"Space Force all the way!"

Military communications satellites are in orbits more than 200 times higher than the highest satellite interception ever conducted.

 

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You really do enjoy playing the part don't you

 

Yes. Geosynchronous orbit, 26,000 miles up.

Highest satellite interception in history, 150 miles up.

There is literally no anti-satellite weapon in existence short of nukes that can take out military communications satellites.

Correction: highest satellite interception 526 miles.

 

Also fun fact: no satellite interception has ever even been tested against a satellite maneuvering to defend itself.

 

Well there is your "Weapon of existance"

So you're going with what here? Are you trying to make the case that weaponized platforms "CAN NOT" be deployed at or around the Clarke belt? So how did we deploy satellites in the 60's, were they a gift from God?

You want so bad to look intelligent you're creating the opposite effect dude!

Satellites are maneuverable for a limited time, you have posted to that. So what's your reluctance to accepting weaponized satellites could reach even military units or simply communication and GPS Sats?

Seriously man, how do you know Russia doesn't have a couple Sats up there sitting in the mix just waiting for coordinance and detonation? You're simply trying to prove what little you know in my opinion, and doing one hell of a job at it too

Look up Starfish Prime!

 

No one is even close to deploying a weapon like that, including the US.

It is difficult for a spacecraft to change its vectors to catch another spacecraft that just changed its vectors. Any anti-satellite weapon that misses on its first shot, isn’t going to get a chance to a second one before it runs out of fuel.

Any satellite the Russians have that’s a bomb would be almost immediately identifiable. Satellites don’t have excess space. They are built for a specific function and that function defines their form. Trying to hide a weapon in a satellite means either having it too big for the function it’s supposed to have or having it disguised for that function but not actually about to conduct it, which means it won’t radiate or transmit signals like it’s supposed to and will get identified.

Seriously, there is no stealth in space.

 

Saying a Space Force is necessary today would be like in 1915 telling people that we need to spend billions of dollars to build the infrastructure to protect against 5,000lbs guided bombs.

The threat doesn’t exist and won’t for decades and throwing money at it now won’t really help.

 

Media Roundtable on Space Force with Deputy Secretary Shanahan
Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan

STAFF: So today, we have a 45-min on the record with the deputy secretary and the vice chair. If there's any questions, let me know. I'll take those for you. The purpose of the round table is to discuss the Space Report. So we can keep our focus on that, best utilize our time.

And in the interest of time, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up so we can get through as many as we can. Even though we have nametags on here, please state your name and affiliation when you ask a question. And let us know when we're getting close to time that we have a few minutes left so we can kind of keep everyone on time. If you have questions, gentlemen -- sir?

Q: Is it OK if we start early?

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PATRICK SHANAHAN: Yes, yes. No, that's good.

Q: Only Jim would say yes.

MR. SHANAHAN: Yes, yes. No, no. Let's see, got everybody in here? I think we made copies of the Space Report if you'd like one. We'll do that -- who's -- do we have copies?

We thought -- yes, you know, I -- what -- because part -- part of what I wanted to do is to actually go through the space report and tell you what are the good parts. You know, like if you -- if you had to write an article, it's like this is -- this is where the meat is and these other parts are kind of lower on the -- on the list. So I think we can just pass that out and then...

STAFF: I can go get my computer and turn it on.

MR. SHANAHAN: Yes, right. We snatch your cell phone. But, what I did is I put a -- just put together a couple of remarks. I'll just provide those and the idea there was to really kind of setup the discussion, give some background on how the report was written.

First of all, welcome everyone. Appreciate the availability on short flow. And my mom was pretty excited today that my report was mentioned by the vice president, so it's a good day at the Shanahan house.

And I think we know we'll run out of time today. But hopefully what we can do is set context and, you know, clarify, you know, a lot of the questions you might have. But my guess is we'll need a follow on just because more questions will come up then we'll have time to answer. And I know Jim has some other commitments.

