New SPACECOM Strategy Warns US Adversaries

Article by Rachel S. Cohen                                      February 1, 2021                                     (airforcemag.com)

• In August 2019, the US Space Command, or ‘SPACECOM’, was revived after being disbanded for 17 years, integrating its work with the other combatant commands that rely on and defend space assets. During a recent AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event, SPACECOM boss Gen. James H. Dickinson said that the US Space Command must “sustain a warfighting culture and adapt to a dynamic and changing strategic environment,” drawing upon the experience of the other armed forces.

• On February 1st, SPACECOM released a new strategy paper that broadly outlines goals for training, partnerships, and cybersecurity. But in a future with “increasingly capable competitors” and a “long-term security threat” posed by Russia and China, the paper also warns that the United States will hit back if its satellites, radars, and other space systems are endangered.

• As America and its allies expand their space economies and look to permanently return to the Moon, “[the] United States Space Command will always remain ready to prevail against any foreign space-related aggression” reads the strategy paper. “By developing…counter-space capabilities and…military doctrines to extend into space, our [Russian and Chinese] competitors seek to prevent our unfettered access to space and deny our freedom to operate in space.”

• The US military argues it needs to bolster its offense and defense in space to protect the satellites and radars that enable GPS guidance, ATMs, ballistic missile warning, and more. SPACECOM also uses those assets to direct weapons and troops, send information around the world, and collect intelligence—making them targets for those who want to disrupt American military operations.

• Brian Weeden, a director at the Secure World Foundation, says that the 12-page paper, comprised largely of pictures, lacks the detail of previous Pentagon strategy papers. “It reads more like an ad brochure full of chest-thumping assertions than a serious strategic document,” quipped Weeden.

• Weeden recognizes that the military may not be comfortable with publicly discussing developing space operations, and that the fact that there haven’t been any actual space battles, would explain the lack of sophistication for space doctrine relative to the other combat domains.

• Dickinson maintains that job one for SPACECOM is to attract the kind of veteran military talent who can bring various combat experiences to SPACECOM to develop a fully operational combatant command. “That generates combat power almost immediately.”

 

       Gen. James H. Dickinson

U.S. Space Command in its new strategy paper warns of a future with “increasingly capable competitors” and a “long-term security threat” posed by Russia and China, claiming the right of self-defense as America and its allies expand their space economies and look to permanently return to the moon.

The U.S. military argues it needs to bolster its offense and defense in space to protect the satellites and radars that enable GPS guidance, ATMs, ballistic missile warning, and more. SPACECOM also uses those assets to direct weapons and troops, send information around the world, and collect intelligence—making them targets for those who want to disrupt American military operations.

“By developing, testing, and deploying counter-space capabilities and evolving their military doctrines to extend into space, our competitors seek to prevent our unfettered access to space and deny our freedom to operate in space,” reads the paper, dated Feb. 1.

This is the latest document to warn that the United States will hit back if its satellites, radars, and other space systems are endangered. It also broadly outlines goals for training, partnerships, and cybersecurity. SpaceNews first reported on the strategic vision Jan. 28.

“The United States, along with our allies and partners, will champion and promote the responsible, peaceful, and safe use of space,” according to the strategy. “However, should our nation call, United States Space Command will always remain ready to prevail against any foreign space-related aggression.”

                   Brian Weeden

The document echoes earlier blueprints from the Pentagon and the Space Force, the branch of the military that supplies most systems and personnel to SPACECOM for daily operations. But the 12-page paper, comprised largely of pictures, lacks the detail of previous strategies.

“It reads more like an ad brochure full of chest-thumping assertions than a serious strategic document,” Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, said on Twitter.

He suggested the strategy may miss the mark because the military is not yet comfortable with discussing often-classified space operations in a public forum.

“There is something to be said about the lack of sophistication for space doctrine relative to the other domains because we haven’t had any actual combat in space to draw on,” he told Air Force Magazine.

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The Navy Speaks Up About Its “UFO Patent” Experiments

Article by Brett TIngley                                        February 1, 2021                                         (thedrive.com)

• After reporting on the bizarre saga of the US Navy’s “UFO” patents by Dr. Salvatore Pais for over a year and a half, The War Zone has finally gotten an on-the-record comment from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD). In a nutshell, NAWCAD concluded in September 2019 that the “Pais Effect” could not be proven. The Navy has washed its hands with Dr. Pais and his unproven patents, and all research on them has now been taken up by the US Air Force.

• The “Pais Effect” is a theoretical concept for generating high-intensity electromagnetic fields that could lead to breakthroughs in power generation and advanced propulsion, including a futuristic “hybrid aerospace-underwater craft” or ‘HAUC’ (which might have explained the ‘Tic Tac UFO’ that was in the news in 2018).

