US Space Force achieves lift-off, ignites controversy: wonder or waste?

Policy Analysis by Mounia El Khawand, Staff Writer

June 3rd, 2020

Earlier last month, the first new military service flag of the US to be revealed in over 72 years, according to the White House, was presented to a triumphantly beaming President Trump.

Years in the making already, and long-advocated for by the current head of state since the earliest stages of his term, the United States Space Force constitutes the newest and sixth branch of the United States military. The unveiling happened two years after Trump’s command for the Department of Defense to create this sixth armed forces branch, which was cemented in December of 2019. This was after the President passed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. The rather familiar design of the logo and the overarching purposes and implications attached to the newly established USSF were quick to attract the ire of Star Trek fans, but also piqued the interest of many sci-fi enthusiasts, a lot of which grew up on tales of intergalactic battles, and dreams of space conquest, and exploration.

However, far from stopping at a few rib-tickling jokes, the controversy surrounding the foundation of a United States Space Force has been sizzling since talks of inception first arose. The spread from the words of former NASA astronauts to the houses of Congress, and resonating across the globe, in the offices of foreign powers such as Russia and China, that President Trump so clearly wishes to outpace in outer space, and other fields.

Wary of the immense strides that rising powers have achieved in outer space, President Trump has expressed the wish to establish a military branch focused on promoting an ensuring US dominion and hegemony over the stars. This is all in a bid to make up for the lost time, and propel the US into a leadership position and placing it ahead of its rivals. However, the formulation of his goals has drawn a scathing critique from a number of domestic and foreign players. 

Despite the initial surge of enthusiastic applicants that the USSF garnered after dropping its first recruitment video, several members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have expressed their reservations regarding the project. This is all the while other prominent public figures have rejected the idea of a Space Force entirely, calling it a futile project, and another black hole for taxpayer money to disappear into.

Astronaut Mark Kelly blatantly called Trump’s plan a “dumb idea.” He based his argument on the fact that the USSF’s purported mission of securing the US’ interests in outer space was already being upheld by the Air Force. Further than this, he argues that the creation of even more bureaucracy to overview those matters in an already red-tape infested Department of Defense would make no sense, expressing his distaste for the idea in his sardonic tweet: “What's next, we move submarines to the 7th branch and call it the 'under-the-sea force?'"

It’s true, tensions between the Air and Space Forces have been high, and USSF leader General John Raymond himself scorned the USSF project back when he was still a member of the Air Force. Aside from taking away a number of responsibilities from them, the Space Force is also diverting a substantial amount of money that would once have been part of the Air Force’s budget.

Funding issues have been at the heart of the USSF polemic, and the 2021 fiscal year has brought powerful arguments to both supporting and opposing parties.

Out of the $705 billion allocated to the Department of Defense for the fiscal year of 2021, only a modest $15.4 billion will go towards the USSF, with the bulk of it ($10.3 billion) funding research and development. However, the Space Force’s budget, despite its relatively humble size, actually constitutes an unprecedented increase from the insignificant $40 million that it benefited from in 2020.

However, a fair number of Congress legislators, such as Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat from Florida, as well as other experts, complained about the USSF leeching the Air Force’s budget. The claim is that this would thus be severely hampering the branch’s ability to complete its tasks, and forcing deep cuts on vital programs, necessary to the protection of American families’ financial and national security.

According to others, Trump is actively going back on his word, and violating the bipartisan two-year budget agreement that he had passed into law, says House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth. However, it is admirable that the US chose to incrementally and progressively rollout the budget for its new Space Force, and limiting its expansion to a few thousand personnel members, rather than go all in on a project that might yield no results.

And yet, more than a few domestic squabbles or the sub-tweet words of former NASA astronauts, President Trump’s bold move to establish this new military branch, even though many liberal and foreign critics already complain of the US’ astronomical military spending, is sure to have tremendous repercussions on the international scene.

 When a pseudo equilibrium of forces has been reached on land and at sea, it is clear that the next theater of global hegemonic ambitions will be the skies. As the highway for long-range nuclear weapons, and the host of countless satellites, communications systems, and positioning apparatuses, control over outer space entails unimaginable strategic advantages.

With Russia and China exhibiting space forces of their own, and immense extra-planetary capabilities, the United States sought to bridge the gap with its rivals by instituting a space force of their own, despite the many warnings it has received from its competitors. Indeed, critics fear that the emergence of the USSF with a goal of maintaining US dominance in outer-space would lead to a new arms race of cosmic scale. The situation seems far more precarious as Trump’s proclamation of the USSF coincided with his talks of a new “super duper” missile, 17 times faster than the weapons that China and Russia dispose of. 

Ironically enough, the USSF’ recruitment videos dropped only a few hours after Netflix launched a trailer for its newest comedy, Space Force, which seems to tackle many of the new military branch’s worries, all the while eclipsing the popularity and visibility of the USSF’s media post.

The militarization of outer space, as it were, is a catastrophe that international bodies, such as the United Nations General Assembly (First Committee), and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, have been trying to prevent for decades. Finding its basis in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, extra-planetary legislation, which, among other things, forbids the deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space, has been a primary concern of a number of global powers, seeing that a cosmic conflict would be beyond devastating.

Aside from paralyzing means of missile guidance, scrambling positioning systems, jamming communications, and destroying satellites necessary to mundane civilian life, a star war would result in a Kessler syndrome. The fear in that lies in the likelihood of tremendous increases in space debris collision, causing them to possibly fall back onto Earth, resulting in devastating damages, and potentially horrific casualties as seen in the Columbia Disaster of 2011.

If the US were to continue on their belligerent outer-space policies, then their rivals have already promised a swift response to this rising threat to global peace. Even France and Japan have announced their ambition to create a new space defense command. Tensions are bound to escalate between countries with space-expansion capabilities, under the guise of wishing to protect their orbital assets. Pursuing this route will severely destabilize the already dubious political balance, as attentions, research, operations, and funds turn heavenwards. 

In a time of global economic turmoil and in the face of a deadly pandemic, it is beyond contested for countries to pursue their militaristic ways and embark on such ambitious voyages. This leaves other sectors, such as emergency response systems, and social relief mechanisms, facing a funding blackout.

Strategically speaking, however, by keeping the public eye focused on the havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 outbreak, world leaders are making increasingly questionable moves, without fearing the consequences of a backlash. It is important to remember that times of crisis are certainly not a green light for prominent and influent personalities to further their ambitions without accountability.

Transparency and accountability are now, more than ever, of paramount importance. 

In the anticipation of the days ahead, it is important to remember that a true outer-space conflicting will be far from resembling the battles that movie studios have accustomed us to. This next generation of warfare, with the potential to damage vital civilian, scientific, and military spacecraft, could and would have truly devastating consequences for all peoples of Earth.