AUGUST 27, 2025 – As Russia and China seek to expand their influence in space, Space Force Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, urged greater international cooperation to safeguard the domain at the South American Defense Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug. 20.
The three-day conference was cohosted by Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey, U.S. Southern Command commander, and Gen. Xavier Isaac, chief of the Argentine armed forces joint staff, and included sessions on enhanced maritime domain awareness and armed forces support to law enforcement in countering transnational criminal organizations.
The U.S. has worked with regional partner nations across geographic domains in the Western Hemisphere for decades, but Whiting highlighted the need for growth in space domain partnerships.
“U.S. Space Command and U.S. Southern Command have become excellent partners in space — working together for security cooperation and domain awareness,” he said.
He highlighted the $42 million investment for infrastructure development and the placement of 11 space domain awareness telescopes with partners in South America.
“We’re working to build and share specialized expertise through partner space training opportunities and share enhanced domain awareness via Southcom’s [enhanced domain awareness] program,” Whiting said.
The program is a Southcom initiative — a comprehensive system that integrates various data sources and technologies to improve situational awareness and understanding of activities in a specific domain.
Whiting emphasized its role in enhancing situational awareness and collaboration for space-based intelligence and surveillance capabilities, noting its positive impact on maritime domain awareness, countering illicit activities and disaster response.
Holsey underscored that these capabilities are crucial for addressing threats already in the region. In his opening remarks, he highlighted how illicit activities, including transnational criminal organizations operating across the Americas, threaten the region, and how the U.S. is countering these operations.
“The challenges and threats that span the Andean Ridge to the Strait of Magellan are growing more complex. … Expanding the scope, scale and strength of transnational criminal organizations throughout the region is a top concern. Currently, 33 U.S.-sanctioned groups, including the recently designated 10 foreign terrorist organizations, are operating in the Western Hemisphere, engaged in illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, commodities, wildlife and persons that earn them $358 billion a year in revenue,” he said.
Whiting emphasized that space-based capabilities underpin the global economy, infrastructure and security, noting sectors such as farming, banking, communications and weather forecasting rely on space technology.
While many nations understand the vital importance of the space domain, there are countries undermining the collective progress of humanity in space.
Whiting detailed China’s irresponsible creation of space debris and its lack of transparency in sharing launch information, endangering satellites and astronauts, while also highlighting concerns about its operations within host nations to support military space activities. He further raised concerns about Russia’s reported plans to violate the Outer Space Treaty with a nuclear-capable satellite, a development he deemed “unjustifiable irresponsibility” posing an indiscriminate threat to all satellites.
He said China and Russia are seeking to establish space operation facilities in the Americas, likely including counterspace operations.
“Both nations are fielding a wide range of related weapons from reversible, nonkinetic systems like satellite communications jamming, GPS jamming and cyberattacks to direct ascent antisatellite missiles and co-orbital antisatellite weapons, putting friendly satellites at risk,” he said.
Given this threat environment, Spacecom views partnerships and alliances as essential for enhancing space security and responding to emerging threats.
“We need capable partners who are willing to increase their capacity to effectively contribute to the team,” Whiting said. “A partnered approach to enhance space security through sharing expertise, burden sharing and coordinated rapid, effective responses to emerging threats — leaving no doubt to our opponents that we are stronger, more capable and always ready to counter any threat.”
By U.S. Space Command Public Affairs