US President Donald Trump orders Pentagon to create US 'Space Force'

[dani191]

US President Donald Trump orders Pentagon to create US 'Space Force'
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
By: New Indian Express

Source Link: CLICK HERE

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US President Donald Trump has ordered the creation of a "Space Force", saying it would be "separate but equal" from the Air Force, the media reported.

"We must have American dominance in space. Very importantly, I'm hereby directing the Department of Defence and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish the Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That's a big step," he said in the White House during a meeting of his National Space Council on Monday.

"We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force: separate but equal, it is going to be something so important," CNN quoted the President as saying.

In addition to calling for the Space Force, Trump signed Space Policy Directive -3 on Monday, part of his administration's push to lead in the space.

Space Policy Directive -3 is primarily focused on satellite traffic management and mitigating debris in space. The policy, executive secretary of the National Space Council Scott Pace told reporters, "seeks to address the challenges of a congested space environment".

"If we're going to expand the economy in space, we need to make sure it's done in a sustainable way," Pace said.

Trump previously floated the idea of adding a "Space Force" branch to the US military - a concept that has received some support on Capitol Hill but drawn scepticism from the Pentagon,

 

[Asimzranger]

 

[El Sidd]

Let Trump announce that Aliens do exist

 

[gambit]

Mock US all you want, but that mockery reveals the typical shortsightedness in others that support US preeminence and dominance in most areas.

Why did airpower had to become a separate force?

Whenever an army fight, its enemy is always immediately in front of it. Artillery may make engagement some distance out of sight, like maybe over a hill, but the creation of an attack from the air implies that there is more to warfare than just being two dimensional as thousands of yrs have done it. So as long as airpower is subordinate to ground warfare doctrines, airpower will always be short term based in its perspectives. Always tactical and never strategic.

WW II was when airpower philosophically matured, even when organizationally, air forces were under army command. Proponents of airpower successfully argued for their operational independence. Instead of attacking enemy troops, airpower attacked the resources that supports those enemy troops. Ballbearing factories and petroleum refineries became viable and justifiable military targets. Things that will take several degrees of movements before they are turned into weapons instantly became vulnerable to a military.

So airpower had to become an independent force to further its own warfare doctrines.

Look at it this way...Would landlocked Mongolia have any use for knowledge of naval operations and warfare? No. Geography is the limiter to Mongolia developing any idea of seafaring ventures.

So when there are no constrains to develop new doctrines of warfare in other dimensions, whoever takes the first initiative increases his odds of becoming long term dominance in that new dimension.

 

[Hamza913]

I agree with @gambit

Trump acts like an idiot most of the time, but he has his moments of competence and this is one of them.

You can literally just fire huge rods from space and once they hit a country, the kinetic impact alone will do more damage than a nuclear bomb (but without all the radiation and other after effects).

 

[randomradio]

Why are people making fun of the US setting up a space command?

The Russian Air Force no longer exists. It's the Russian Aerospace Forces now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Aerospace_Forces

The Chinese already have the Strategic Support Force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army_Strategic_Support_Force

The US is in fact late to the party.

India also has the Integrated Space Cell, which will soon be converted into the Aerospace Command in a few years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Space_Cell

This is back from 2005.
http://spacenews.com/indian-government-set-create-aerospace-command/
“It is possible to conceive a system that is not run by air force at all,” Siddhartha said.

 

[delta2]

The F-35 may have been a shadow program all along!!

The President of the United States, no matter who it is, cannot and will not make such a serious announcement without having the US deep state onboard, and without being given a nod!

They were building something space capable all along!! I knew it!!!!!

 

[randomradio]

The F-35 may have been a shadow program all along!!

The President of the United States, no matter who it is, cannot and will not make such a serious announcement without having the US deep state onboard, and without being given a nod!

They were building something space capable all along!! I knew it!!!!!

That's not what it means. The F-35 cannot fly into space.

 

[delta2]

That's not what it means. The F-35 cannot fly into space.

Read my post again, slowly.

The F-35 is a shadow program. They were/are building something else, the F-35, is there just as a show.

 

[randomradio]

Read my post again, slowly.

The F-35 is a shadow program. They were/are building something else, the F-35, is there just as a show.

Like launching rockets and space shuttles.

It's just the Air Force Space Command, which will be a new service wing. Nothing more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Space_Command

This new move means more money for it.

 

[delta2]

Like launching rockets and space shuttles.

It's just the Air Force Space Command, which will be a new service wing. Nothing more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Space_Command

This new move means more money for it.

Perhaps.

NASA already has that. They've been launching space shuttles for decades now. And then we have the Space-X launch recently.

This goes beyond a few space shuttles.

Only time will tell.

 

[CIS-TRANS]

I agree with @gambit

Trump acts like an idiot most of the time, but he has his moments of competence and this is one of them.

You can literally just fire huge rods from space and once they hit a country, the kinetic impact alone will do more damage than a nuclear bomb (but without all the radiation and other after effects).

Still they can be countered by air defences, but what if throwing monster size boulders from space to confuse and engage the air defences of adversary while launching missiles from mainland may be some sort of new kind of war tactic.

 

[gambit]

The US is in fact late to the party.

The US is actually ahead, as in far ahead. What China and India have are essentially administrative and support organizations. We have the actual physical assets that can become a functional space based military force in short order. When the Space Shuttle fleet was in operation, everyone knew that all it would take is 2 ships to turn the US into a space military power. Now what do you think the X-37B have been doing all this time? Taking orbital selfies?

In the long run, we are not talking about simply making satellite launches as part of this space force. We are actually talking about something in the line of the James Bond movie 'Moonraker' with astronaut combat troops.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/07/politics/space-corps-bill-trnd/index.html

...add a new military branch that would, quite literally, send soldiers out of this world.

You think we cannot do it?

This would not be the 'militarization' of space, as many would charge. To 'militarize' space under the current treaties would mean to station on a permanent basis an orbital weapons platform. This charge was thinly veiled when the Space Shuttle fleet was in operation, even if it was just a pistol aboard, a shuttle mission would have been legally a US space warship. If we can send a teacher (Christa McAullife) or an aging senator (John Glenn) to astronaut training, soldiers with above average physical training and education could EASILY become laser shooting astronaut combatants. We can take over anyone's orbital platform of any type, sending it burning in reentry. You think we would not have any volunteer from the ranks?

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

The US does have a space force, it's called NASA.

Now it's privatized, and called SpaceX.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Sure destroy 2-3 Ships in space and you have enough space junk to prevent any future space exploration for generation

Eventually humans will not be able to safely get out of the orbit at current rate of space junk
The space junk moves speed of fighter jet in space and even a tiny piece can disable a space craft