relevant kill chains.
The command will also prioritize efforts to improve capabilities to protect and defend the country’s space systems.
According to Whiting, command and control in space does not occur without the identification of critical assets and “for the first time ever this year, our Critical Asset List now includes commercial and Allied capabilities.”
Advancing Other Joint Functions
The commander said USSPACECOM has made notable progress in the intelligence area.
He noted that “everything we do in space must be intelligence led, given the threats that are now so prominent that we have to face.”
The command also has included the fires function in its integrated priority list for fiscal year 2027.
“If we’re going to achieve space superiority, which is, of course, foundational to Joint Force success, we must have improved capability to protect and defend our space systems and influence targets in space,” Whiting said.