The U.S. Air Force celebrated its first birthday this week and got a gift on its second day: Congress passed the fiscal year 2021 budget on Monday, which includes a $15.2 billion budget for the U.S. Air Force.
On Dec. 20 last year, President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2020 as the birth certificate for the U.S. Pacific Air Force, which became the sixth largest military service added to the United States for the first time since the Air Force was established in 1947.
At a White House event last Friday to celebrate the first anniversary of the birth of the Air Force, Vice President Pence unveiled the official title of the members of the Air Force: “Guardians.
Pence said, “Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Air Force pilots, Marines and Taft Air Force Guardians will protect our nation for generations to come.”
The primary mission of the USAF is, naturally, to guard U.S. space security. In an interview with NewsNation, Admiral John Raymond, the first commander of the U.S. Space Force, said that it is indeed difficult for the average American to understand at once the vital importance of space security.
But “space not only drives the way the U.S. military fights, it also supports the way Americans live and the way the U.S. economy operates,” he stressed.
For now, the U.S. still leads the world in both military power and space technology. The efficient coordination of the two is even giving the U.S. military a huge advantage in the field. For example, the zero deaths of U.S. troops in Iraq during a retaliatory airstrike by Iran earlier this year is one of the things U.S. space warriors are proud of – more than 10 ballistic missiles quickly lifted off from western Iran around 1 a.m. local time on Jan. 8, 2020 in Iraq.
Within seconds, infrared sensors on U.S. missile warning satellites in orbit more than 30,000 kilometers above the ground recorded infrared radiation from the missiles’ flames and transmitted the data back to Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado, where three large screens recorded the missile data in real time and a large team of intelligence analysts quickly triangulated the missile launch sites and trajectories in accordance with the data.
Minutes later, Buckley Air Force Base informed Assad Air Base and Erbil Air Base in Iraq, where several hundred U.S. troops were stationed, via U.S. communications satellites that they were about to be attacked. At 1:34 a.m., the first missile hit Assad Air Base. The air strike instantly destroyed the air base’s buildings, aircraft and accommodation areas, and the explosion caused a massive shockwave that injured more than a hundred U.S. soldiers, but no one was killed.
This was Iran’s retaliation for the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian “Quds Brigade” commander Soleimani. A U.S. Defense Department official later told U.S. media that the U.S. missile warning satellite system provided time for U.S. and coalition forces to seek cover in advance, making zero deaths possible.
Heavy Reliance on Space Technology a Hidden Danger
But this efficient cooperation also creates a heavy dependence. According to an assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency last year, the U.S. military’s heavy reliance on space technology in actual combat has long been viewed by Russia and China as the “Achilles heel” of U.S. military power. Because these satellites in space are largely unprotected, both Russia and China are committed to developing and testing a variety of anti-satellite weapons that pose a direct threat to U.S. military effectiveness and national security.
More importantly, the threat to satellites is not just about the military.
From the moment they wake up to check their cell phones, Americans are just as highly dependent on signals transmitted from space to the ground every day of their lives. The U.S. Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) provides location-based navigation for vehicles such as cars, planes and ships or for personal travel and adventure, ensures that U.S. streetlights are lit at regular intervals across the country, and American businesses rely on GPS to time-stamp every credit card transaction. Weather stations rely on weather satellites for real-time messaging, and many 911 calls and other emergency calls rely on satellites.
Admiral Raymond believes that all of this is closely dependent on satellites in space, so U.S. space security needs to be protected. In an interview with NewsNation on Monday (Dec. 21), he said, “Just imagine what it would be like now if ambulances couldn’t find a rescue destination and first responders couldn’t get to the scene in time.”
Adm. Raymond said the mission of the U.S. Space Force is to ensure that the space technology Americans rely on is always there in peace.
“What I’m trying to say today is that it’s no longer something that’s being secured as a matter of course, and the United States is facing all kinds of threats to its space security,” Admiral Raymond said.
Chinese and Russian threats: Russia loves to show off, China is ambiguous
Admiral Raymond singled out the threats from Russia and China. Both China and Russia have realized that developing attack capabilities against space systems is a means of reducing the military effectiveness of the United States and its allies.
Russia’s Cosmos-2542 satellite, which was sent into space last November, suddenly separated into a second satellite, Cosmos-2543, after it had been in orbit for more than 10 days. And in January of this year, the two satellites suddenly both followed a U.S. KH-11 “lock-eye” satellite at close range and performed a series of maneuvers that Admiral Raymond called “unusual and disturbing. According to Time magazine, that was the first time the U.S. military publicly confirmed that a U.S. satellite was under direct threat from an adversary.
What caught the U.S. off guard was the sudden launch of a new object from the newly born Cosmos-2543 in orbit in July of this year. Because of the speed at which the launcher traveled, it was deemed a non-destructive co-orbital anti-satellite test (i.e., the launch of a weapon from an orbiting satellite to destroy other satellites), and was the first time the U.S. had publicly accused Russia of co-orbital anti-satellite behavior.
According to Admiral Raymond, this “nesting” demonstration of space combat power is a calculated act of Russian intimidation “straight out of the Soviet Cold War playbook of the 1950s.
But unlike the 1950s, China has now joined the space game. Like Russia, China is developing jammers that target satellite signals in different frequency bands, and military UHF communications are among the targets. In addition, China conducted a land-based anti-satellite test back in 2007, successfully blowing up one of its own aging weather satellites with a ballistic missile launched from the ground.
