An Earth-like planet only 31 light years away,eh?
We'd better get our nukes ready now to intercept them before they reach us!
We'd better get our nukes ready now to intercept them before they reach us!
Trump announces new “Space Force” military branch
- Thread starter White_Unifier
- Start date
Biden decides to stick with Space Force as branch of U.S. military
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is looking at all policies put in place by Republican predecessor Donald Trump, with a view toward possibly rolling them back, but …
Trump’s Golden Dome creates opening for Space Force to gain relevance
Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Bruce Einhorn and Sana Pashankar
Published Jun 09, 2025 • 5 minute read
(Bloomberg) — Five years after its formation during President Donald Trump’s first administration prompted jokes about the Star Trek-style logo and inspired a Netflix Inc. sitcom with Steve Carell, the U.S. Space Force is still looking for respect.
“Many people don’t even understand the Space Force is real,” General Michael Guetlein, the agency’s vice chief of space operations, told a Washington area conference in March. “That was a luxury that we had when space wasn’t contested. We no longer enjoy that luxury.”
America’s foes are racing to develop strategic footholds in space, from China’s satellite ‘dogfighting’ operations to Russia’s development of nuclear anti-satellite weapons, but the Space Force’s supporters say the youngest and smallest U.S. military branch hasn’t received the money it needs to counter those threats in the new military space age.
The Rodney Dangerfield of the US military seemed to be getting its moment in the spotlight last month, with Trump on May 20 naming Guetlein to be the leader of Golden Dome, the proposed space-based missile defence shield.
The complex project could generate billions of dollars for defence giants and space startups, with the Congressional Budget Office saying the US may have to spend as much as $542 billion over 20 years to develop and launch a network of space-based interceptors.
Guetlein is “a very talented man,” said Trump, who noted his own role in creating the Space Force. The branch, he added, “has turned out to be a tremendous success.”
Trump’s missile shield could be the force’s ticket to greater relevance, said Peter Hays, professorial lecturer at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, who likens the force to the puppet Pinocchio aching to outgrow his second-tier status.
Golden Dome offers “a natural war-fighting mission which would make the Space Force a real boy,” Hays said.
However, just a week and a half after the Guetlein announcement, the administration released the president’s budget request, which proposed about $26.3 billion for the Space Force, down from $29.6 billion that former President Joe Biden requested last year. The numbers and allocations for the Space Force could change as the budget process continues to be reviewed in Congress.
The force’s top military officer has said that tight budgets have hindered the Space Force. “Despite the dramatic rise in space threats and the increasing importance of space over the last few budget cycles, the Space Force has experienced shrinking resources,” General Chance Saltzman, the force’s chief of space operations, told a House subcommittee on May 6.
As the budget battle intensifies, he may have allies on both sides of the aisle. The Space Force’s funding is “totally inadequate,” Maine Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said at the May 20 hearing. Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed concern about “our ability to fight and win in space” at a hearing on June 5, adding that the upcoming budget “may not adequately fund the Space Force.”
Tensions with China create another opportunity to get more money. In March, before his confirmation as Air Force Secretary (which includes responsibility for the Space Force), Troy Meink warned senators about “the rapidly evolving threat from China” and said Space Force “may require a significant increase in funding and manning” to address it.
The Space Force provided a detailed account of its vision with the April 17 publication of a report, “Space Warfighting: A Framework for Planners,” that “underscores the critical importance of space superiority,” the force said.
Under the framework, the Space Force has the twin goals of making space superiority the service’s “raison d’etre” and making control of space the central foundation of US military power, according to Nayef Al-Rodhan, director of the Geopolitics and Global Futures Department at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. These “new bold, game-changing missions” will challenge other space powers to respond, he said.
The assertion that space is a “warfighting domain” has critics worried that the US is fueling an arms race. “We’re quickly sliding into a new era in space that is frightening,” said Jessica West, senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, a peace and security research institute in Waterloo, Ontario. The Pentagon is “definitely shedding any sense of restraint in outer space.”
Elaborating on the strategy to fight wars beyond Earth may raise alarms overseas but could help the Space Force at home, said Victoria Samson, chief director for space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank in Washington. “From a DoD perspective, calling something a warfighting domain opens up resources and programs and capabilities and strategies,” she said.
Budget constraints, advocates say, undermine the Space Force’s ability to create a unified backbone of America’s strategic interests in orbit, including satellite tracking, missile warning and GPS networks.
“Other services have individual bases — you know, single units — that have greater populations than the entire United States Space Force,” said David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The budget “should be probably twice to three times what it currently is.”
With the Trump administration firing everyone from NASA scientists to foreign aid workers, getting a significant increase won’t be easy but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said that space deserves more resources.
“The next and the most important domain of warfare will be the space domain,” he said in March at a gathering of Space Force and Air Force leaders at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “So, you’re going to see far more investment from this administration into that domain, both offensively and defensively.”
Even after his recent feud with Trump, SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk may still be in line to benefit from increased Space Force spending. In April, for instance, SpaceX landed a contract worth an estimated $5.9 billion to launch national security missions.
Other space companies like Northrop Grumman Corp. and Rocket Lab should benefit as Space Force looks for faster and cheaper launches. Startups are in the mix, too, said Even Rogers, CEO of True Anomaly, a designer of spacecraft and software systems that raised $260 million in April. “We really aligned our product road map and our investment strategy as a business to the most pressing needs of the Space Force,” he said.
Guetlein’s appointment suggests that the Space Force is likely to play an essential role in Golden Dome, according to Clayton Swope, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We’re going to look a lot to how Space Force buys things and operates them,” he said. Trump’s pick of the Space Force general indicates “that will be the first amongst the different pieces that will have to fit together for Golden Dome to work.”