• The US Navy’s NAWCAD took Dr. Pais’ theories seriously enough to vouch for him to the US Patent Office and to assert that the Chinese had similar “operable” technology. The Navy invested $462,000 in researchers’ salaries plus $96,000 on “equipment, test preparation, testing and assessment” to test Dr. Pais’ patented ‘High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator’ (HEEMFG) theories between October 2016 and September 2019. While a group of Navy researchers obviously got richer, Timothy Boulay, Communications Director at NAWCAD, confirmed that the “Pais Effect” could not be proven and no further research is being conducted by the US Navy.

• So the US Navy knew in September 2019 that Dr. Pais’ theories were a scientific dead-end, but waited until now to say so publicly. Every single physicist that The Drive’s ‘The War Zone’ contacted over two years said that there was no scientific reality to the ‘pseudo-scientific jargon’ found in Dr. Pais’ patents. Still, in November 2019, Dr. Pais assured The War Zone that his work “shall be proven correct one fine day…”

• The bizarre secrecy surrounding this entire endeavor remains remarkably odd. Not until we actually got the images, data, and slides about the program of record that attempted to prove Pais’ theories did the Navy confirm its demise. We may never know why.

 

After reporting on the bizarre saga of the Navy’s “UFO” patents by Dr. Salvatore Pais for over a year and a half, The War Zone has finally

       Timothy Boulay

gotten an on-the-record comment from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, or NAWCAD, about the scientist’s seemingly out-of-this-world work and the service’s equally strange outright support of it.

As we reported in our last piece, the science and technology branches of the Naval Aviation Enterprise and NAWCAD took the theories of Dr. Pais seriously enough not just to vouch for them at the highest levels to patent examiners, asserting Chinese advances in similar areas of research and that they were ‘operable’ in nature, but to also subsequently invest a significant amount of money and time into researching the so-called “Pais Effect.” This is a theoretical concept for generating high-intensity electromagnetic fields that could supposedly lead to hypothetical breakthroughs in power generation and advanced propulsion. Specifically, the Navy has now responded to inquiries related to the new documentation we uncovered in our most recent report that shows hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on Pais’s High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator (HEEMFG) experiments, along with other details related to it.

Timothy Boulay, Communications Director at NAWCAD, confirmed several points to The War Zone by email:
– The High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator testing occurred from October 2016 through September 2019;
– The cost was $508,000 over the course of three years. Around ninety percent of the total – $462,000 – was for salaries, while the

         Dr. Salvatore Pais

rest was used for equipment, test preparation, testing and assessment.
– When NAWCAD concluded testing in September 2019, the “Pais Effect” could not be proven.
– No further research has been conducted, and the project has not transitioned to any other government or civilian organization.
While we greatly appreciate the response to our queries, it remains unclear why NAWCAD was unwilling to speak with us until now if they knew all along these experiments resulted in what appears to be a scientific dead-end that resulted in no verification of any of Pais’s theories.

In addition to the statements above, Boulay added the following about the inventor of the Navy’s “UFO patents”:
The latest on Dr. Pais: you might remember that he left NAWCAD in June 2019 and moved to the Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs organization. I found that he transferred to the U.S. Air Force this month.

We are still working with NAWCAD to determine where Pais was transferred within the research organizations of the USAF. Pais’s first move from NAWCAD to Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) office was somewhat interesting given that one of Pais’s most eyebrow-raising patents was for a “hybrid aerospace-underwater craft.” SSP oversees the development and sustainment of the Navy’s nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

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The Official Space Force Ranks

Article by Oriana Pawlyk                                             January 29, 2021                                             (military.com)

• The US Space Force’s new ranking system for its enlisted members and officers mostly mirrors that Air Force’s ranks. The Space Force ranks took effect on February 1, 2021.

• In December, former-Vice President Mike Pence announced that space professionals would be called Guardians. Space Force junior enlisted members between E-1 and E-4 will now be called specialists (like the Army). E-5 personnel are sergeant and E-6 are technical sergeant. The most senior E-9 rank is the Chief Master Sergeant. Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, the senior enlisted adviser to the service, will officially assume that top enlisted title. Officer ranks from second lieutenant to general will be the same as the Air Force’s ranking. There will be no changes to benefits entitlements.

• In July, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, proposed an amendment in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act requiring “the same system and rank structure as is used in the Navy” for the Space Force. A Navy rank system would make sense for the Space Force, experts have said. Other space enthusiasts have noted on social media that “Space Admiral just sounds better.”

• Even William Shatner – the actor who portrayed Capt. James Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” series – initially backed Crenshaw’s idea. In an op-ed titled, “What the heck is wrong with you, Space Force?” published in Military Times in August 2020, Shatner said, “When you unveiled the Space Force logo, many immediately saw it as an homage to ‘Star Trek’ (even though our Delta was an homage to the previous military space insignias). Why not borrow back from ‘Star Trek’ and adopt our ranks as well?” he wrote. “We took them from the Navy for good reason.”

