World War III's First Shots Will Be Fired in Space

In his press briefings after the United States attacks a country — a regular occurrence these days — Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs, never forgets to give a shout-out to the Space Force and its guardians, as the service members are called. And for good reason. Whether America swoops into Venezuela or bombs Iran, it first takes out the eyes and ears of its adversaries, and that invariably involves assets and technologies in space that communicate or interfere with kit on the ground.

Neither Venezuela nor Iran, though, is a technological peer to America in the space domain. The question that occupies the brightest minds of space warfare is instead what the next major war will look like when the adversary is either Russia or China; or, God forbid, both simultaneously.