"[W]e are in the process now of building a defense of orbital assets CONOPS together," Gen. Stephen Whiting told the Mitchell Institute, adding that he expects it to be finished "by about the end of this year."
Gen. Stephen Whiting outlines a joint CONOPS and timeline
US Space Command (SPACECOM) Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting said the command and its closest space-savvy allies are drawing up a collective concept of operations (CONOPS) to guide how they would conduct future "orbital warfare." Whiting framed the effort as a practical next step after internal allied conversations about "the need for protect and defend capabilities, orbital warfare capabilities."
He described the CONOPS as a way to "leverage all these capabilities that these nations will be bringing with our capabilities to deconflict them at a minimum, but really we want to be able to integrate them, synchronize them and synergize them going forward." Whiting put the target for finishing that document at "about the end of this year."
Multinational Force Operation Olympic Defender (MF-OOD) moving from planning to operations
Whiting said MF-OOD—SPACECOM’s combined planning cell—largely serves as a platform for allied military space operations planning and now includes seven nations: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States. He reported SPACECOM has spent the past year "moving to translate that planning into actual operational capability," notably by stepping up the number and ambition of joint exercises.
Operation Selene and rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs)
Whiting pointed to a recent multinational exercise, Operation Selene, as a concrete example of that operational shift. Announced by Whiting in April at the Space Symposium as led by Canada, he elaborated that Selene was executed "a month or two ago" and "involved a high interest target on orbit" that "brought together all seven nations’ space domain awareness capabilities to improve our ability to maintain custody of that."
Because of Selene’s success, Whiting said, "we’re going to make that a permanent operation now." He also noted MF-OOD partners have conducted rendezvous and proximity operations multiple times: "we’ve done three times now over the last 18 months with individual, Multinational Force Operation Olympic Defender partner nations." Whiting added that last year France and Britain each participated in bilateral RPOs with SPACECOM.
Apollo Insights tabletop exercises with commercial industry
Domestically, Whiting said SPACECOM will continue its Apollo Insights tabletop exercises (TTXs) with commercial industry, holding one every quarter this year. "We’ve done one already … focused on a nuclear payload on orbit, which of course, is a future we do not want to see, and that would violate the Outer Space Treaty," he said, describing how SPACECOM "brought 60 something companies together at the classified level to share insights."
Whiting said the command will run three more TTXs this year: one on "dynamic space operations and sustained space maneuver," another on "proliferated constellations and orbits," and a year‑end event focused on missile warning. The reporting also notes parenthetically that "The US has accused Russia of developing a space nuke, which Moscow denies."
What this means for MF-OOD allies, SPACECOM, and commercial industry
- MF-OOD allies: The seven participating militaries will contribute space domain awareness and other capabilities to a shared CONOPS designed to deconflict and—where possible—integrate and synchronize operations, according to Whiting. Not all members have publicly embraced space war, but several have expressed interest in counterspace capabilities.
- SPACECOM: The command is shifting from planning toward sustained operational activity—establishing permanent operations like Selene, conducting repeated rendezvous and proximity operations, and shepherding the multinational CONOPS with a year‑end completion goal.
- Commercial industry: Companies are being engaged at the classified level through quarterly Apollo Insights TTXs; Whiting described industry contributions as offering "good ideas about how we could leverage capability have today or future technologies" in scenarios ranging from a nuclear payload on orbit to missile warning.
Whiting largely declined to specify the precise capabilities that will be pooled under the joint orbital warfare plan, saying only that the effort builds on recent RPOs and space domain awareness work. The immediate, named milestones are straightforward: finish the defense-of-orbital-assets CONOPS by the end of the year, make Operation Selene a permanent multinational operation, and continue quarterly industry TTXs that culminate in a missile‑warning exercise at year’s end—steps that will concretely shift MF-OOD from planning toward a sustained, interoperable set of multinational space operations.
