WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, questioned John Hill, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy about his views on the evolution of strategic deterrence polices as applied to space. During his questioning period, Senator King emphasized the importance of protecting U.S. assets in space, such as satellites, and altering deterrence calculus of foreign adversaries.  

SENATOR KING: “Mr. Hill, nobody wants to talk about offensive weapons in space – however, is it necessary to have a capability that will deter our adversaries from exercising offensive weapons against our satellites? In other words, our whole national security strategy rests upon deterrence. Do we need to develop capabilities and communicate them to our adversaries in order to have an effective deterrent?”  

MR HILL: “Senator King, the thing about the weapons, whether it’s offensive or defensive, is often in the intention of the user. One person’s act of defense is another person’s offense. For example, the ability to assure a capability to deny somebody the benefit of attacking a capability is part of a deterrent. The ability to impose costs on someone else if they take action is also part of the deterrence. And it gets to understanding what is important to someone else—to the adversary, the aggressor, you’re concerned about. If their capability in space is really not that important to them, then there’s not particular deterrent value in holding it at risk. But if taking down our space capability is very important to their military strategy, then assuring our military capability in space may be very important to our deterrence calculus. Figuring out these pieces of where does the space domain fit into the totality of deterring aggression, is one of the key questions that we have to work on with the new organizations.”

SENATOR KING: “When I was in Colorado Springs, in having these briefings, the first thing that came into my mind was that this is literally 3-D chess. We are dealing in a three dimensional process of defense and countermeasure.”

As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces – which oversees the United States’ nuclear posture worldwide – and a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator King is recognized as a thoughtful voice on national security and foreign policy issues in the Senate. In addition to his committee work, Senator King serves on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the Senate North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Observer Group, and is co-chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. He voted in favor of the Senate’s passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2021, which includes several funding and policy priorities advocated for by Senator King to support military facilities and communities in Maine and advance the national defense. The legislation – containing 25 bipartisan cybersecurity recommendations from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission – became law earlier this year after Senator King and the overwhelming majority of his colleagues voted to override former President Trump’s veto.

In addition to Mr. Hill, today’s hearing featured testimony from General David Thompson, Vice Chief Of Space Operations United States Space Force; and Darlene Costello, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force For Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.