ABNA24 - According to the Axios website, Iran has been described in a US intelligence report as an “emerging” space power that is using its space capabilities to inflict heavy blows on US forces in West Asia.
US claim of “space superiority” over Iran has become a contradictory yet revealing narrative in Pentagon intelligence reports. In a report published by Axios, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) described Iran as an “emerging space power” that managed to carry out offensive actions against US space capabilities during Operation Epic Fury and disrupt the functioning of Global Positioning System (GPS) services using ground-based jamming systems.
This acknowledgment, coming from an agency tasked with assessing military threats, points to a paradigm shift in the US understanding of the security environment in West Asia. Under this emerging paradigm, absolute technological superiority no longer guarantees military dominance, and regional actors can disrupt the balance of power by relying on “asymmetric capabilities.”
A key point in the report is the distinction between “quantity” and “effectiveness.” According to data from the American Enterprise Institute, Iran has only around 12 operational satellites, while the United States has more than 1,000 times that number. Nevertheless, this limited capability, combined with electronic warfare and jamming systems, has managed to “challenge US use of space.”
Cary Bingen of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) confirms this assessment, although he stresses that Iran’s capabilities are “far more limited” compared with those of the United States, China and even Russia. This apparent contradiction actually reveals the essence of Iran’s asymmetric strategy: focusing on an adversary’s vulnerabilities rather than competing directly in a field where the enemy enjoys overwhelming superiority.
The most important arena in this confrontation is the Strait of Hormuz. Last September, the US Department of Transportation warned of “significant” disruption to global navigation systems in this vital waterway. The Strait of Hormuz is not only the region’s main oil export route but also a passage for US military forces stationed in the Persian Gulf. GPS disruption in this area poses a direct threat to the navigation of warships, drone flights and the accuracy of US guided weapons.
This capability has enabled Iran to influence the enemy’s “operational environment” on land and at sea without needing a physical presence in space. General Todd Benson, commander of US Central Command’s Space Forces, has described this form of power as a result of space becoming “accessible and affordable” in the modern era.
Another aspect of the report is the claim that Iran purchased a Chinese spy satellite, which has helped it “target ground-based objectives more accurately.” In May 2026, the United States sanctioned three Chinese entities for providing satellite imagery that “enables Iran to carry out military strikes.” Russia has also launched two remote-sensing satellites into space for Iran, in 2022 and 2024.
These partnerships show that while Iran’s emerging space power relies on domestic capabilities, it also draws on foreign resources, providing Tehran with access to information and technologies that would take years to develop independently. In effect, by incorporating foreign resources into its space program, Iran has taken a shortcut in its development and overcome constraints resulting from sanctions and technical pressures.
Importantly, the claim by Admiral Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, that the United States had achieved “space superiority” over Iran in March, following an attack on Iran’s Space Command, has been met with serious skepticism by American analysts.
Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute bluntly states: “If Iran can disrupt US space capabilities, we do not have superiority.” He compares the situation to “declaring air superiority while the other side can still shoot down your aircraft.”
This criticism exposes the logical weakness in the Pentagon’s claim. If space superiority means being able to use space without restrictions while denying the same capability to the enemy, then, as long as Iran’s ground-based jamming systems remain operational and navigation disruptions persist in the Strait of Hormuz, the claim remains unproven.
What the Axios report and US officials’ reactions to it appear to indicate is a shift from the stage of “denial” to one of “threat management.” Iran has emerged as an emerging space power, not at a level where it can compete with the United States in Earth’s orbit, but at one where it can “increase the cost of US use of space.”
Although limited on a global scale, this capability has an impact far greater than its size in the context of West Asia’s geography and the heavy reliance of US military operations on satellite systems.
The Pentagon’s acknowledgment of this reality amounts to accepting that, in the region’s security calculations, space is no longer a one-sided “safe haven” for the United States but has become an arena for competition and confrontation—one in which middle powers, through tactical ingenuity and strategic alliances, can challenge the calculations of a space power such as the United States.
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