US ‘space force’ plan

Final frontier will be new frontline in Trump’s military move

FOR decades, the idea of extending earthly wars into orbit has been taboo. The prospect of nuclear-armed satellites ready to drop on our heads was simply too terrifying. Then there was the implications of all the debris …

But, as more and more nations gain the ability to loft satellites into space, the old treaties between the United States and Russia have become increasingly irrelevant.

India. Pakistan. North Korea. All have recently joined the space race. China, meanwhile, has been actively testing missiles capable of destroying satellites – the most recent being in January this year.

The implications are terrifying. There’s already plenty of deadly space junk hurtling about in orbit above our heads.

A simple fleck of paint – travelling at immense speeds – was enough to deeply crater a Space Shuttle’s reinforced glass windscreen.

Scale that up to clouds of jagged wreckage from an intensely fought space war, and some analysts fear we may lock ourselves on Earth’s surface.

It would simply become too risky to send a vehicle – manned or otherwise – into the deadly orbital crossfire, possibly for centuries to come.

US President Donald Trump is immensely proud of his “Space Force” name. He came up with it himself.

Now he’s ordered the Pentagon to establish it as the sixth arm of the US military.

“We are going to have the air force and we’re going to have the ‘Space Force’,” Mr Trump said. “Separate but equal. It is going to be something. So important.”

It’s the most open sign that the Outer Space Treaty, which bans weapons in space and restricts access to the Moon and Solar System to peaceful purposes, has been abandoned.

The new Space Council has been charged with making Mr Trump’s vision a reality. It’s being run by Vice-President Mike Pence.

“It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space,” Mr Trump said.