To Infinity And Beyond

lobotero

Jul 3

I have not written much about the Space Force lately....the US Space Force our 5th branch of the military.....

I was never a fan of this idea....not when Obama was pushing for it and then Trump came into power and it became a reality.....I still think it is a waste of money because we have the Air Force which has a space commend within its structure.

In case you are not too damn sure just what the Hell the Space Force is or does....then I can help.

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/space-force-ahead-its-time-or-dreadfully-premature#space-force-multilateral-space-governance

I agree with the conclusion...there may come a time for a Space Force but that time is not now.

After about 3 or 4 years of sucking on the budget and we have little to show for the cash spent.

The US Space Force is apparently anything but, according to a think tank report that concludes the newest American military branch is woefully unprepared to defend space operations from Chinese or Russian aggression.

Instead of being primed to counter threats to US space operations, the USSF is a sitting duck, while both China and Russia have performed public tests of weapons capable of destroying satellites, the report states.

In response, the analysis argues, the USSF needs extra funds to train more people and "develop a suite of defensive and offensive counterspace systems" to compete with countries that the report's author seems to believe are running laps around American space defense power.

It's not just any old policy wonk who wrote this report, either: it was authored by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies senior fellow Charles Galbreath, who spent 27 years in the US Air Force before a two-year stint in the Space Force as its deputy chief technology and innovation officer.

Galbreath's warnings of Russian and Chinese orbital shows of force aren't merely supposition – both Russia and China have blown up their own decommissioned satellites, and China has even launched a satellite with a grappling arm that US military leaders fear could be used to grab spacecraft and toss them out of orbit or otherwise disrupt their operations.

Both China and Russia have also warned that civilian satellites, such as Starlink internet orbiters operated by SpaceX, could be legitimate targets.

Late last year, the Biden administration's nominee for chief of USSF space operations said much the same: China is outpacing the US in the latest space race toward military orbital domination.

"The most immediate threat, in my opinion, is the pace with which our strategic challengers – first and foremost the Chinese – are aggressively pursuing capabilities that can disrupt, degrade and ultimately even destroy our satellite capabilities and disrupt our ground infrastructure," USSF Lieutenant General B Chance Saltzman told the Senate during his confirmation hearing.