Donald Trump said that the creation of the Space Command (SPACECOM) as part of the American armed forces will help the United States maintain supremacy in space. He stated this during a ceremony dedicated to the launch of SPACECOM.
“Today’s accomplishment, we are starting a great new chapter in the outstanding history of the US Armed Forces. Thanks to the Space Command, America’s superiority in space will never be challenged and will never be in jeopardy, because conflicts, as we know, are best prevented by preparing for victory, ”Trump said.
During the ceremony, the President of the United States also called space “a war zone” and promised that soon after the creation of SPACECOM, a new type of armed forces would appear in America - the Space Forces.
According to the head of the White House, the need to strengthen the military presence outside the planet is caused by threats from the “opponents”, which allegedly threaten American satellites. In addition, he believes that greater freedom of action in space is extremely important for building a US missile defense system.
As military expert Ivan Konovalov noted in an interview with RT, the United States intends to change its balance of power with Russia through the development of space technologies.
“In the field of nuclear weapons, they maintain parity with us. And since they are opponents of any parity and want to dominate everything, it means that we need to go further into space and become the main ones there, ”Konovalov said.
From defense to offensive
Donald Trump did not specify who the United States intends to fight in space. However, this was done by the head of the new command - four-star Air Force General John Raymond. Speaking at the Pentagon on the same day, he unequivocally pointed to Moscow and Beijing.
- US Air Force General John Raymond
- Reuters
- © Kevin Lamarque
“The most significant threats come from China and Russia,” Military.com quoted him as saying.
According to Raymond, the “lower end of the range” of threats begins with the creation of “interference for communications satellites and GPS”. In addition, he fears an “extremely destructive kinetic strike by rocket” on any of the American satellites.
As the Breaking Defense portal notes, despite these statements, significant attention in the activities of the new structure will be given to offensive operations.
So, on the official SPACECOM website, it is noted that its main priority is “the achievement, protection and preservation of the cosmic superiority of US forces and their allies through space combat operations”.
From 1985 to 2002, the US Space Command already existed. It arose during the “Star Wars” era of Ronald Reagan and was combined with Strategic after the September 11, 2001 attacks. However, as General Raymond claims, the current structure will be dramatically different from its predecessor.
In particular, he said, serious attention will be paid to cooperation with the Allies, among whom he named France, Germany and Japan. Earlier, intentions to create structures similar in tasks to the American SPACECOM were reported in Paris and Tokyo. Cooperation with the United States in the military exploration of outer space was also announced in the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain.
“The Americans had a space command before,” said Alexei Leonkov, editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland magazine in a conversation with RT. - It was engaged in the operation of military satellites in orbit. These are communication, navigation, reconnaissance, relay and cartographic satellites. Now it is assumed that these functions will be expanded. That is, in addition to satellite groups, the composition of the new troops will include special-purpose spacecraft with weapons on board. Most likely they will be given a program to create an orbital complex that can service these devices. ”
The expert notes that the United States intends to significantly increase its satellite constellation to counter the latest Russian weapons, primarily hypersonic. In March, only the U.S. Air Force requested $ 13.8 billion for its military space programs in 2020 - $ 2 billion more than in 2019. Mostly money should go to new satellites.
“Their main task is to provide information support for the US missile defense as a measure of the fight against our hypersonic weapons. Americans believe that by increasing the number of satellites, they will be able to effectively detect our hypersonic devices, ”says Leonkov.
Forces and means
Recall, the decree on the creation of SPACECOM Donald Trump signed in February 2019. The space command in the structure of the American armed forces has the status of a “unified” command.
This means that he will be subordinate to forces from various types of armed forces. It is reported on the White House website that both military personnel and civilian personnel will work in the new structure.
According to the portal Defense News, the first employees will be 287 people who previously worked primarily in the Strategic Command. The US budget for 2020 provides for the needs of SPACECOM $ 83.8 million.
