Why Space force?

WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NEW SPACE FORCE?

WE ARE ALL DEPENDENT ON THE SECURITY OF SPACE

On Dec. 20, 2019 the new U.S. Space force became law. The law was introduce in June of this year and is now the sixth branch of the armed forces. The force will initially be manned by 16,000 active duty personnel and headed by Gen. Jay Raymond from the U.S. Air force.

While many have visions of Star wars and Luke Skywalker, it is a much more down to earth enterprise. We are all dependent on satellites in space whether the internet, Global positioning satellites, weather forecasting and Intelligence photo gathering. We can expect much more in the future.

The United States has the most hi-Tech and sophisticated weapons systems in the world. Very Hi-Tech and very dependent on computer systems and GPS technology. Our adversaries , knowing this have focused on neutralizing our capabilities by developing methods to neutralize this hi-Tech advantage.

The Russians already have a Space command and the Chinese are not far behind. We now have more nations placing satellites in orbit every year, including North Korea, India, Iran, Ukraine, Israel and the western powers. These satellites could be weaponized to disable our satellites critical for our National defense. While the details of these possibilities are secret, we can imagine it will be a continuous escalation. It is much more cost efficient to disable an adversaries weapons that to match them in capabilities and numbers.

We are mostly familiar with the effect of an EMP or electromagnetic pulse explosion in space that could wipe out all communications over a whole continent. Without communications this modern world comes to stop. This would stop most economic activity and disable the ability to fight a Hi-Tech conflict.  

This is generally what the New space force will be working to develop and implement. Measures to protect against such occurrences and likely to develop weapons to use against our adversaries.

We might also consider a military group that can operate a low-tech weapons systems that are not dependent on all this technology as a back -up. Weapons similar to what we used before the computer age or have duel control in case of a shut down of Hi-Tech capability.

Business should also think about systems that can be used for any prolonged loss of communications. 

Modern systems of communication, business, and the internet have opened up great possibilities for the future, but we should all consider the dangers of dependency on these powerful but fragile systems.