US Space Force ("Guardians")

[Dr Mordrid]

Not Space Corps, a new command in the Air Force, but a Space Force - the 6th branch of the US military.

Trump didn't start this - it's been brewing since the 1980's - the question being "when?" and "how?" rather than "if."

Threats are emerging fast, with little news coverage, and our commercial space capabilities are also expanding into forms usable by MilSpace.

Space News....

What would the mission of the United States Space Force be?

President Trump’s recent directive to the Defense Department to create a new branch of the military, a United States Space Force, was not an idle musing. Trump’s proposal derives from a growing debate inside military and political circles about how to best meet the threat posed to American space assets by potential enemies: Russia and China, to be precise.

Pentagon officials are sounding the alarm that the United States is not ready for a space war. The other two great space powers have been creating the weapons to achieve an orbital Pearl Harbor, the destruction of satellites that provide the military with communications, navigation, and intelligence capabilities it will need in a war.
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Short version (not all from Space News)

MISSIONS

Defending the US, allies and their space assets from space-based threats, which are already emerging.

Identifying, tracking and cleaning up space junk - derelict satellites, launch and collision debris etc.

With other nations and companies; a space-faring version of the Coast Guard providing rescue services, enforcing space law, and helping to arbitrate disputes among nations and private entities beyond the Earth.

Planetary defense - detecting and mitigating incoming or high risk asteroids, comets etc.

[UtwigMU]

Interesting development. The Russians have rebranded their Military Air Force VVS to Air Space Force VKS in 2015.

[Dr Mordrid]

Before too long the US will have at least 6 crew-capable spacecraft, and perhaps twice as many robotic vehicles. One is already being looked at for European use. In-space refuelling, cis-lunar and beyond-Earth travel will be baselined for at least 3 of the crew vehicles and their cargo/tanker variants. 3 companies are working on suborbital intercontinental transportation systems.

The US is rolling commercial space operations and licencing into the Commerce Department, and FAA is extending Air Traffic Control to cover space operations.

This s***'s getting serious.

[Dr Mordrid]

Comments from Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis (USMC Ret), US Secretary of Defense



Space News

Space Force: Pentagon moving closer to Trumps vision

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - President Trump is all-in on having a separate military service for space. The Pentagon has been working on a study on different paths to get there. There are still many disagreements and details to be worked out. "But all that says is that we have a threat in space," said Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command.

"We're working all those issues," Hyten said of the upcoming reforms. The important thing to keep in mind is that "we have to treat space like a warfighting domain," he said. "It's about speed, about dealing with the adversary."

"We have huge challenges in space," Hyten insisted during a keynote speech on Tuesday at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium. The reorganization that will occur in the coming years is a necessary response to deal with "our two big adversaries Russia and China."

A report that will put forth options for how to create a Space Force is expected to be out this week. It is now being reported that Vice President Mike Pence will share details of the reorganization on Thursday at the Pentagon. According to Fox News Kristin Fisher, Pence will "specifically lay out the need for a Space Force and the next steps for its creation."
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Comments on Tuesday by Defense Secretary James Mattis were the closest to a direct endorsement of a Space Force that he has expressed thus far. "We are in complete alignment with the presidents concern about protecting our assets in space that contribute to our security, to our economy," Mattis told reporters. "We need to address space as a developing warfighting domain and a combatant command is certainly one thing that we can establish," he said. "This is a process we're in."
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[Dr Mordrid]

Space News...

New Pentagon memo lays out action plan to establish Space Force by 2020

WASHINGTON Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan this week issued a detailed plan for how the Pentagon will move forward to create a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces by fiscal year 2020.
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The memo makes it clear that the space reorganization is being led from the top down. Shanahan is overseeing the entire effort,
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The changes directed by Shanahan only apply to DoD and not to the intelligence community,...
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The Director of National Intelligence is cc'ed in the memo.

Shanahan's orders have short deadlines. ... the legislative proposal could arrive at the White House as early as Dec. 1, 2018.
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A "Space Governance Committee" led by Shanahan will have the final word on any reorganization action and on the legislative proposal before it goes to the White House....

