Jared Isaacman as Space Force hails Operation Epic Fury: space ‘baked in’ from day one
jared isaacman is drawing fresh attention today as senior U. S. commanders publicly described how space power moved from support role to opening move in Operation Epic Fury. At 12: 00 PM ET, top military officials underscored that the campaign against Iran began with space and cyber actions before any aircraft crossed the border. The message from the Pentagon’s top ranks was blunt: modern combat operations now start with space superiority, not just air or ground maneuver.
Space and cyber opened Operation Epic Fury, commanders say
Operation Epic Fury opened on February 28, 2026, with space and cyber forces “blinding Iranian sensors” and severing Iran’s military communications network before the first aircraft crossed into Iranian airspace, the Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine said. Caine described the “first movers” as US Space Command and US Cyber Command, emphasizing that space did not merely support the opening of the campaign—“Space was the opening of the campaign. ”
During an update delivered in Arlington, Virginia, Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, Central Command Commander, said the U. S. Space Force delivered space superiority and served as a “critical enabler in this fight. ” Cooper framed the outcome as a continuum: without space superiority, decision superiority would lag, air superiority would require extra effort, and operational effects would cascade. He said those effects were turned over to Space Forces – Central, and “they got it done. ”
Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, said the difference now is not just recognition, but integration: “From day one… we are baked in from the beginning, ” he told the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies at its Spacepower Security Forum on April 1. Saltzman added that guardians are integrated across the warfighting enterprise, pointing to mission areas ranging from missile warning to over-the-horizon satellite communications, and said, “We create disruption for an adversary. That’s part of what we do. ”
Jared Isaacman and the threshold moment: space goes first
The shift described by commanders reflects a broader doctrinal threshold: for decades after Desert Storm, space capabilities enabled military operations in other domains—navigation, communications, imagery, and missile warning—while remaining “outside” the fight. In Epic Fury, that changed: space went first, and adversary sensing and communications were degraded ahead of air operations.
Saltzman also stressed that some deployed capabilities are “inside the threat zone, ” requiring force protection and the ability to continue operating “under attack. ” He said guardians were able to do that effectively in Epic Fury, reinforcing his assertion that space superiority is now “a mandatory precondition” for the Joint Force to succeed.
Immediate reactions: officials describe space superiority as decisive
Cooper said Space Force performance in Epic Fury validated the need to secure space superiority early to avoid delays in decision-making and added operational burden elsewhere. Saltzman went further, saying, “You have space superiority if you can use space the way you want, and the adversary cannot use space the way they want, ” adding that in Epic Fury, “I think those are the conditions that we’ve met. ”
Saltzman also noted he is “not looking for fair fights, ” saying his job is to ensure guardians have what they need to maintain space superiority. General Caine’s description of the opening sequence—space and cyber taking the first actions—put a clear stamp on the idea that the campaign’s first phase was decided above the battlefield.
Quick context: from Desert Storm to contested navigation
Desert Storm earned the label of the first “space war, ” but space enabled the fight rather than participating in it, and Iraq had no meaningful space capability of its own. In 2026, by contrast, navigation and space effects were contested: Iran jammed and spoofed navigation signals, disrupting more than 1, 100 commercial vessels on the first day, while shifting elements of military navigation to China’s BeiDou constellation.
What’s next
In the hours ahead, the military’s public emphasis on space superiority is likely to continue as commanders describe how operations are planned with space “from day one. ” For now, the operational storyline remains focused on how space and cyber actions shaped the opening of Epic Fury—and why jared isaacman is suddenly a search magnet as the conversation about space power accelerates in real time.
