U.S. Space Force to Fight Extraterrestrial Wars

nivek

As Above So Below

U.S. generals are preparing for a space war they see as all but inevitable

A ship in the Pacific Ocean carrying a high-power laser takes aim at a U.S. spy satellite, blinding its sensors and denying the United States critical eyes in the sky. This is one scenario that military officials and civilian leaders fear could lead to escalation and wider conflict as rival nations like China and Russia step up development and deployments of anti-satellite weapons.

If a satellite came under attack, depending on the circumstances, “the appropriate measures can be taken,” said Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.

What is U.S. Space Command?

The space battlefield is not science fiction and anti-satellite weapons are going to be a reality in future armed conflicts, Shaw said at the recent 36th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. U.S. Space Command is responsible for military operations in the space domain, which starts at the Kármán line, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) above the Earth’s surface. This puts Space Command in charge of protecting U.S. satellites from attacks and figuring out how to respond if hostile acts do occur.

Military space assets like satellites and ground systems typically have been considered “support” equipment that provide valuable services such as communications, navigation data and early warning of missile launches. But as the Pentagon has grown increasingly dependent on space, satellites are becoming strategic assets and coveted targets for adversaries.

“It is impossible to overstate the importance of space-based systems to national security,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a keynote speech at the symposium. Shaw noted that Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “likes to talk about satellites as being ‘big fat juicy targets.’”

“I agree with that,” said Shaw. “But how do we change that? How do we make it more difficult for a potential adversary to think they could succeed in depriving us of our space capabilities?”

Those questions are now being debated as Space Command develops what Shaw describes as “space warfighting doctrine.” A laser blinding a satellite is just an example of the types of attacks the U.S. has to prepare for, said Shaw. If that happened, the Defense Department would have to decide how to respond to that threat. Conceivably, naval or aerial forces would be called upon to take retaliatory action.

“We are only starting to grapple with… what space warfighting really means,” Shaw said.

U.S. in a ‘long-term strategic competition’

A competition for space dominance between the United States and rival powers China and Russia prompted the Trump administration and Congress in 2019 to re-establish U.S. Space Command — which had been deactivated since 2002 — and create the U.S. Space Force as an independent service branch.

Kendall, who was sworn in late July as the civilian leader of the Air Force and the Space Force, said the United States is in a “long-term strategic competition” with China. The implications for space are significant, he said, as “China has moved aggressively to weaponize space.” The Space Force will invest in new capabilities to deter and win if deterrence fails, Kendall said. Any type of escalation can result in miscalculations and human errors which is why a space war is a “conflict that no one wants,” he said.

The U.S. military’s space weapons that presumably would deter China from firing the first shot against a satellite are classified. In a rare disclosure, the Space Force last year said it deployed an advanced ground-based communications jammer made by L3Harris that could be used as an “offensive weapon” to disrupt enemies’ satellite transmissions.


Chris Kubasik, L3Harris vice chairman and CEO, said there should be more awareness of the risks of an attack against a satellite precipitating a broader conflict. “I think it’s the biggest threat facing our nation,” Kubasik said at the Space Symposium. A war in space would be “detrimental to society” because satellites play such a central role in everyday life for most people. “If you think of the impact of a war in space and how it impacts something as simple as our cellphones, navigation, supply chain, logistics, healthcare. I think it is a serious issue. And I think we have to continue to talk about it.”


An invisible war

Public awareness and education about the nation’s dependence on space are needed to help DoD “get the funding to make sure that we deter or defeat our adversaries in space,” he said. Unlike conflicts on Earth, a space war is not easy to visualize. “I call it an invisible war with invisible hardware that people can’t see, it’s a little different than being here on the ground,” said Kubasik.

The military’s reliance on commercial satellites for communications makes these systems one of the most likely targets of enemy jammers and cyber disruptions, said Travis Langster, vice president and general manager of Comspoc, a company that monitors space traffic and tracks orbital activities.

“Given the plethora of commercial space, based on the observations and activities we’ve seen at Comspoc, the target of that first shot is likely to be a commercial satellite,” Langster said during a Space Symposium panel discussion. By launching an electronic or cyberattack against a commercial satellite that is used by DoD for military operations, an enemy would be “trying to send a very specific message” that it does not draw a line between commercial and military space assets.

The most likely scenario is a “reversible attack,” meaning some temporary loss of a space-based service, said Langster. “In this day and age, the first shot will likely be a cyberattack.” Carey Smith, CEO of defense and cybersecurity contractor Parsons, said space-based networks already are under attack. “Jamming is occurring today; there’s obviously cyber attacks that are occurring across the infrastructure,” she said. And there have been many documented attempts to interfere with communications signals in war zones where U.S. forces operate.

