Witnesses warn of growing space threats, urge commercial integration, resilient launch and better space domain awareness

Lawmakers and commanders at the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee hearing discussed expanding counter-space activity, on-orbit risks and the department's efforts to integrate commercial capabilities and strengthen launch and test infrastructure.

Representative Mike Turner forcefully framed the risk of an on-orbit nuclear device as an existential space threat, saying the situation "cannot be permitted to go into space" and likening it to a "Cuban missile crisis in space"; he pressed U.S. Space Command to be explicit about the consequences of an orbital detonation and whether U.S. systems were prepared. General Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, told the committee that some command nuclear-command-and-control systems…