At a Dec. 9 meeting of the U.S. National Space Council, U.S. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said China also has a co-orbital ASAT capability. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency also said in last year’s “Challenges to Space Security” report that both China and Russia have begun to deploy laser anti-satellite systems.
However, some observers have pointed out that China and Russia have different styles of anti-satellite operations. Russia prefers to publicly demonstrate its ability to deter others. Russia has conducted a total of three ground-based, co-orbital anti-satellite tests this year. Most recently, on Dec. 15, Russia launched a helicopter-based anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile capable of destroying small satellites in near-Earth orbit. James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, accused Russia of “having used space as a theater of war.
According to Gina Harkins, a reporter for the U.S. military website Military.com, China’s attitude on this is more ambiguous by comparison. She pointed out that the number of Chinese satellites launched into space is second only to the United States, but never explain what these satellites are there to do.
Michael Schriever, director of the GPS program at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, said in an interview with Time magazine in July that now if there is a problem with a system, operators don’t just presuppose it’s a technical failure because chances are your adversary created the problem.
“Space is no longer a peaceful and benign environment,” Lt. Col. Schriever said.
Many arguments have been made that the creation of the U.S. Space Force and Space Command was born with this notion.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in its report “Space Threat Assessment 2020,” said the above situation is inevitable and that “capabilities necessarily come with countermeasure capabilities.” The report also notes that it is in response to space threats and ambitions, primarily from China and Russia, that the U.S. recognizes the need and urgency to defend and continue to enhance its own space forces, and therefore “wisely created the Space Force and Space Command.”
How the U.S. Space Force is Meeting the Challenge: Lean, Fast, and Adaptive “Mosaic Warfare”
As the first commander of the U.S. Space Force, Admiral Raymond, in his article “How We’re Building a 21st Century Space Force” in The Atlantic Monthly this Sunday, highlighted that “we can only successfully protect America if we remain lean, agile and tightly focused on our mission. “
At an online forum held by the Mitchell Institute on Monday (Dec. 21), Brig. Gen. Brook Leonard, chief of staff of U.S. Space Command, said space competition between the United States, China and Russia has become an intense, daily activity. Space competition used to be more of a hiccup, but now it’s a daily event,” he said. If you don’t stay in the game every day, if you’re not focused, you’re going to fall further behind.”
In his first “Space Operations Secretary’s Planning Framework” released last month, Admiral Raymond listed five major priorities for the TAC, the first of which emphasizes building a lean and agile force, including streamlining the command echelon and decentralizing decision-making in order to reduce red tape.
He argued that the Air Force relies heavily on new technologies to deter and defeat adversaries, and that speed leadership is critical to “outpace aggressive competitors like Russia and China. To be able to rapidly design, test and adopt new technologies and innovative operational concepts, the distance between decision makers and front-line warfighters needs to be minimized.
In addition, the PAF will focus on developing lean forces capable of engaging in joint warfare and providing state-of-the-art space technology support to the rest of the U.S. military services. In a podcast interview with Aviation Week on the 14th of this month, he said the TAAF started with a blank sheet of paper and within a year started from scratch to build a new military service. Starting the following year, the TAAF was to begin its integration efforts, using the latest technology to improve space-based intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and communications capabilities while rapidly integrating its own effectiveness into the corners of the U.S. integrated warfighting capability.
Speaking at the online forum Monday, Brig. Gen. Leonard said the TAAF’s focus on fusion and integration efforts is also consistent with the U.S. military’s new operational philosophy of “mosaic warfare. As the name implies, “mosaic warfare” is based on the combination of mosaic decorative materials, the construction of combat forces into small units with different functions, so that in the battlefield according to the specific combat mission, quickly stitch and match the “large mosaic” that can complete the combat mission. “.
As the battle situation changes, “large mosaic” can be randomly and strategically combined and decomposed. Under the “mosaic warfare” concept, the U.S. military forces of land, sea, air, cyber and space will operate within an integrated framework of highly adaptive networks of computationally superior sensors, frontline warfighters and decision makers.
According to the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies study, “Mosaic Warfare: Restoring U.S. Military Competitiveness,” written last September, this new operational concept is in keeping with the U.S. defense strategy of “returning to great power competition from counterterrorism. Obviously, the TAAF, which is responsible for operating and protecting the space sensing technology on which the U.S. military relies heavily, will be a central “mosaic” in this.
In addition, the U.S. Space Force has also emphasized extending its integration efforts to deepen partnerships with academia, the business community and U.S. allies. General Leonard also highlighted the booming commercial and civilian sector in space technology at Monday’s online forum. He cited the space tourism business being developed by Virgin Galactic (Virgin Galactic) and Amazon.com’s “Blue Origin” (BlueOrigin) project, SpaceX’s StarLink program, which is seen as a strong challenge to 5G technology. NASA’s new moon landing program – Project Artemis, The Japanese Hayabusa 2 probe’s asteroid sampling project, and more.
He noted that by working with civilian, commercial companies from the U.S. and its allies, on the one hand, the U.S. Air Force can quickly absorb a variety of cutting-edge space technologies; on the other hand, the U.S. Air Force can also guarantee a safe and stable space environment for these civilian programs.
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