“With today’s action, we will ensure that our people are secure, our interests are protected, and our power continues to be unmatched. There will be nobody that can come close to matching us. It won’t be close.” – President Trump at the signing ceremony on February 19, 2019.
The creation of a Space Force will allow us to recognize and operate in space as another fighting domain to defend international rights of economic trade, which has been done on land, sea, and air over the history of world. It will establish a civilian Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space and a Chief of Staff of the Space Force, which will be a four star flag officer that serves as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This will also establish the United States Space Command, which will oversee operations that may occur in the space domain and provide space capabilities to the joint and coalition forces during peacetime or conflict.
“America must be fully equipped to defend our vital interests. Our adversaries are training forces and developing technology to undermine our security in space, and they’re working very hard at that.” – President Trump at the signing ceremony on February 19, 2019.
The Space Force announcement comes on the heels of last month’s release of the Missile Defense Review that outlined the expansion of our missile defense capabilities which the majority of these current and new systems operate in space and from space. This includes a new proposed space-based sensor constellation that will track HGVs, ballistic, cruise missiles, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from birth to death (launch to interception), as well a study by the Missile Defense Agency on space-based interceptors in the future.
The United States Department of Defense is accepting the responsibility to negate military challenges posed by near-peer nations, China and Russia, to space access and U.S. commercial and military space assets; as well as the growing affordability and proliferation of space launch capabilities to rogue nations, North Korea and Iran, that they continue to advance for military means. Both simple and advanced anti-satellite weapon systems have been tested, demonstrated, and deployed by Russia and China. The overt development and testing of Hypersonic Glide Vehicle (HGV) weapons by Russia and China is a strategic game changer. Holding the high ground in space for tracking, discrimination, and targeting is critical to stabilizing the near-peer military challenges to U.S. space operations. Also, ballistic missiles continue to evolve and proliferate more modern and complexities that leverage decoys and multiple warheads, that are the most efficiently countered from the high ground of space. All medium-range and longer ballistic missiles spend the majority of their flight time in space and intercepts of these missiles are done in space with today’s technology of kinetic energy. A major driver for space-based missile defense is the efficiency space provides in order to reduce the cost curve challenge for missile defense, which is that we currently have to use expensive interceptors to defend against relatively cheap threat missiles.
“The Space Force will organize, equip, and train the next generation of warriors to deter aggression and defend the nation, our allies, and American interests against hostile actions in the form of space and taking place in space.” – President Trump at the signing ceremony on February 19, 2019.
Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump signed the Space Policy Directive-4: Establishment of the United States Space Force, which directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a legislative proposal and budget to the President that would establish a Space Force as a new armed service that would be within the United States Air Force.