—With assistance from Courtney McBride.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Bruce Einhorn and Sana Pashankar
Published Jun 09, 2025 • 5 minute read
(Bloomberg) — Five years after its formation during President Donald Trump’s first administration prompted jokes about the Star Trek-style logo and inspired a Netflix Inc. sitcom with Steve Carell, the U.S. Space Force is still looking for respect.
“Many people don’t even understand the Space Force is real,” General Michael Guetlein, the agency’s vice chief of space operations, told a Washington area conference in March. “That was a luxury that we had when space wasn’t contested. We no longer enjoy that luxury.”
America’s foes are racing to develop strategic footholds in space, from China’s satellite ‘dogfighting’ operations to Russia’s development of nuclear anti-satellite weapons, but the Space Force’s supporters say the youngest and smallest U.S. military branch hasn’t received the money it needs to counter those threats in the new military space age.
The Rodney Dangerfield of the US military seemed to be getting its moment in the spotlight last month, with Trump on May 20 naming Guetlein to be the leader of Golden Dome, the proposed space-based missile defence shield.
The complex project could generate billions of dollars for defence giants and space startups, with the Congressional Budget Office saying the US may have to spend as much as $542 billion over 20 years to develop and launch a network of space-based interceptors.
Guetlein is “a very talented man,” said Trump, who noted his own role in creating the Space Force. The branch, he added, “has turned out to be a tremendous success.”
Trump’s missile shield could be the force’s ticket to greater relevance, said Peter Hays, professorial lecturer at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, who likens the force to the puppet Pinocchio aching to outgrow his second-tier status.
Golden Dome offers “a natural war-fighting mission which would make the Space Force a real boy,” Hays said.
However, just a week and a half after the Guetlein announcement, the administration released the president’s budget request, which proposed about $26.3 billion for the Space Force, down from $29.6 billion that former President Joe Biden requested last year. The numbers and allocations for the Space Force could change as the budget process continues to be reviewed in Congress.
The force’s top military officer has said that tight budgets have hindered the Space Force. “Despite the dramatic rise in space threats and the increasing importance of space over the last few budget cycles, the Space Force has experienced shrinking resources,” General Chance Saltzman, the force’s chief of space operations, told a House subcommittee on May 6.
As the budget battle intensifies, he may have allies on both sides of the aisle. The Space Force’s funding is “totally inadequate,” Maine Senator Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats, said at the May 20 hearing. Republican Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed concern about “our ability to fight and win in space” at a hearing on June 5, adding that the upcoming budget “may not adequately fund the Space Force.”
Tensions with China create another opportunity to get more money. In March, before his confirmation as Air Force Secretary (which includes responsibility for the Space Force), Troy Meink warned senators about “the rapidly evolving threat from China” and said Space Force “may require a significant increase in funding and manning” to address it.
The Space Force provided a detailed account of its vision with the April 17 publication of a report, “Space Warfighting: A Framework for Planners,” that “underscores the critical importance of space superiority,” the force said.
Under the framework, the Space Force has the twin goals of making space superiority the service’s “raison d’etre” and making control of space the central foundation of US military power, according to Nayef Al-Rodhan, director of the Geopolitics and Global Futures Department at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. These “new bold, game-changing missions” will challenge other space powers to respond, he said.
The assertion that space is a “warfighting domain” has critics worried that the US is fueling an arms race. “We’re quickly sliding into a new era in space that is frightening,” said Jessica West, senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, a peace and security research institute in Waterloo, Ontario. The Pentagon is “definitely shedding any sense of restraint in outer space.”
Elaborating on the strategy to fight wars beyond Earth may raise alarms overseas but could help the Space Force at home, said Victoria Samson, chief director for space security and stability at the Secure World Foundation, a think tank in Washington. “From a DoD perspective, calling something a warfighting domain opens up resources and programs and capabilities and strategies,” she said.
Budget constraints, advocates say, undermine the Space Force’s ability to create a unified backbone of America’s strategic interests in orbit, including satellite tracking, missile warning and GPS networks.
“Other services have individual bases — you know, single units — that have greater populations than the entire United States Space Force,” said David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The budget “should be probably twice to three times what it currently is.”
With the Trump administration firing everyone from NASA scientists to foreign aid workers, getting a significant increase won’t be easy but Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said that space deserves more resources.
“The next and the most important domain of warfare will be the space domain,” he said in March at a gathering of Space Force and Air Force leaders at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. “So, you’re going to see far more investment from this administration into that domain, both offensively and defensively.”
Even after his recent feud with Trump, SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk may still be in line to benefit from increased Space Force spending. In April, for instance, SpaceX landed a contract worth an estimated $5.9 billion to launch national security missions.
Other space companies like Northrop Grumman Corp. and Rocket Lab should benefit as Space Force looks for faster and cheaper launches. Startups are in the mix, too, said Even Rogers, CEO of True Anomaly, a designer of spacecraft and software systems that raised $260 million in April. “We really aligned our product road map and our investment strategy as a business to the most pressing needs of the Space Force,” he said.
Guetlein’s appointment suggests that the Space Force is likely to play an essential role in Golden Dome, according to Clayton Swope, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“We’re going to look a lot to how Space Force buys things and operates them,” he said. Trump’s pick of the Space Force general indicates “that will be the first amongst the different pieces that will have to fit together for Golden Dome to work.”
—With assistance from Courtney McBride.
Trump’s Golden Dome creates opening for Space Force to gain relevance
The Rodney Dangerfield of the US military seemed to be getting its moment in the spotlight last month.
Of course not. Trump had his attention-seeking moment, and then forgot about it completely. It's what he does.