Tag: space force

Donald Trump promises to create a Space Force National Guard if elected president

Donald Trump has promised to create a Space Force National Guard if elected president.

The Republican nominee told the National Guard Association of the United States in Detroit that a reserve force is critical for defense in outer space.

Fears of Russia developing nuclear weapons to use specifically in space have ramped up in recent months.

Space is also becoming a vital area of national security as adversaries develop their celestial military capabilities. 

Trump set up Space Force in December 2019 to form the first new branch of the military since 1947, when the Air Force became its own entity.

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The Government Doesn’t Want You To See the Unused Space Force Logos

As Sunshine Week 2024 draws to a close, the Air Force has marked the occasion by hiding the draft designs of logos and uniforms for the Space Force.

Reason filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Air Force in January 2020 for drafts or alternate designs for the logo of the nascent Space Force, one of the Trump administration’s more expensive and whimsical farces.

A quick four years later, the Air Force released 122 pages of communications between the public servants who designed the uniforms, logo, and seal for Star Fleet—excuse me, Space Force.

Unfortunately for everyone who was looking forward to seeing Project Runway: Department of Defense Edition, the Air Force redacted all images of the draft versions, citing Exemption (b)(5) of the FOIA.

Exemption (b)(5) is also known as the “deliberative process” exemption. It protects discussions between bureaucrats about policy decisions, under the reasoning that bureaucrats wouldn’t be as frank if everything they said got dragged into the public eye (by annoying reporters like myself). 

Congress amended the FOIA in 2016 to state that agencies should operate with a “presumption of openness” and only withhold documents when there is a “foreseeable harm,” not out of fear of embarrassment. Despite that, federal agencies still regularly abuse exemptions, especially (b)(5). In this case, the Air Force seems to be claiming that its staff would be afraid to design uniforms if their mock-ups were public. Sorry, but fashion’s a tough business.

All is not lost, though. Some tidbits slipped by the censors.

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Transgender Space Force Colonel Says Using Pronouns in Emails Will Help Win Wars

During a speech to the U.S. Air Force, transgender Space Force Col. Bree Fram demanded everyone use pronouns in their emails as a way to enhance “winning war fighting strategies”.

Yes, really.

“All too often, I hear leaders talk about providing everyone with dignity and respect like it’s an aspirational goal, that ‘s not good enough,” said Fram.

“Dignity and respect is the bare minimum, it’s the floor of where we can be, we must set our sights higher and focus on intentional inclusivity, because there are still far too many people out there, not just LGBTQ individuals, that feel marginalized, shut out or discriminated against,” he added.

“So for all of you out there, I ask you to set out your symbols of pride, share your pronouns in your email, particularly if you’re a person who doesn’t think they need to, initiate difficult conversations about racial and gender barriers, and share a bit of your vulnerability in a way that draws others in.”

“You all have the power to take intentionally inclusive action to ensure the multiple perspectives that we know make us stronger as we devise winning war fighting strategies get heard.”

Respondents ox X weren’t really too convinced that dignifying transgender pronouns will help win wars.

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SPACE FORCE WILL TAKE COMMAND OF FUTURE LIVE TARGET-TRACKING SATELLITES

The U.S. Space Force is set to take command of a new fleet of satellites that will provide real-time monitoring of ground targets around the globe, offering unprecedented surveillance capabilities. 

Known as the Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI), and in development by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), the Space Force will be the lead operator of this new and advanced satellite system, reports Space News. This initiative represents a significant modernization effort, as it will replace aging aircraft systems like the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS).

Last year, the US government allocated $5 billion to develop the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) system. The eventual launch of this system will test how well satellites can track missiles in flight. The Space Force and its component Space Development Agency (SDA) have aimed to deploy over 135 satellites to track advanced missiles, with a focus on enhancing missile defense capabilities, especially as Russia and China have both been rapidly developing these technologies. The architecture’s configuration and its relation to missile defense are still under consideration, and there are ongoing discussions about the deployment of sensor constellations for global coverage and specific regional needs.

Now, the NRO is partnering with the Space Force and will have access to the data from GMTI, but the military chain of command will drive the program based on priorities approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon. The Space Force is working on the requirements for the new sensors and will oversee the acquisition program’s progress, while the NRO is responsible for the actual acquisition of the classified sensor payloads based on its own design.

Space Force guardians will be responsible for tasking and controlling where the satellites direct their sight, based upon requests from commanders in the field. U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, while speaking at a panel discussion at the Air & Space Force Association’s Warfare Conference in Aurora, Colorado, called the new technology an “operational imperative.”

According to Burt, the plan is that the GMTI system will replace what current spy aircraft are doing, and essentially move that aspect of intelligence gathering into the space domain. While nearly all of this is classified, the system will be able to monitor and track targets in real time, operating on land, sea, and in the sky. Moreover, all that intelligence can then be put into the hands of operators in the field. 

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US Military Launches Highly Classified Unmanned Space Plane

The US Space Force launched a secretive plane on Thursday which has been equipped with heavier boosters that could feasibly send it further into orbit than ever before.

The launch marks the 9th flight of the three-core SpaceX Falcon Heavy booster, and the 7th flight of the US Air Force’s (not so) secret unmanned spaceplane, the X-37B (USSF-52).

