Last summer, Air Force secretary Heather Wilson dismissed a congressional bill for a Marine Corps-like Space Corps that would to the Air Force, but have autonomous leadership. Ironically, Air Force leadership resists the near-identical arguments that space cadets use to argue for an independent space command. And, as history has borne out, the Air Force’s leadership, culture, and ability to secure its own funding from the Pentagon is a big reason why the US has dominated the world’s airspace. Seminal air cadets like Billy Mitchell and Hap Arnold argued that air power was analogous to sea power in that it was essential in securing lines of communications. Mahan’s sea power theory sort of even helped the Air Force successfully split from, and become become equal to, the US Army, in 1947. “It’s a place we can’t live in, so you have to patrol the necessary lines of communication, or access points.” “The big similarity between the sea and space is about commanding and exploiting a transitory medium,” says Bleddyn Bowen, a space strategy expert at the University of Leicester in Great Britain. Sixty-two miles above the oceans Mahan sailed, satellite systems are the new lines of communication, the tools with which militaries exert terrestrial power. Sea power allows nations to control what Mahan called “lines of communication.” A powerful seagoing nation could move troops, food, weapons, and supplies with impunity-while blocking its enemies from doing the same.
In 1890, Navy officer Alfred Thayer Mahan published The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, arguing that strong navies beget strong nations. But the intellectual history of space strategy comes from the Navy. The Air Force ultimately won that battle, and today controls about 90 percent of the defense space budget. In fact, they date back to the dawn of the Space Age itself. But, does this Cold War reposturing really justify creating a new branch of the military-does the already bloated Defense Department need a bigger slice of the taxpayer’s pie? These are not new questions. It would have its own leadership and culture innovating, and arguing for, space-centric applications of military power. According to Space Force advocates, a sixth branch wouldn’t be forced to take budgetary hand-me-downs from its sibling services. What this all means is, an eclipse of American space power could cast long geopolitical shadows. You don’t have to be wearing a Che Guevara shirt to accept the fact that the US military has a long history of projecting soft power to support capitalism-this is classic Big Stick diplomacy, folks.
#Alfred thayer mahan argued that free
Now, not every space business is American, but most operate under free market economic principles. According to the Satellite Industry Association’s latest annual report, the commercial space industry was worth $350 billion in 2017.
The fourth thing to know about space power is, if America gives up its military dominance, expect its economic influence to wane as well. Security experts warn that Russia and China are both catching up and developing anti-satellite weapons capable of tripping up America’s strategic orbital foothold. America has the most military satellites right now, but the Pentagon has slackened its launch tempo in recent years. Which means space dominance is already contested. Third, space power is an extension of geopolitics. Every branch has space assets satellites have played an indispensable role in nearly every US military operation since Operation Desert Storm. Second, the US military is already up there. In practical terms, this means space can be defined as the region encompassing the planet’s outer atmospheric fringe to about 1/10th of the way to the Moon. First, the military is concerned with space only as it concerns Earth. America’s role in humanity’s accelerando of space-based science, exploration, and business depends, in no small part, on its commitment to space-based power.Ī few more points before we get going. The Space Force deserves your unclouded consideration. Moot your hot-blooded support, sputtering antagonism, or news-numbed apathy to whatever any politician says. So, forget Moon bases, battles for Mars, and dogfights through the asteroid belt. The bare facts are these: The American military has operated in space for over half a century, and Trump’s Space Force is one of several proposals for how- not whether-to continue its orbital commitment. Since President Trump ordered the Department of Defense to prepare for a sixth military branch in June-an order that has stalled, since it requires congressional approval-the debate over this proposed Space Force has become so clouded by partially-informed, mostly-partisan rhetoric, there’s barely enough light for an honest appraisal. Government sclerosis is no match for the hot take industrial complex.
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