Old Wine in a New Bottle

Abstract

“If by having a Space Force, US mean to equip space stations and satellites with remote control weapons, and if Donald Trump’s Space Force is Ronald Reagan's Star Wars idea in a different garb, one should be worried”. These are some of the concerns expressed by space observers on hearing the US President’s address at the meeting of the National Space Council on June 18, 2018, where he gave directions to the Department of Defense for establishing an independent “Space Force” as the sixth branch of the armed forces to oversee missions and operations in the space domain. The underlying thought as mentioned in the President’s address was to ‘establish American dominance in space’, which was waning out in recent years as China and Russia emerge as aggressive competitors. The justification being given for establishing a space force is the increased space tasks which go beyond monitoring space objects with the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) to defending space assets from likely interference from potential adversaries. The US Air Force has downplayed the event and has been trying to discourage talk of a separate military branch, maintaining that the Air Force has the means and the personnel to meet current requirements for space. 1