But the question is whether these activities will escalate and lead to broader conflict. “I think the path to war in space is really based upon a space arms race, and we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to delay it up until this point, but it is perhaps imminent,” she added.

A key reason why the space race is accelerating is that technology is advancing so rapidly, Smith said. A second reason is the absence of “binding commitments on what the operating norms are going to be in space,” she said. “And without that, we’re very likely to have a space war.”

Foundation of international space law

The only foundation of international space law that currently exists, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, is outdated and doesn’t address most space security issues that could set off a war, Smith noted. The treaty bans the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in outer space, prohibits military activities on celestial bodies and contains legally binding rules governing the peaceful exploration and use of space.

But a new set of rules is needed for the current space age, Smith said. “We really haven’t addressed some of the very difficult questions. Can a nation tailgate another nation’s satellite? Is preemptive self defense going to be permissible? Are we going to ban any form of weapons in space?”

Frank Backes, senior vice president of space and defense contractor Kratos, echoed that sentiment. “We’ve seen very intentional interference within regional conflicts to take military systems offline,” he said. Of particular concern to the Pentagon are disruptions to satellite communications networks that are used to operate unmanned surveillance aircraft. Drones rely on GPS and satellite communications systems to track and strike targets.

“Those types of reversible effects have already entered into the space layer, but I agree with Carrie Smith. It is the space race that is turning space into a warfighting domain,” said Backes. “What that looks like going forward definitely could be devastating to our commercial and international use of space.”

DoD wants resilient space architecture

Experts point out that there are increasingly more ways to permanently or temporarily damage satellites so it would be virtually impossible for DoD to defend against a multitude of weapons. China and Russia, for example, have direct-ascent weapons that are launched on a sub-orbital trajectory to strike a satellite in orbit. They also have co-orbital weapons that are placed into orbit and then later maneuvered toward their intended target.

Additionally, China and Russia are deploying non-kinetic space weapons, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. These include lasers that can be used to temporarily dazzle or permanently blind sensors on satellites, and jamming devices that interfere with the communications to or from satellites by generating noise in the same radio frequencies.

In the face of these threats, the United States aims to make space networks more resilient by using a diversity of satellites in different orbits,complicating an adversary’s ability to launch an effective attack. Kendall said resiliency “isn’t just about the individual satellite, it’s about the architecture.”

DoD’s Space Development Agency is looking to demonstrate what it hopes will be a more resilient space architecture. The agency is working to deploy a proliferated constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit as an alternative to the traditional large, expensive spacecraft that DoD has traditionally flown in higher orbits but much smaller numbers.

“We’re getting away from ‘juicy targets’,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear. The idea of a proliferated architecture is to have enough satellites in orbit that “we can handle some attrition.” [Space News]

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nivek

As Above So Below
Space Force Wants to Build Superhighways to the Moon and Space Stations

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act into law, authorizing the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System to provide access between U.S. military bases in the event of a war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Fortunately, the main benefit of the interstate system was to fuel the growth of the United States geographically and economically, but the military is now thinking about the need for another superhighway system to protect the U.S. against new enemies … in space. Who will build this space superhighway? The Space Force, of course!

If you read their language, if you read their products — which I am a vigorous student of — if you look at what they do they telegraph everything that they’re going to do, they believe that the Moon is manifest destiny for them (and part of their) economic … and security equation.
Space Uber driver?

Speaking last week at a National Defense Transportation Association seminar on space logistics, Space Force Brigadier General John Olson warned the audience that China is his perceived enemy in space based on their activities recently with a lunar rover on the Moon’s far side, a quickly constructed space station and two recent tests of hypersonic space gliders that could possibly be nuclear-tipped. Olson is an Air Force reservist, has NASA experience, served in the Obama White House at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and is now Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Technology and Innovation of the Space Force and Mobilization Assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, so it’s no surprise that his solution to winning a space race with China is through Space Force mobilization. But … a space superhighway?

In the near term, Olson told the attendees this means encouraging industry to push forward the boundaries of space activities to make real the promise of future space utilization. Space Force is in the early stages of working with industry via Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs, which involve no funding) on figuring out how to build the space infrastructure required — such as re-fueling depots along a “space superhighway,” he explained.

Breaking Defense was in attendance at the meeting and reports that Olson pitched the benefits of commercial space logistics – just like the interstate highway system – to help the US military “dominate” Space Command’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) which is defined as 100 km above the Earth to infinity, and support a support “resilient and persistent occupation” of space by the US “at a lower cost.” And like the interstate highway system and the current private space program, Olson sees “90-to-95 percent” of the investment in the space superhighway coming from industry.