But, you know, I know this group in -- to varying to degree. But many of us come at this from, you know, different backgrounds and different, I'll say, time with the department. So what I hope to do is maybe get an integrated view and give you a -- kind of a sense of how we're looking at the -- the Space Force, you know, top-down instead of, you know, from the bottoms-up in -- in a lot of a lot of the nitty-gritty details. But we can get to those.

And I'd just like to recognize General Selva here, who has been a fantastic partner. Been working through a lot of the space report, he's -- I'll call him one of my favorite technical experts when I -- when I get things wrong. And he's like -- pulls me back.

I just want to read a couple of these statements. And it's just first maybe to kind of frame things, there are so many changes and activities underway here in the Pentagon. I mean, you have to remember, this is, you know, a department that has a budget of $700 billion. We're about the 15th largest economy in the world. So it's really important that we kind of put things into context and into scale.

I'm -- I'm hopeful that through this discussion, we'll be able to describe how the Space Force fists in with the changes and activities that are going on in the building, not kind of isolated and -- and pulled apart. And, you know, this is probably what will underscore a lot of the description is that we look at the Space Force through the lens of the National Defense Strategy. It's really important that that's the context in which it's taken. And the Space Force itself will accelerate our efforts to implement the National Defense Strategy.

The 1601 Report, and that's the report that all of you have in -- in front of you, was directed by Representative Rogers and Cooper. And it was to look at how we can do more, do more quickly and do more with less red tape. That was the real essence of what they asked myself and others to go do.

And for the last nine months, I've worked with Air Force leadership to identify changes to do more. And I've been helped by, obviously, the joint staff and General Selva, by STRATCOM, Research and Engineering, policy, and the National Space Council and the Office of the Vice President.

I went over, not too long ago, before really taking a pen to paper, and I asked Chairman Rogers and -- and Cooper, how long should the report be? So when we look at the length of the report, it's 13 pages. I said, you know, do you want it 100 pages, do you want it 5 pages? And it was really, you know, what -- what level of detail because they're the audience.

And they said make it about 10 pages. So it's -- it's 13. I think if we reformatted it we could probably get it into 10. But that's the reason for its length.

And I really did write it. So what you'll see as you go through it, it's -- it's written like an engineer will write it. And it's, you know, for me it's -- when we -- when I sat down to write it, it was make sure that there is -- is real integration with the national space strategy, the National Security Strategy, and the National Defense Strategy.

So this isn't something done outside of what the department is doing or how we're aligned with the National Security Strategy. That was really important.

The second -- and we'll get into it when I kind of step through the report -- is that it's really about results and the identification of outcomes. It's about organizations. It's not about structures.

And in the report, you'll see where we do talk about organization. The construct flows from, you know, the form follows the function. It's not that we're creating a -- creating organizations, there is a purpose to how we're structured and an outcome that's stated.

And then, what I'm hoping you'll find as you go through here is that it's really focused on being concise. So deliberately in each one of the areas identified what is the -- the change, because it's -- you can write these reports in such a way that you can't really tell what the change is. And I tried to distill it into what are three or four just fundamental changes. It's lots of changes, but what are the changes.

And then the priorities, so if we were sitting down and tasking, say for example, the person in charge of U.S. Space Command and we wrote them a letter, we'd say these are the priorities. And there's lots of other things. But, you know, at a top level, this is what's the most important.

And then I put in there timing; how do we think about timing. And a lot of the timing is -- is really geared towards -- and I have a bias towards this, you know, line of sight -- 18 months to 2 years. Because if you talk too far into the future in terms of putting plans, you're more abstract and it's hard to anchor real commitments and -- and drive accountability.

Maybe a couple of -- more comments before we dive into the report, the -- the way I think about the 1601, maybe this is what I would call the short narrative here. 1601 is about moving even faster in space. 1601 is about accelerating deployment of new capabilities. I mean if there's today like there was one thing to take away from all the stuff that we talk about, 1601 Report Space Force is about accelerating the deployment of new capability whether it's assets or whether it's people but it's about accelerating that deployment...

continue...-> https://www.defense.gov/News/Transc...deputy-secretary-shanahan/source/GovDelivery/

 

Last year we were talking about the Space Corps. It seem to have grown into being the Space Force.

