Why we need space power now more than ever

As we approach the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Space Force, we must never forget why a military branch dedicated to protecting our interests in space has become so necessary.

Eighteen years before establishing what is now known as the Space Force, some of the most elite current and former defense and space leaders convened at the urging of the Senate to address the limitations of the Air Force leading the space mission. Rarely do these routinely abused congressional reports have as much impact as they do The Commission will assess the management and organization of the United States’ national security space He exhibited, and she hit the bullseye.

Both political parties in Congress have been supportive ever since, albeit for a long time the uniformed military was largely opposed. That was until President Trump adopted it as a signature initiative and, specifically strong bipartisan support in the US House of Representativesmade it law.

Three major factors drove Congress’s decision to build the Space Force. First, the large system acquisitions that accounted for 80 percent of the space budget were hemorrhaging money with endless cost and schedule overruns. Second, space was no longer a benign haven – our ability to operate in this area is challenged by China and other space adversaries. Third and most important, satellite systems were becoming increasingly vital to our country’s political and military infrastructure, especially in modern warfare.

Since then considerable administrative progress has been made, but in the last five years, the nature of warfare has changed dramatically and the original problems which necessitated the construction of the Force continue to this day to languish amid bureaucratic inertia and resource constraints.

The ubiquitous and global reach of space, combined with the interconnected nature of military and civil systems, puts the space sector at the core of every aspect of modern life. At the same time, the speed of warfare continues to accelerate, and space systems have become the center of mass around which all aspects of combat forces must communicate, be informed, and be directed.

There are many physical threats to these critical hybrid systems, including laser blinkers, radio jamming, and even “grapplers” — robotic arm wrestlers that could grab and throw a satellite out of orbit. The most immediate and persistent threat. However, it remains a cyber attack. Even today, we remain very vulnerable to such attacks in all space missions. This vulnerability will increasingly hinder the integration of advanced artificial intelligence algorithms and other cutting-edge computing into real mesh networks, something fundamental to ensuring dominance in this field. In other words, only by maintaining cyber supremacy can we achieve space supremacy.

Therefore, agencies are choosing to deal with these changes by recapitalizing their infrastructure. Today’s military favors more resilient force structures, relying less on the “super few” mentality of the past and more on networked and commoditized swarms. In its role as a supporting force, the Space Force develops and operates the secure networks and grid applications and produces data, which is quickly becoming the cornerstone upon which its sister services will rely in future military contests.

Our Space Force Semper Supra The attitude toward space, which required a separate agency five years ago, still faces the challenges posed by a once-thinking culture. Throwing out an Air Force mentality that has been ingrained for more than 50 years and embarking on such a historic endeavor was not easy – no instruction manual or rules guide came with the bag of parts they inherited – just a lot of challenges to overcome.

Compared to other agencies, very little about the Space Force should be guided or managed as it has been in the past with its sister agencies. For example, we can no longer measure progress with battle lines on a map. Readiness cannot be quantified in soldiers under guns or bombs and bullets in a bunker. Courage under fire is no longer about jumping on a grenade or facing a machine gun nest. Instead, it’s about making timely, critical decisions to innovate, develop, and maintain advanced space capabilities while leaving behind a culture that doesn’t fit the sector.

Today’s Space Force needs uniquely gifted leaders to contribute to the profession of arms. It takes people with superior military intelligence who can lead Guardian teams to make millions of decisions to buy, integrate, develop and operate machines in a race to guarantee space supremacy. The most decorated Guardians should be those who demonstrate the real-time creative and critical thinking that will ensure space preeminence today and long into the future.

To realize the goals that brought the Space Force to the fore years ago, we need bold leaders able to overcome the psychological fear of failure or ostracism, not the fear of death. They must assert dominance over adversaries who use largely commercial technologies to secure and exploit highly complex networks orbiting the earth. It might sound easy, but it’s not. Just ask the hundreds of senior leaders who have been shouting about it for over 20 years. Today, failure in a particular Space Force mission will mean not only the loss of a particular land battle, but could cost us our entire modern way of life.