This interspace highway system won’t be a concrete ribbon to the Moon – Olson sees it at first as a series of refueling depots. It will start with “Rocket Cargo” – using rockets to deliver military supplies point-to-point on Earth. That will lead to delivering supplies (and possibly weapons) to future space stations and eventually to the Moon and beyond. Does this mean the U.S. is abandoning the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) which bans any nation state from claiming sovereignty over the Moon and other celestial bodies, and prohibits military maneuvers or weapons testing or establishing military bases on celestial bodies? Olson says no – or perhaps not yet – but implies that China’s actions seem to indicate it plans to – despite being a signatory with Russia on the OST.

Could a space superhighway start out with a military purpose and then evolve into a commercial and public highway like the interstate system? It’s possible, although the highway system was built when Americans were already driving – no one but billionaires are traveling to near space at the moment. IS the Space Force equipped to build such a highway? It’s sounds more like private corporations will do the building for a share of the toll fees, while the Space Force will be the traffic cops.

Does this sound like the militarization of space? What do you think? What would President Eisenhower think?

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wwkirk

Divine
Space Force Wants to Build Superhighways to the Moon and Space Stations

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act into law, authorizing the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System to provide access between U.S. military bases in the event of a war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Fortunately, the main benefit of the interstate system was to fuel the growth of the United States geographically and economically, but the military is now thinking about the need for another superhighway system to protect the U.S. against new enemies … in space. Who will build this space superhighway? The Space Force, of course!


Space Uber driver?

Speaking last week at a National Defense Transportation Association seminar on space logistics, Space Force Brigadier General John Olson warned the audience that China is his perceived enemy in space based on their activities recently with a lunar rover on the Moon’s far side, a quickly constructed space station and two recent tests of hypersonic space gliders that could possibly be nuclear-tipped. Olson is an Air Force reservist, has NASA experience, served in the Obama White House at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and is now Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Technology and Innovation of the Space Force and Mobilization Assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, so it’s no surprise that his solution to winning a space race with China is through Space Force mobilization. But … a space superhighway?

In the near term, Olson told the attendees this means encouraging industry to push forward the boundaries of space activities to make real the promise of future space utilization. Space Force is in the early stages of working with industry via Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs, which involve no funding) on figuring out how to build the space infrastructure required — such as re-fueling depots along a “space superhighway,” he explained.

Breaking Defense was in attendance at the meeting and reports that Olson pitched the benefits of commercial space logistics – just like the interstate highway system – to help the US military “dominate” Space Command’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) which is defined as 100 km above the Earth to infinity, and support a support “resilient and persistent occupation” of space by the US “at a lower cost.” And like the interstate highway system and the current private space program, Olson sees “90-to-95 percent” of the investment in the space superhighway coming from industry.

This interspace highway system won’t be a concrete ribbon to the Moon – Olson sees it at first as a series of refueling depots. It will start with “Rocket Cargo” – using rockets to deliver military supplies point-to-point on Earth. That will lead to delivering supplies (and possibly weapons) to future space stations and eventually to the Moon and beyond. Does this mean the U.S. is abandoning the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) which bans any nation state from claiming sovereignty over the Moon and other celestial bodies, and prohibits military maneuvers or weapons testing or establishing military bases on celestial bodies? Olson says no – or perhaps not yet – but implies that China’s actions seem to indicate it plans to – despite being a signatory with Russia on the OST.

Could a space superhighway start out with a military purpose and then evolve into a commercial and public highway like the interstate system? It’s possible, although the highway system was built when Americans were already driving – no one but billionaires are traveling to near space at the moment. IS the Space Force equipped to build such a highway? It’s sounds more like private corporations will do the building for a share of the toll fees, while the Space Force will be the traffic cops.

Does this sound like the militarization of space? What do you think? What would President Eisenhower think?

.
Both science-fiction and real science have dreamt of a Space Elevator.
elevator-diagram.jpg
 

Standingstones

Celestial
Space Force Wants to Build Superhighways to the Moon and Space Stations

On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act into law, authorizing the construction of 41,000 miles of the Interstate Highway System to provide access between U.S. military bases in the event of a war with the Soviet Union and its allies. Fortunately, the main benefit of the interstate system was to fuel the growth of the United States geographically and economically, but the military is now thinking about the need for another superhighway system to protect the U.S. against new enemies … in space. Who will build this space superhighway? The Space Force, of course!