Two components will be highlighted in the new structure. The command of the component of the combined space forces will be aimed at consolidating the potential that Washington and its allies have in space. It is this unit that will be responsible for receiving and distributing information from satellites. In turn, the space defense operations team, as reported by Spacenews.com, will be responsible for protecting the US satellite constellation.
According to experts, the Americans have serious capabilities for conducting military operations in space. Earlier, American media reported that the U.S. Air Force X-37B suborbital reusable aircraft was in space for a record 719 days.
- Orbital aircraft X-37B
- Reuters
- © US Air Force
The Pentagon has not officially disclosed its purpose, but in July of this year at the annual security forum organized by the Aspen Institute, former Air Force Minister Heather Wilson said that this space drone would “drive the US opponents crazy.”
X-37B experts see it as a machine that can be used to destroy satellites and even to put nuclear weapons into orbit.
“It is a prototype of future spacecraft that can be launched into orbit with various payloads (with manned and unmanned equipment or with weapons). The peculiarity of the X-37B is that it can maneuver in orbit, change it so that tracking equipment on Earth will determine it every time as a new space object, ”notes Leonkov.
Back in January 2019, the new edition of the Missile Defense Review of the US Department of Defense allowed the deployment of missile defense systems in space.
- Atlas V rocket launch with satellite
- © US Air Force / Flickr
In April, Breaking Defense noted that in the budget requests of the US Air Force for 2019 and 2020, there is a certain program called “Bounty Hunter” (Bounty Hunter). Most of the data is classified, but journalists suggested that the project will be aimed at countering Washington’s adversaries in space, in particular, preventing them from effectively using integrated control, communications and intelligence systems. A little later, the Pentagon announced a tender for the development of an autonomous orbital space station project.
According to Alexei Leonkov, the space ambitions of the United States may resemble the ideas of Reagan's Star Wars. In the 80s, most of the plans under the Strategic Defense Initiative were unrealizable. For the most part, it was propaganda in nature.
“In the current situation, the danger lies in the fact that the Americans are trying to translate everything into a practical plane - to create real models of weapons and put them into space,” the expert says.
In his opinion, we are talking about laser weapons, kinetic weapons for intercepting parts of continental ballistic missiles and systems that can strike ground targets from outer space.
No illusions
The statement of Donald trump on the transformation of outer space into a battlefield was commented on by the head of Roskosmos Dmitry Rogozin.
“Slowly but surely, it’s moving towards this. In "Roskosmos" on this occasion, no one has any illusions. Everyone is busy with business, ”Rogozin commented on Twitter the corresponding recording of TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov.
Slowly but surely, he is going to this. @Roscosmos has no illusions about this. Everyone is busy
- Dmitry Rogozin (@Rogozin) 29. August 2019Russia has traditionally opposed the militarization of outer space, noting the danger of actions by the United States and its allies. Moscow has been consistently promoting the idea of tightening relevant international legal norms. Recall that the 1967 Space Treaty prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons there, as well as the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for military purposes.
“We are worried about the plans of the United States, which are already being materially implemented, to bring weapons into outer space, which will lead to a new round of the global arms race,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers on July 26, 2019. in Rio de Janeiro.
According to Ivan Konovalov, Moscow is not going to get involved in devastating rivalry with the United States.
“They are spurring the arms race in the hope that Russia will join in, including Russia, and it will explode. But we will not participate in this, ”the expert said.
At the same time, according to Alexei Leonkov, if necessary, Moscow can, in a short time, using the Soviet scientific and technical backlog, develop a weapon that can destroy the US claims for space domination.
“We will have something to answer the Americans with,” Leonkov says. - We are talking about such types of weapons as small arms (small-caliber automatic gun with a caliber of 30 mm, space-to-space missiles). It is possible to deploy strike weapons that strike from orbit, as was the case with the R-36orb missile project. We have already created the Peresvet combat laser. If necessary, we can bring him into space. There, he will not be able to blind, but to hit objects, since in outer space there are no restrictions that exist in the atmosphere. ”