REAL LIFE IMITATES FED: PLANS FOR A US SPACE FORCE ANNOUNCED
by Hazed
US Vice President Mike Pence announced last week that the government is moving ahead with plans for a Space Force.
Many science fiction fans would have imagined soldiers in spacesuits, firing rayguns at each other; or maybe spaceships equipped with lasers engaged in battles.
I immediately though of Fed’s own Imperial Navy, which keeps the spaceways clear of pirates and defends against interlopers to our galaxy – in particular watching out for attempts at infiltration by Martian spaceships from the edges of known space – although I based the idea of the Imperial Navy on the British Air Force as seen in WWII war films, rather than the American Top Gun-style force.
But the reality isn’t going to be anything like as exciting as that, as space scientists commented. Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project and the director of Defense Budget Analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, explained: “While it’s fun to joke about Star Wars and fighting aliens, the reality is that a space ‘warfighter’ sits in a windowless control room staring at computer monitors all day.”
Laura Grego, senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program, said: “We just don’t have dedicated weapons, and we’re not shooting at each other.”
The purpose of the proposed Space Force will be to protect American interests in orbit: satellites for GPS, weather forecasting, communication and reconnaissance. President Trump wants the US to dominate space; other countries are pushing ahead with space programs, including satellite and missile programmes, and while it’s unlikely any of them will catch up to the US efforts soon, clearly Trump wants to make sure that the US military is the dominant force.
Right now, the country’s military space-related activities are split between the Air Force, Navy, Army and intelligence agencies. Adding a new branch to the military, the Space Force, would consolidate these activities, which currently suffer from poor coordination amongst the separate space programs.
A new civilian position, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space (what a great job title), will oversee the work of consolidating the various space programs and setting up the Space Force.
But none of this is going to happen soon – Pence’s report said the legislative proposal for the Space Force will be put before Congress in 2020.