Space Uber driver?

Speaking last week at a National Defense Transportation Association seminar on space logistics, Space Force Brigadier General John Olson warned the audience that China is his perceived enemy in space based on their activities recently with a lunar rover on the Moon’s far side, a quickly constructed space station and two recent tests of hypersonic space gliders that could possibly be nuclear-tipped. Olson is an Air Force reservist, has NASA experience, served in the Obama White House at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and is now Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Technology and Innovation of the Space Force and Mobilization Assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, so it’s no surprise that his solution to winning a space race with China is through Space Force mobilization. But … a space superhighway?

In the near term, Olson told the attendees this means encouraging industry to push forward the boundaries of space activities to make real the promise of future space utilization. Space Force is in the early stages of working with industry via Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs, which involve no funding) on figuring out how to build the space infrastructure required — such as re-fueling depots along a “space superhighway,” he explained.

Breaking Defense was in attendance at the meeting and reports that Olson pitched the benefits of commercial space logistics – just like the interstate highway system – to help the US military “dominate” Space Command’s Area of Responsibility (AOR) which is defined as 100 km above the Earth to infinity, and support a support “resilient and persistent occupation” of space by the US “at a lower cost.” And like the interstate highway system and the current private space program, Olson sees “90-to-95 percent” of the investment in the space superhighway coming from industry.

This interspace highway system won’t be a concrete ribbon to the Moon – Olson sees it at first as a series of refueling depots. It will start with “Rocket Cargo” – using rockets to deliver military supplies point-to-point on Earth. That will lead to delivering supplies (and possibly weapons) to future space stations and eventually to the Moon and beyond. Does this mean the U.S. is abandoning the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) which bans any nation state from claiming sovereignty over the Moon and other celestial bodies, and prohibits military maneuvers or weapons testing or establishing military bases on celestial bodies? Olson says no – or perhaps not yet – but implies that China’s actions seem to indicate it plans to – despite being a signatory with Russia on the OST.

Could a space superhighway start out with a military purpose and then evolve into a commercial and public highway like the interstate system? It’s possible, although the highway system was built when Americans were already driving – no one but billionaires are traveling to near space at the moment. IS the Space Force equipped to build such a highway? It’s sounds more like private corporations will do the building for a share of the toll fees, while the Space Force will be the traffic cops.

Does this sound like the militarization of space? What do you think? What would President Eisenhower think?

.
I have no doubt that the US, China and Russia already have weapons platforms in space. No country is going to tell their citizens about it.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
US Space Command says it is aware of ‘debris-generating event’ as ISS put on alert of collisions in space

US officials have said that a “debris-generating event” has happened in space, after astronauts on board the International Space Station had to undertake emergency measures for fear of a collision.

US Space Command said it was aware that something had happened to spread of debris across space, and that it was gathering information to ensure that satellites were kept safe. It said that it was “working to characterise the debris field”, suggesting that it could not yet confirm what had caused the cloud that forced astronauts into their spacecraft. But the emergency manoeuvres on the International Space Station followed rumours that there may have been an anti-satellite weapons test over the weekend that may have generated the debris cloud from which the astronauts had to flee.

The statement from US Space Command came hours after astronauts were forced into the Russian Soyuz and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules, as part of “safe heaven” measures designed to protect them in the event of a collision. The orbit of the debris cloud and the International Space Station appears to be intersecting roughly every 90 minutes, meaning that the concern continues even though the astronauts are now out of those spacecrafts and continuing more like normal.


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nivek

As Above So Below
 

nivek

As Above So Below
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Space war: US satellites attacked DAILY! Space Force general details how jamming, blinding lasers, cyber attacks, and other satellites have America’s space-based capabilities under siege



U.S. Space Force’s General David Thompson, the service’s second in command, said last week that Russia and China are launching “reversible attacks,” such as electronic warfare jamming, temporarily blinding optics with lasers, and cyber attacks, on U.S. satellites “every single day.” He also disclosed that a small Russian satellite used to conduct an on-orbit anti-satellite weapon test back in 2019 had first gotten so close to an American one that there were concerns an actual attack was imminent.

Thompson, who is Vice Chief of Space Operations, disclosed these details to The Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin in an interview on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum, which ran from Nov. 19 to 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada. The forum opened just four days after a Russian anti-satellite weapon test involving a ground-launched interceptor, which destroyed a defunct Soviet-era electronic intelligence satellite and created a cloud of debris that presents a risk to the International Space Station (ISS). That test drew widespread condemnation, including from the U.S. government, and prompted renewed discussion about potential future conflicts in space.

