The British military has been urged to formally adopt the term “orbital warfare” and develop the capability to conduct offensive combat operations in space.
The recommendation comes in a forthcoming briefing paper, Embracing Orbital Warfare, published by the Council on Geostrategy and written by its Senior Research Fellow in Space Power, Gabriel Elefteriu.
Elefteriu argues that current British and allied military thinking is constrained by broad, defensive concepts such as “space control” and “counterspace operations.” Instead, he calls for a clear definition of “orbital warfare” as combat between spacecraft in orbit, with the aim of using space-based assets to secure control of the space domain.
Citing recent conflicts and the fact that both China and Russia view Starlink’s constellation of more than 1,400 satellites as a major military threat, Elefteriu claims:
The UK and its allies cannot meet a threat they have not named.
Continuing to fold in-orbit combat into overarching concepts like space control and counterspace will keep policy tethered… meanwhile, the decisive arena for securing spacepower advantage is orbit itself, and the key means is hard orbital capability.
Rather than calling for the creation of a dedicated military branch similar to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed Space Force, the paper focuses primarily on changing military doctrine and terminology, with relatively little emphasis on new funding or institutional reform.
Before joining the Council on Geostrategy, Elefteriu served as Director of Research and Strategy at Policy Exchange.
