The battlefield now extends all the way to the moon, U.S. military's highest-ranking officer says

The U.S. military must be ready to engage the enemy farther from home than ever before, according to its highest-ranking officer.

"Today's modern battlefield operates from the seabed to cislunar space ," Gen.

Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday (Sept.

16) during a keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Cislunar space extends from Earth all the way out to the orbit of the moon and includes the lunar surface.

For several years now, military officials have been stressing the strategic importance of this huge region, which could get quite a bit busier in the next decade or so.

Gen.

Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Sept.

16, 2026. (Image credit: Craig Hudson, for Air & Space Forces Association) For example, both the United States and China plan to build bases near the moon's south pole, which is thought to harbor large amounts of water ice.

Winning this new moon race is critical , U.S. officials have stressed, because whoever does so will be able to establish norms of behavior on and around Earth's nearest neighbor.

China has already demonstrated impressive capabilities in the lunar sphere.

In 2019, the nation's robotic Chang'e 4 mission pulled off the first-ever soft landing on the moon's mysterious far side.

In 2024, Chang'e 6 returned far-side samples to Earth — another first.

Caine didn't cite such missions or even mention China by name.