Dear Space Force Fans: Please Chill Out
The Space Force’s moment of truth, op ed, Peter Garretson, Politico
“Within the Bay Area itself are Made-in-Space, NASA’s Ames Research Center, and a conglomerate of Silicon Valley affiliated companies. How will they fare without the Space Force? A recent report State of the Space Industrial Base: Threats, Challenges and Actions outlined the threat these companies face by China’s predatory pricing, investment in front companies, control of supply chains, and theft of intellectual property. Just this month, the US-China Economic and Security Commission, created by Congress, endorsed a Space Force to ensure” freedom of navigation and keeping lines of communication open, safe, and secure in the space domain, as the U.S. Navy does for U.S. interests in the maritime commons.”
Keith’s note: Huh? How is Space Force going to help Made-in-Space? There is no Space Force now and they’re doing just fine. Is Space Force going to place armed guards around the ISS to keep the Chinese away? Is Space Force going to prevent China from utilizing space for commercial purposes so that only the U.S. can? Is Space Force going to engage in IP and patent protection in space and on Earth? The national defense aspect of Space Force has some logic to it. But the way the Space Force fans are whipping this whole thing up its as if there will be Space Force Cops patrolling in outer space writing parking tickets, chasing bad guys, and directing space traffic.
Oh and then there’s this little gem “Second, it will have a devastating and compounding effect on jobs in key congressional districts.” Aren’t all congressional districts “key”? Or is this a scare tactic for big aerospace and the members of Congress they have ensnared in their lobbying efforts?
With a little less of this hyperventillation and crass political favoritism – and perhaps a little more basic wartime defense/prevention discussion – maybe a few more people might support this Space Force thing. Otherwise this sort of breathless op ed arm waving invites nothing more than mockery on a slow news day.
Economic competition and predatory pricing by the PRC will sort out the same way it is now. The mission of Space Force will be to protect U.S. physical assets in space and on the Moon, and eventually Mars and the asteroids, from physical threats by whoever…whether the PRC, Russia, space pirates, etc. So long as our bases and personnel aren’t threatened or attacked, there will be no problems. If someone decides to hijack, destroy, etc., then a Space Force will be necessary. While it is true that we currently have no commercial assets to be protected, the time to start developing a USSPF is now, so that it will be in place when needed. Of course, there are assets that need protecting now: communications satellites, etc. Development of a Space Force will take time, so we need to start now.
What will be the ratio of guards to infrastructure and population there?
“What will be the ratio of guards to infrastructure and population there?”
That will change with the threat constellations. The first strategies will probably be just proliferating our MilSpace assets by 1-2 orders of magnitude, and providing “responsive launch” that will replace losses faster than PLASSF can disable assets. They, of course, will then respond to those strategies with something else. That second generation of strategies will determine force/benefit ratios, until the next round.
And the beat goes on!
There are numerous commercial assets that require protecting.
The budget deficit is approaching a trillion dollars a year adding to a national debt of $22 trillion. Are you proposing additional funding?
At some future time, there will undoubtedly be additional funding required as humanity moves out into cis-lunar space, the Moon and beyond. For now, as I understand it, assets of Air Force Space Command and from the other services will be transferred to US Space Force. For example, Air Force Space Command commander, Gen Jay Raymond (IIRC) will become Chief of Space Operations (more like the title of the Navy’s top officer, rather than Chief of Staff), but will continue, for the present as C.O. of AFSPC, i.e., “dual-hatted”..
Keith, did you photoshop Jim Bridenstine’s face on that guy shooting the laser gun, or is that a freudian slip on my part?
Well, there’s actually an ongoing debate between blue water navy advocates and brown water navy advocates in the DOD and Congress vis a vis the US Space Force.
A brown water space force wouldn’t look a whole lot different from current military space operations in LEO.
The blue water folks envision a more proactive service that, to be simplistic, would be analogous to the US Army helping to open up the American west in the 1800s. In this scenario, they would probably more involved in protecting and advances commercial space activities in orbit and beyond.
Just another “thinning out” of all potential resources ($) that could be more pragmatically and directly used for anything already occurring in space. The military-industrial complex likes to keep its paws in everyone’s coffers, just as in the warning set forward by President Eisenhower many years ago. Greed, Ego and Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It’s focusing resources to be used for the purpose for which they were intended. Right now, that’s not happening in military space.
OK, my standard answer to anyone that thinks this thins out resources is that either you don’t understand the current situation or you’re a USAF jet fighter jock. The simple problem is that right now most of the US Space assets go through one of the other three branches of the service, primarily the USAF and they have to compete in the budget prioritization with programs those branches see as key to their own needs. With the Navy, that’s carrier modernization and submarine expansion. With the Army it’s, oh heck more different weapons systems than I can shake a stick at, and with the Air Force it’s always going to be Fighter Jets. Damn organization is, and has for years, been run by the fighter jocks that see all other things as distractions to going fast and shooting at things. Space operations, missions and needs come last.Creating a Space Force insures that finally the communications and intelligence communities (along with some ASAT ops) will finally get the prioritization within their own operational environment they require to meet national strategic needs.
If we cannot reasonably prioritize our already huge DOD budget the answer is not even more fragmentation. USAF is now procuring more drones than manned combat aircraft so it is hard to make the case that “fighter jocks” are irrationally sabotaging space operations and thus endangering our national survival. What would prevent a partisan Space Force from diverting money that is more urgently needed for special ops, or for that matter for diplomacy? Maybe we should even combine the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into a unified Department of Defense.
“If we cannot reasonably prioritize our already huge DOD budget the answer is not even more fragmentation.”
On the contrary, …the biggest problems with MilSpace today come from Staff work done by people thinking only and always about “things with wings”. Splitting US MilSpace off from people who demand a continual focus elsewhere is what will allow a competent response to PLASSF.
“What would prevent a partisan Space Force from diverting money that is more urgently needed for special ops, or for that matter for diplomacy?”
A “partisan Space Force”???????
You sound like you expect “Space Marines” to burst into Schiff’s hearing room and arrest him in front of the cameras! The last day that Trump can be C.I.C. of a Space Force is January 20th, 2025. On that day Space Force will still have 99% of its history in front of it. Trump, besides having listened to Rogers and Cooper’s presentation approvingly in February, 2018, will then be irrelevant.
As for “diverting money”, that was done for 15 years straight starting in 2003, from appropriated funds for USAF Space Command, which funds were sent to keep fighter squadrons combat ready, by the Air Staff, who too often think about little but “things with wings”. If the political pressure comes off, they would go back to doing that again. No Sale!
Hopefully, the next administration in 2020 will put an end to this Space Force nonsense.
No, because it came from the bottom up in the DOD, not the top down. It’s necessary.
I have worked with the 45th Space Wing and its predecessors for about 30 years and I can’t recall any agitation for a Space Force. What about the helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and surface ships that support human launch? What about the assault carriers that are tasked to recover the Orion? What about NRO and NASA spacecraft? ASATs on destroyers? Creation of a new service branch would multiply organizational interfaces.
What about them? That’s what you will have a Space Staff for, to answer those questions, instead of an Air Staff that just shuffles the money to keep fighters flying above all else.