The launch was previously scheduled for Dec. 10, however it was scrapped due to issues with ground equipment just 30 minutes before liftoff – pushing the event back 18 days.

Officially, the X-37B will enter into various orbits around Earth and serve as a testing ground for NASA’s study of the effects of long-duration exposure to space on organic materials, the Epoch Times reports, adding that the mission will also include experiments having to do with “space domain awareness,” which the US Space Force defines as the ability to “rapidly detect, warn, characterize, attribute, and predict threats to national, allied, and commercial space systems.”

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Space Force Says Documents on “Fastwalkers” and “Slowwalkers” All “Exempt from Disclosure”

The United States Space Force has issued a full denial in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on “Fastwalkers” and “Slowwalkers“. This request, filed by The Black Vault in July 2023, asked for all procedures and manuals, either present or past, that reference these terms. The Space Force’s refusal to disclose this information under FOIA exemption (b)(1) Section 1.1(a) raises questions about the secrecy surrounding these phenomena, especially in light of the recent openness of other government branches regarding unidentified objects more commonly referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).

Before delving into the details of the denial, it’s crucial to understand what “Fastwalkers” and “Slowwalkers” are. Although information on these two terms is hard to come by, it is believed that these designations originated with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and are used to describe objects detected by defense systems moving at significantly different speeds. “Fastwalkers” refer to objects entering or leaving the atmosphere at high velocities, often captured by satellite systems. On the other hand, “Slowwalkers” denote objects moving slowly or hovering, detected by similar surveillance means.

These terms are distinct from the more commonly known UAP, a term that has gained widespread attention following official reports and acknowledgments by the U.S. Navy and other government entities. The UAP designation typically encompasses unidentified flying objects exhibiting flight characteristics possibly beyond current aerospace capabilities or is not immediately identifiable within our atmosphere; while “Fastwalkers” and “Slowwalkers” describe unidentified objects outside of it.

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Space Force chief: Timing of Chinese spaceplane launch “no coincidence”

China has launched its top-secret military spaceplane for a third time, days after the US military’s winged spacecraft was grounded for several weeks due to problems with its SpaceX rocket.

Observers believe China’s spaceplane looks much like the US military’s X-37B, a reusable craft that Pentagon officials are similarly tight-lipped about. But there’s a distinction in that US officials will publicly discuss, at least in broad terms, the purpose of the X-37B and release images of the spacecraft.

The US military has two X-37Bs in its inventory, each with a cargo bay that could fit a large refrigerator. They resemble small space shuttles, with dimensions about one-quarter those of NASA’s retired shuttle orbiters. The X-37B spaceplanes have flown in space six times, logging missions as long as two-and-a-half years, thanks to deployable solar panels that generate power for greater endurance.

The seventh X-37B flight was supposed to launch this week from Florida, but officials called off the launch to resolve technical issues with its Falcon Heavy rocket.

Then, on Thursday, China sent its own spaceplane aloft on a Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan launch base in northwestern China. The Long March 2F is typically used to launch Chinese astronaut crews into orbit but has been modified to accommodate China’s unpiloted robotic spaceplane inside its payload fairing.

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Space Command is fully operational, if still officially homeless

The Pentagon’s newest warfighting command has achieved full operational capability, despite continued wrangling over where to put a permanent headquarters for U.S. Space Command. 

“Since its establishment in 2019, USSPACECOM has been singularly focused on delivering exquisite capability to the joint force to deter conflict, defend our vital interests, and, if necessary, defeat aggression. Thanks to the disciplined initiative of our people and the support of our joint, combined and partnered team, I can confidently say we have reached full operational capability,” Gen. James Dickinson, head of SPACECOM, said in a statement Friday. 

The Pentagon uses “full operational capability” to describe an organization that has proved, through tests and real-world scenarios, it can accomplish all aspects of its missions. 

Space Command, which has called Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado home ever since its formation during the Trump administration, has been tangled in a years-long, highly political debate over its potential move to Alabama. 

Lawmakers, who rehashed the Alabama-versus-Colorado debate this September, included language in the compromise version of the 2024 defense policy bill that would prevent the command from building a headquarters until two government watchdog agencies finish investigating the Biden administration’s reversal of the Trump administration recommendation.

Air Force officials have previously told lawmakers that staying in Colorado would reduce operational risk and prevent losing many of its civilian workers, who make up 60 percent of its workforce.

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Space Force is going to track “abnormal” objects in outer space

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. 

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US Space Force creates 1st unit dedicated to targeting adversary satellites

The United States Space Force has activated its first and only unit dedicated to targeting other nations’ satellites and the ground stations that support them.

The 75th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (ISRS) was activated on Aug. 11 at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. This unit is part of Space Delta 7, an element of the U.S. Space Force tasked with providing intelligence on adversary space capabilities. It’ll do things like analyze the capabilities of potential targets, locate and track these targets as well as participate in “target engagement,” which presumably refers to destroying or disrupting adversary satellites, the ground stations that support them and transmissions sent between the two.

Lt. Col. Travis Anderson, who leads the squadron, said in a Space Force statement that the idea of a dedicated space targeting unit has been years in the making. “Today is a monumental time in the history of our service,” Anderson said. “The idea of this unit began four years ago on paper and has probably been in the minds of several U.S. Air Force intelligence officers even longer.”

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