U.S. forces destroyed Iran’s military space command, Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of Central Command, announced Thursday, saying the move degraded the regime’s ability to coordinate retaliatory strikes. But experts told Defense One that the country’s nascent space capabilities never posed a significant threat.
“We’ve also struck Iran’s equivalent of Space Command, which degrades their ability to threaten Americans,” Cooper said during a press conference.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced the existence of its own space command in April 2020 during the launch of its first reconnaissance satellite. Iran has launched a total of 26 satellites since 2005, and 13 of them are still operational, according to the American Enterprise Institute’s space data navigator tool. Three of those are registered to the IRGC.
U.S. Space Command played a crucial role in the early hours of President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, with Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine describing the military’s cyber and space forces as the “first movers” that used waves of non-physical effects, like electronic warfare, to disrupt Iran’s “ability to see, communicate and respond.” But Iran’s space capabilities, by comparison, present little threat to the U.S. military, experts said.
“I wouldn’t compare it to our space command, since Iran had virtually no space assets of its own to speak of,” said Todd Harrison, a defense expert who created AEI’s space data navigator tool.
A CENTCOM spokesperson did not respond to Defense One’s questions asking what threat Iran’s space command posed to the American public and how it was eliminated.
Iran’s small number of satellites have limited capabilities, and it’s unlikely that the nation has advanced capabilities to destroy satellites. It also hasn’t demonstrated an ability to build homing kinetic kill vehicles, according to the non-profit Secure World Foundation’s 2025 global counterspace capabilities report.
“Technologically, it is unlikely Iran has the capacity to build on-orbit or direct-ascent anti-satellite capabilities, and little military motivation for doing so at this point,” the 2025 report said. “Iran has demonstrated an [electronic warfare] capability to persistently interfere with the broadcast of commercial satellite signals, although its capacity to interfere with military signals is difficult to ascertain.”
Since the IRGC’s space command is under the regime’s aerospace forces, which operate missiles, it’s possible that Cooper was referring to that threat being eliminated, said Victoria Samson, the Secure World Foundation’s chief director of space security and stability.
“They were not a threat in space capabilities,” Samson said. “The threat that they have for counter-space capabilities, they’re great at jamming and spoofing … but, big picture, no.”
There are Guardians overseas in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, not just deployed-in-place stateside, an official confirmed to Defense One, but declined to disclose the number, locations, or types of squadrons deployed. In 2022, the Space Force stood up Space Forces Central, the component field command headquartered with U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
The 162nd Electromagnetic Warfare Combat detachment is responsible for “training, equipping, and mobilizing specialized space electromagnetic warfare capabilities within the region,” according to Defense Department images.
“Proud of our Guardians executing with unmatched precision and professionalism at home station and deployed to CENTCOM,” Saltzman said in a Wednesday post on X.
Space Forces played crucial roles in last year’s U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and the January operation which led to the capture of then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Officials have publicly confirmed guardians tracked missiles, provided satellite communication to transmit position, timing, and navigation data, and used other space-based capabilities to support the joint force.
Iran has warned, through relevant intermediaries, that countries with ground stations and companies providing uplink services against the regime will have“action…taken against them,” the IRGC-associated Tansim News Agency reported Thursday.
Harrison said Thursday’s announcement that Iran’s space command was eliminated could signal an end to the military’s main targeting operations.
“If anything, this is a sign that we are working our way down to near the bottom of the target list,” Harrison said.
