As the military’s youngest branch, U.S. Space Force is still finding its footing. That includes everything from trying to get its uniforms right (a work in progress) to laying out its specific doctrine on topics. This month Space Training and Readiness Command (also known as the aptly named STARCOM) published a new bit of space doctrine: SDP 3-100, Space Domain Awareness, which the command called “the first operational level doctrine publication developed by STARCOM for the U.S. Space Force.”
The overall document is straightforward, explaining how Space Force plans to operate its own satellites and take into account other nations’ space craft, satellites both national and commercial and generally plan for what happens in orbit. But as the team at Space.com noticed, buried in the wider document is a look at the unknown abnormal phenomena, what the military calls UAPs (and are more widely known as UFOs).
“It requires the ability to rapidly identify and respond to threats and hazards, including objects that exhibit abnormal observables and patterns of life and cannot [be] correlated to any owner or point of origin,” the document notes.
This is where the UFO jokes kick in.
Hellbound and Down 