Challenged by China and Russia, US builds force for future space wars

Washington, December 21

The United States has met a mounting 21st century strategic challenge from Russia and China with the creation of a full-fledged US Space Force within the Department of Defence.

Acting on an ambition by President Donald Trump that had met resistance at first, the White House signalled its determination to not cede superiority in a Star Wars-like future of killer satellites and satellite-killer weapons.

Trump made the Space Force’s creation real with the signing of the 2020 National Defence Authorisation Act, which set the initial budget for a Pentagon force that will stand equally with the military’s five other branches.

“Going to be a lot of things happening in space, because space is the world’s newest warfighting domain,” Trump told members of the military gathered for the signing.

The Space Force will be the sixth formal force of the US military, after the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.

“Our reliance on space-based capabilities has grown dramatically, and today outer space has evolved into a war-fighting domain of its own,” said Secretary of Defence Mark Esper on Friday.

“Maintaining American dominance in that domain is now the mission of the United States Space Force.”

Esper compared the Space Force’s creation to the landmark creation of a separate US Air Force in 1947, hived off from the Army after World War II in recognition that aerial war fighting was indeed a separate domain that would be important in the future. AFP