Space for war?

US plans for the ‘next battlefield’ to deter and defeat new threats

washington — Vice-President Mike Pence unveiled details of plans to build a US Space Force that would become the sixth branch of America’s massive military, saying the time has come to prepare for “the next battlefield.”

President Donald Trump ordered the creation of Space Force in June, arguing the Pentagon needs it to tackle vulnerabilities in space and assert US dominance in orbit.

Its creation however is not a done deal, as it needs to be approved by Congress, and the concept has met with some scepticism from lawmakers and defence officials wary of the cost and added bureaucracy.

But Pence was unequivocal in presenting the administration’s wish for it to become a reality — preferably by 2020, the end of Trump’s term in office.

“The time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America’s best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation,” Pence told an audience at the Pentagon. —

WHY A SPACE FORCE?

In the words of Vice President Mike Pence: “We must have American dominance in space, and so we will.”

PLANNED LAUNCH

President Trump plans to get it off the ground by 2020. According to some reports, it could cost $8 billion over the next five years.

COMMAND CENTRE

The core will come from the Air Force Space Command, which has led the US’s military space operations since 1982.

HARDWARE

Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network and the mysterious X-37B space plane are currently maintained by the Air Force Space Command.

SPACE WARS?

Unlikely, in the short term, at least. Under the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, nothing in space can be claimed as a single country’s territory, and it bars countries from stationing nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction anywhere in outer space, including in orbit around Earth.

SPATIAL REALITY

More than 170 million pieces of space debris already orbit the Earth today, with 29,000 of them being bigger than four inches. According to the European Space Agency, a satellite colliding with one of the 29,000 larger objects would be “catastrophic.”