Space Force

[Commodore]

I'm not a fan of the idea of militarizing space in general.

We're going to have to eventually. The more we start putting up in space, the more likely someone is going to try to attack that stuff in the event of a war so we are going to have to have some kind of security apparatus in place for our space infrastructure.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

We're going to have to eventually. The more we start putting up in space, the more likely someone is going to try to attack that stuff in the event of a war so we are going to have to have some kind of security apparatus in place for our space infrastructure.

And the treadmill rolls ever onward.

 

[Socrates99]

The rational that a space force is a necessary split from the air force because of hierarchical promotion reasons is sound but it seems like the split should reduce the air force budget. Did it? Without that its definitely a defense contractor give away, no doubt. I guess at least it'll push space travel forward since private industry is definitely not going to do that.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The more we start putting up in space,

The US already possess both the majority of all satellites and the vast majority of military satellites.

The rational that a space force is a necessary split from the air force because of hierarchical promotion reasons is sound but it seems like the split should reduce the air force budget. Did it? Without that its definitely a defense contractor give away, no doubt. I guess at least it'll push space travel forward since private industry is definitely not going to do that.

It's not clear at this time. All previous iterations of the Space Force legislation did move assets over from the Air Force to the Space Force which would be a reduction. There will be total budget growth though as the new sub-branch builds up some duplicate capacity, namely in administration.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The US already possess both the majority of all satellites and the vast majority of military satellites.

The US is going to need more new spy satellites with the way Trump is going.
Maybe put up a "lose lips sink ships" poster inside the Oval Office as a reminder to the orange moron.

 

[Commodore]

The US already possess both the majority of all satellites and the vast majority of military satellites

None of which have defenses against any kind of enemy attack. And while providing those defenses may not be the current stated purpose of the proposed space force, it would certainly be the logical evolution of it.

Plus, while I know it would violate international treaties, I really think the US should look into developing orbital weaponry that can be used to strike targets on the ground. After all, space is the ultimate high ground.

And the treadmill rolls ever onward.

And it will continue as long as humans keep trying to break each other's toys when they get mad at each other

 

[FriendlyFire]

None of which have defenses against any kind of enemy attack. And while providing those defenses may not be the current stated purpose of the proposed space force, it would certainly be the logical evolution of it.
Plus, while I know it would violate international treaties, I really think the US should look into developing orbital weaponry that can be used to strike targets on the ground. After all, space is the ultimate high ground.
And it will continue as long as humans keep trying to break each other's toys when they get mad at each other

Conventional weapons ? (Drones, missiles, ECM) WMD ? (EMP, Nukes, Doomsday bombs) ******** dumb stuff? (Manned space shuttles and marines with assault rifles)
I rather NOT have IVAN put up orbiting Nuclear bombs because you know what Ivan is like when it comes to nuclear safety and regard for human life.

 

[Commodore]

Conventional weapons ? (Drones, missiles, ECM) WMD ? (EMP, Nukes, Doomsday bombs) ******** dumb stuff? (Manned space shuttles and marines with assault rifles)
I rather NOT have IVAN put up orbiting Nuclear bombs because you know what Ivan is like when it comes to nuclear safety and regard for human life.

I was thinking conventional missiles and maybe a theoretical missile interception system that could be used to shoot down ICBMs. The conventional missiles would be for taking out things like enemy air bases or other assets that our air force can't reach for whatever reason.

And I will admit that the sci-fi fan in me would like to see something like the Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War or the Ion Cannon from Command & Conquer.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Sorry to break this post up but there are separate points to be addressed.

None of which have defenses against any kind of enemy attack.

Yes they do, they all have some sort of defense. Most can alter their orbit to evade attacks, they are resistant to jamming, they will typically be rad-hardened which provides some protection against EMP, they will have imagers recessed and baffled to help prevent laser dazzling, they are being watched by constant radar coverage and so on. Those are just the obvious, non-classified defense.

And while providing those defenses may not be the current stated purpose of the proposed space force,

On the contrary, defending American space infrastructure is one of the primary tasks of the space force.

Plus, while I know it would violate international treaties, I really think the US should look into developing orbital weaponry that can be used to strike targets on the ground.

Space to ground weapons are not illegal and the US has already looked into them in the past. WMD's are illegal in space.