“The threats are really growing and expanding every single day. And it’s really an evolution of activity that’s been happening for a long time,” Thompson, told Rogin. “We’re really at a point now where there’s a whole host of ways that our space systems can be threatened.”

“Right now, Space Force is dealing with what Thompson calls ‘reversible attacks’ on U.S. government satellites (meaning attacks that don’t permanently damage the satellites) ‘every single day,'” according to Rogin. “Both China and Russia are regularly attacking U.S. satellites with non-kinetic means, including lasers, radio frequency jammers, and cyber attacks, he said.”


(More on the link)

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nivek

As Above So Below
So, are they concerned about alien activities out there at the moon or China?...

...

Space Force plans to send a patrol probe out past the moon

The U.S. military is planning to extend its reach in space to one day patrol the area around the moon.

In a new video, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) revealed the U.S. military's big plans for its future work in space. These plans, the video showed, include extending space awareness capabilities beyond geostationary orbit with the help of a new satellite called the Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). This is a moon-patrolling probe that the military plans to launch to cislunar space, a vast area around Earth that stretches out past the moon's orbit.

"Until now, the United States space mission extended 22,000 miles [35,400 kilometers] above Earth," the video states, referring to the altitude at which geostationary satellites fly. "That was then; this is now."

"The Air Force Research Laboratory is extending that range by 10 times and the operations area of the United States by 1,000 times, taking our reach to the far side of the moon into cislunar space, far beyond the crowd," the video's narrator continued.

CHPS is "a spaceflight experiment designed to demonstrate foundational space domain awareness capabilities in the cislunar regime," according to the AFRL website. The lab will carry out the satellite's development as part of the CHPS program. The probe will then be acquired by the U.S. Space Force to be used by the U.S. Space Command, which oversees military activity and operations in space.

So, what will the U.S. military do with a satellite way out past the moon?

"It's the first step for them to be able to know what’s going on in cislunar space and then identify any potential threats to US activities," Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the nonprofit Secure World Foundation, told Ars Technica about the program. Weeden specified that he does not think the probe will be used to respond to threats in space but rather for observational purposes.


(More on the link)



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Kchoo

At Peace.
Or the Chinese, or the Russians or India, the Japanese or soon the UAE. That last one's a head scratcher but there you go.
Coming soon! Space taxes. Gonna work and live in space? Pay your space taxes. Our patrols are there to keep you safe... Blah blah.... need to build some moon fences and infrastructure, pay for an embassy... add artillery bases.... usual stuff...
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Coming soon! Space taxes. Gonna work and live in space? Pay your space taxes. Our patrols are there to keep you safe... Blah blah.... need to build some moon fences and infrastructure, pay for an embassy... add artillery bases.... usual stuff...
Lagrange 2 is being fitted for EZ Pass I hear…..
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The truth is down there! Harvard scientist wants to launch an investigation into meteor at bottom of the Pacific Ocean which he believes is actually ALIEN technology



A controversial Harvard scientist says he wants to launch an investigation into a meteor that he believes is actually alien technology lying at the bottom of Pacific Ocean. Last week, the US Space Command confirmed that a meteor that hit Earth in January 2014 did come from another solar system and is therefore the first known interstellar object. But Harvard physicist Avi Loeb claimed on Wednesday that the object is instead a piece of alien technology. He suggested scooping up the object with a magnet and examining the possible 'artificial' object and added that retrieving the object could be an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream of getting his hands on alien technology.

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nivek

As Above So Below

Florida Man Arrested While Trying to Warn US Space Force About Aliens

Authorities in Florida arrested a man for allegedly driving a stolen truck to a United States Space Force base in an ill-advised mission to warn the government about aliens. The very strange case reportedly unfolded on Friday afternoon when cops encountered Corey Johnson as he was attempting to enter Patrick Space Force Base in the state's Brevard County. While being questioned by police, the young man offered a truly fantastic explanation for his presence outside the facility. According to an arrest warrant, Johnson revealed to police that he had actually stolen the truck that he was driving after "the president of the United States told him in his head he needed to take the vehicle.”

But that was merely the first part of the telepathic directive as the man claims that he was instructed to drive to Patrick Space Force Base and to warn personnel there about a clandestine war being waged between "U.S. aliens and Chinese dragons." Alas, it would seem that Johnson never got past the gate at the base as police promptly arrested him for grand theft auto. While the man was unable to directly speak to any Space Force officials about the interstellar battle that he believes is unfolding in our skies, one assumes that the commotion outside the facility ultimately led to his message being delivered.


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