It has always been under-funded and ignored, with projects like the Joint Aerial Layer Network consistently unfunded. Instead, we need to make global C4ISR a higher DoD priority. A Space Force would over-invest in the wrong areas. How leaders incentivize the bureaucracy matters. also needs to be investing in ways to fight without space, given the inherent vulnerabilities in the domain. The United States should take smart steps to make its space force more resilient, but the U.S. And the United States should be leveraging robotics to build swarms of cheap platforms to be the new, low-cost eyes and nervous system of the force. Every air, land, and sea unit should act as a node in a mesh network that passes command and control, communications, and PNT data across the force. needs to be investing in airborne pseudo-lites and ground stations for communications relay and PNT. Some of that solution is in space - hosted payloads on commercial platforms, cheaper small sats, quick-launch satellites for operationally responsive space, and maybe even new concepts like fractionated satellites.īut lots of key solutions for global C4ISR & PNT resiliency are not in space. need a global C4ISR and precision-navigation-timing, or PNT, backbone that is more resilient and survivable in the case of adversary attacks. Instead of focusing on the domain - space - the Pentagon should be focused on the mission: global C4ISR. The United States need to mitigate that vulnerability, not double down on it. Space is the American military's Achilles heel. Space is no longer a unique advantage it is now a unique vulnerability. The United States was able to do this because for a long time no one contested the U.S. America has built a military that is heavily dependent on a global C4ISR architecture that runs through space - the eyes and nervous system of the Joint Force. The reality is that satellites are vulnerable to attack - through both kinetic and non-kinetic means from lasers, electronic warfare, and cyber - and there is no good way to fix this. Related: Pentagon To Start Creating Space Force - Even Before Congress Approves It Related: Pentagon Delays Space Force Report And even if satellites remain hidden, they're still vulnerable to debris in low earth orbit, a growing problem that isn't getting better. Defenders can make satellites stealthy-ish, but if even amateur observers can find secret military satellites, surely nation-state adversaries can. Defenders pay for all of that weight in launch costs. There simply aren't many good options for space hardening/defenses.ĭefenders can add fuel to a satellite to make it mobile and move and change orbits, but more fuel adds weight and there is no easy way to refuel the satellite once in orbit. Satellites move through predictable orbits. Space is an inherently vulnerable and offense-dominant domain. But responding by creating a Space Force is building a castle on a foundation of sand. Space is "congested, contested, and competitive" - as many have pointed out - and the U.S. military has real problems in space and a Space Force is likely to make them worse, not better. Yes, a #SpaceForce is a dumb idea, but not because said it.
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