 

[Commodore]

Space to ground weapons are not illegal and the US has already looked into them in the past. WMD's are illegal in space.

Then I'm even more disappointed we don't have ion cannons yet. Of course with some depictions of the ion cannon in C&C showing the capability to level cities, maybe they would qualify as WMDs and be illegal.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The Russians packed a (regular) cannon on one of their military stations to fight off American boarders or attack sats. They even test fired it, but only after the cosmonauts had left as they were afraid the vibrations might break the spacecraft.

 

[Hygro]

The Russians packed a (regular) cannon on one of their military stations to fight off American boarders or attack sats. They even test fired it, but only after the cosmonauts had left as they were afraid the vibrations might break the spacecraft.

I am picturing a pirate ship cannon.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The Russians packed a (regular) cannon on one of their military stations to fight off American boarders or attack sats. They even test fired it, but only after the cosmonauts had left as they were afraid the vibrations might break the spacecraft.

More likely about 40 years from now, Ivan cant afford to replace their antiquated weapons platform which they will continue to operate until it has disastrous accident
Ivan will probably EMP himself, having secretly put nukes onto their weapon platform and rush it into orbit to show it could beat the Yanks.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I am picturing a pirate ship cannon.

A very high-tech one at that!

More likely about 40 years from now, Ivan cant afford to replace their antiquated weapons platform which they will continue to operate until it has disastrous accident
Ivan will probably EMP himself, having secretly put nukes onto their weapon platform and rush it into orbit to show it could beat the Yanks.

I don't know about all that but there have been a handful of Congresscritters who have written Op-Eds arguing that the military should declassify some of the things they have discovered that Russia and China are up to as far as outer space capabilities. They all served on committees which are regularly briefed on that stuff and they say those countries have upped their military space game.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I don't know about all that but there have been a handful of Congresscritters who have written Op-Eds arguing that the military should declassify some of the things they have discovered that Russia and China are up to as far as outer space capabilities. They all served on committees which are regularly briefed on that stuff and they say those countries have upped their military space game.

Impossible China is only capable of stealing tech from the US /s
It dosnt suprise me while Trump is withdrawing the US into isolation and setting fire to the economy, China has been taking full advantage of this by opening new navel bases in the Indian sea, Africa, buying up key ports and expanding its infliuence.
Russia has made gains in Syria, the Middle east and with weakening the EU.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Congressional appropriators have moved to cut about $30 million out of the administrative budget for the new Space Force. Trump had asked for ~$70 million and the full House passed that but now appropriators are marking things up and they made that big cut. Reporters are confident this will be the final say on this part of the Space Force budget.

 

[r16]

and it turns out some USAF general who badly wanted to command this Space Force and talked to the press , despite USAF wide bans on such and was sacked claims China has "battleships" and "destroyers" no doubt as in a minisat that searches for the enemy sat that beams down American sit-coms and the bigger one to throw marbles at the enemy sat . And the guy "says" America has stuff that will take you from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world within an hour so like 20 000 kilometers per hours helicopters and stuff . Will ı ever get tired of saying "Yeah, right" ?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The US military is very interested in fast, point-to-point suborbital launches to get troops into a situation very rapidly. I don't see this becoming a realistic technology for another 20 years or so. Even SpaceX's Starship would not be very good for this as it too large and would need to be landed too far from the action to be that useful IMO.


Edit:
Apparently the last thing that the Democrats agreed to with regards to establishing a Space Force was the name. The Democrats wanted to call it the Space Corps because it has the same relationship to the Air Force that the Marine Corps has with Navy. Also, in years of debate over this idea, everyone has always called it a Space Corps when established under the Air Force and only called it a Space Force when it was hypothetically established as a completely separate branch.

To the posters on the Space News comments section, the hold out over the name is evidence of how much Democrats hate the country. Trump had requested a Space Force, so of course they pushed back on the name simply because he asked. What a bunch of paranoid, small-minded nutters.

This is the same comment section that told me I didn't know what I was talking about when commenting on things I've worked on with my own hands, so delusional posts are sort of par for the course. Their comment section is a bit better than Facebook at large but it's still obliged to carry the California Prop 65 disclosure.

 

[Hygro]

Space Command was an internal name as well.

Space Force is by far the best name and can be the only silver lining of the trump presidency.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There are several different Space Commands already. They are components of the Air Force and will soon be transferred over.