Although President Donald Trump’s decision to add a “Space Force” to the U.S. military was faced with criticism, people shouldn’t dismiss the idea which could represent a substantial and forward-looking reform.
Trump at the meeting with the National Space Council shared only a few details, but Congress has been working on a similar concept for years.
The main idea is to create a new military branch, or a new service within the Air Force, which will be responsible for overseeing operations in space.
Also, the new branch will officially recognize space as a military territory as it becomes a critical battlefield for dozens of nations.
Across its already established five branches, the U.S. military uses space-based technology for navigation, reconnaissance, weather forecasting, intelligence collection, communications, command and control, precision targeting, as well as nuclear launching systems in orbit.
Its dependence on satellite-guided weapons is increasing drastically as previous technologies are becoming outdated and inefficient.
Although countries have long avoided conducting strikes in space, most of Washington’s adversaries have been investing heavily in anti-satellite weapons for years.
According to Bloomberg, without adequate defenses space could become an “Achilles’ heel” for America’s high-tech forces.
However, no department yet is fully in charge of U.S. space operations and regulations.
Although most of the responsibility falls to the Air Force, authorities are still fragmented across 60 different departments in the government.
The lack of central authority has made acquiring and deploying new space technology a painfully slow and expensive process, which results in the U.S. regularly sending obsolete stuff into orbit.
The problem which Trump intends to solve makes its almost impossible to have a set of coherent priorities and to pursue a broader strategy for space.
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