Upcoming steps in the reorganization

The first order of business is to stand up U.S. Space Command, a unified combatant command responsible for space.
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The creation of a Space Development Agency also could happen relatively soon.
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The chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness will organize what DoD calls "Space Operations Forces."
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The Pentagon's chief management office will be responsible to set up a new office for an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space...
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[Dr Mordrid]

With the Senate Armed Services Committee already approving, now the House Armed Services Committee is on board.

https://spacenews.com/house-armed-services-markup-to-bring-space-force-closer-to-reality/

House Armed Services markup to bring Space Force closer to reality

WASHINGTON — House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said he is confident his committee on Wednesday will vote to authorize a separate military branch for space.

“We have an agreement on an amendment that will be added in the full committee markup,” Smith said on Monday during a breakfast meeting with reporters.
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[Dr Mordrid]

While the joint House-Senate Conference Committee hashes out the details of Space Force before it's signed into law, the command structure is being set up.

Meanwhile, in its December meeting NATO will take up space as a combat zone, and Article 5 invocations after space attacks.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (U.S. Space Command PR) -- U.S. Space Command Commander General John W. "Jay" Raymond, in his first official directives, established two subordinate commands that will jointly provide support to the new Unified Combatant Command.

Combined Force Space Component Command and Joint Task Force Space Defense will focus the planning and execution of global space operations, activities and missions into two areas: 1) protection and defense from threats to U.S. space capabilities/forces and 2) maintaining and growing our national security space programs, combat-relevant space capabilities, and space cadre talent to increase warfighter lethality.

"To ensure USSPACECOM can conduct its mission decisively, I am establishing two subordinate commands with distinct and defined mission areas to ensure the command is postured to protect and defend, while also increasing joint warfighter lethality and strengthening partnerships," Raymond said. "The establishment of the Department of Defense's 11th COCOM dedicated to space operations reflects the value of space contributions to national security, the evolution of the threats to U.S. space systems, and the importance of deterring potential adversaries from challenging or attacking U.S. space systems. These subordinate commands will have a direct impact on that mission."

The JTF-SD will be commanded by Brigadier General Thomas L. James, with a mission to conduct space superiority operations in unified action with mission partners to deter aggression, defend space capability, and when directed, defeat adversaries throughout the continuum of conflict. The JTF-SD will execute its protect and defend mission through various operations centers, including National Space Defense Center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado; Space Situational Awareness Units; and Emerging Space Defense Units.

The CFSCC will be commanded by Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting with a mission to plan, integrate, conduct, and assess global space operations in order to deliver combat relevant space capabilities to Combatant Commanders, Coalition partners, the Joint Force, and the Nation. CFSCC plans and executes space operations through four distinct and geographically dispersed operations centers, including: Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, California; Missile Warning Center at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colorado; Joint Overhead Persistent Infrared Center at Buckley AFB, Colorado; and Joint Navigation Warfare Center located at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. Additionally, CFSCC executes tactical control over a number of Air Force, Army, and Navy space units.

[Dr Mordrid]

Via an announcement at the Reagan National Defense Forum;

a House/Senate Conference Committee has agreed to create the US Space Force as a 6th military branch in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.

It'll have a civilian Secretary, and a working group has been assigned to set up the structure.

The Conference Committee report should be voted on in the House on Wednesday, and in the Senate shortly after.

[Dr Mordrid]

The USAF 45th Space Wing runs Cape Canaveral from Patrick AFB, supervising the launches & scheduling.

While "the official plan" is still being written, the signs point to both Patrick and the 45th being transferred to US Space Force. Same goes for three USAF Space Command bases in Colorado and Vandenberg AFB in California. At Vandenberg the 30th Space Wing would also move to Space Force, and the 14th Air Force would move to US Space Operations Command.

[Dr Mordrid]

Members of the US Space Force will be known as "Guardians."

The name comes from a 1993 US Air Force Space Command motto, “Guardians of the High Frontier." From earlier reports they want to evolve a Search & Rescue capability as crewed cislunar traffic increases, sort of like the US Coast Guard.

An S&R function would also fit with DoD and NASA's recent interest in developing high-thrust nuclear propulsion engines. Imagine replacing the RaptoVacs on a Starship with nuclear engines