The Space Corps Question
OCTOBER 2017
Depending on whom you ask, the time to create a new Space Corps separate from the Air Force is now. Or not now.
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2017/October 2017/The-Space-Corps-Question.aspx

Obvious CnC Trump visions a Space Force instead of the smaller Space Corps.

Most of us know what a fighter or bomber squadron is.

Squadron = from 12 to 24 aircraft.

Air Group = from 2 to 10 squadrons ( Bomber Group, Fighter Group, Marine Air Group (MAG)

Air Wing = 2 or more Air Groups.

Air Corps = 2 or 3 or more Air Wings.

Air Force = 2 or more Air Corps

At the outbreak of WW ll the U.S. Army had its Army Air Corps.
As the war continued the U.S. Army Air Corps grew in size and became the U.S. Army Air Forces. (Noticed that "Forces" is plural)
USAAF 2nd Air Force, 4th Air Force, 8th Air Force, etc.

USAAF Reorganization Chart, 29 March 1943

 

I love Trump and will vote for him again, but this deal I do not understand. We have had Space Command at the Pentagon for decades.



According to Gen Shelton, "Our prime mission directive in JFCC SPACE is to ensure our freedom of action in space, while preventing adversary use of space against us."[1] To do this, the component optimizes planning, execution, and force management, as directed by the commander of USSTRATCOM, of the assigned missions of coordinating, planning, and conducting space operations.[6]
JFCC SPACE's responsibilities include the United States Space Surveillance Network.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Functional_Component_Command_for_Space

 

Nice charts and specifics, so what.

Current military is more about "boots on the ground" including air and sea support.

A Space Force soldier is more likely to be a remote control, electronics geek.
This difference will set them apart from other military services and exemplify
why they should be administered as an independent branch of the armed forces.

Hope that makes sense.
I'm having a rough day

 

You are ridiculous sir

 

This is the current USAF space ship.

I think it's mission is killing Russian and Chi-Com satellites.

Whatever it mission it is, it's classified.

 

I think we should be gearing our world towards more space exploitation and that means having the military capability to function there. So I have no problem with this as long as funding is provided with its creation through proper taxation. No unfunded mandates people.

 

The United States already has a space command in the Air force and that is only what we know about...there is a reason for all those "Secret" launches. A new Space Force is nt needed or wanted by folks in the know, it is just something to get Uncle Donny excited.

 

You understand that was a multi-megaton weapon and those are both large and heavy right? There’s no way to clandestinely hide one on a satellite.

 

I think we should have stopped underestimating our enemies about 7:48 am Dec 7th 1941.

 

It’s not underestimation. It’s a simple understanding of things like physics and satellite design. Satellites don’t have excess space or mass for their configuration and their configuration will be based on their role.

You can’t hide a multi-megaton nuclear weapon on a satellite because either that satellite will be too big for its role or it won’t function the way it’s supposed to.

It’s pretty easy to identify a satellite that isn’t radiating or transmitting like it should or one that has a couple hundred kilos more mass than would be required for its function.

 

Everything you say is most likely true. Yet the worst military surprises are those being done by people that dont believe in the impossible. If a man can think it, a man will eventually achieve it.

 

Surprise requires stealth. There is no stealth in space. Thermodynamics and orbital mechanics ensure that.

Unless our enemies are going to magically violate the laws of physics, there won’t be any surprise attacks from space.

 

I thought Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack.

 

Did Pearl Harbor happen in space?

 

Just like getting armor through the Ardennes Forest is impossible? Come on man a hundred years ago typing this message and you seeing it was impossible.

It was they thought that torpedoes could not be used in the harbor. It was impossible. That was until the Japanese invented a torpedo finn that made it possible.

 

I already said that I thought the Air Force could handle it, but the threat is still there and we need to be ready to do more than identify a threat, whether we eliminate the threat immediately or not.