• “A good reason to use Navy ranks in the Space Force is to better distinguish [Space Force] personnel from Air Force personnel, kind of like [the Marine Corps] using different ranks than the Navy,” said Todd Harrison, director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. But lawmakers ultimately ditched Crenshaw’s provision on naval ranks.

• Space Force has so far debuted its organizational structure; official logo, seal, flag and motto; a dark navy-colored name tape; and a lapel pin. The service still lacks an official dress uniform, physical fitness uniform and mess dress uniform; an official song; patch and insignia wear. It has released three commercials to attract new recruits.

• [Editor’s Note]  For years, Congress has managed to do next to nothing. Apparently, our “lawmakers” only step in when they feel it is time to screw things up. An ‘Admiral’ of a Starship makes so much more sense than a ‘General’. Did they do the opposite of Dan Crenshaw’s proposal simply because he is a Republican? It is clear that Congress is occupied by complete morons. It is time to clear them out, tell the public what is really going on, and to start all over for the sake of our country.

 

The U.S. Space Force finally has an official rank structure for its enlisted members and officers, a service spokesman has confirmed to Military.com.

A leaked memo first posted on the popular Facebook page Amn/Nco/Snco detailed the new ranks, which nearly mirror Air Force ranks.

Instead of “airman,” junior enlisted members between E-1 and E-4 will be called specialists, according to the document. The Army is the other service with a specialist rank, for troops in the E-4 paygrade.

While the Air Force has staff and technical sergeants, the Space Force E-5 rank will be known as sergeant, followed by technical sergeant for E-6. Officer ranks — second lieutenant to general — will remain the same as its sister service.

     Rep. Dan Crenshaw

The new rank structure takes effect Feb. 1, the memo states.

The most senior member is the Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force, an E-9 rank, the memo adds. Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, the senior enlisted adviser to the service, will officially assume that title effective next week, the spokesman said.

Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman

There will be no changes to benefits entitlements, according to the memo.

Some speculated that the Space Force, which is part of the Department of the Air Force, would adopt its parent service’s rank structure; others argued for using the Navy’s rank system — which is what some lawmakers intended.

In July, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, proposed an amendment in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act requiring “the same system and rank structure as is used in the Navy” for the Space Force, according to a House summary of the text.

Space Force officials said they were ready to move forward, but because of the measure, the service halted announcing its decision at that time.

A Navy rank system would make sense for the Space Force, experts have said. Other space enthusiasts have noted on social media that “Space Admiral just sounds better.”

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Navy UFO Patents Testing “Space-Time Modification Weapon”

Article by Brett Tingley                                             January 26, 2021                                             (thedrive.com)

• The latest round of The War Zone’s Freedom of Information Act responses by the US Navy focuses on the Navy’s testing of the bizarre inventions of Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais. Citing Chinese advances in similar futuristic propulsion technologies. Pais’ inventions have been supported by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and successfully patented.

• The War Zone has received hundreds of pages of detailed technical drawings, photographs, and data related to the Navy’s NAWCAD testing of Pais’ inventions between 2017 and 2019, and particularly the “High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator” (HEEMFG). US Navy spent at least $466,810 on a team of at least ten technicians and engineers who put in over 1,600 hours toward the design and testing of an experimental demonstrator, and to assemble technical papers and final reports.

• Dr. Pais’s inventions are said to be enabled through what Pais describes as “the Pais Effect”, a theoretical physics concept where the “controlled motion of electrically charged matter changes it from a solid to plasma via accelerated spin and vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients.” This effect creates incredibly powerful electromagnetic energy fields that can “engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level”, leading to incredible revolutions in power and propulsion, quantum communications, energy production, and even weaponry.

• The documentation reveals that the NAWCAD felt this technology has “National Security importance in leading to the generation of Thermonuclear Fusion Ignition Energy with commercial as well as military application potential, in ensuring National Energy Dominance.” It is unknown whether the HEEMFG has transitioned to other DoD agencies such as DARPA.

• The devices tested appear to have been benchtop or multiple versions of Pais’s High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator concept. The devices used spinning capacitors to “demonstrate the experimental feasibility of achieving high electromagnetic field-energy flux values toward the design of advanced high energy density/high power propulsion systems.” Often when new experimental systems are tested, subsequent experiments work toward mastering different aspects of a particular design before bringing everything together once the separate components are proven to be feasible. It’s unclear whether or not the HEEMFG test article was designed to focus on maturing just one part of the complete system.

• One document describes how Pais’ Plasma Compression Fusion Device patent could be used to design a “Spacetime Modification Weapon” that makes a hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison.

• As with all of the patent documentation received so far, it appears even NAWCAD’s testing could not validate the claimed “Pais Effect.” Nevertheless, a Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAVAIR) quad chart published in September 2018 states that NAVAIR is aiming to transition the Pais technology in 2019.

• These new documents show that Pais’ inventions were not solely the product of an enigmatic maverick inventor, but received support from the highest levels of the US Navy’s NAWCAD and led to research projects and experiments with an eye on producing exotic new forms of propulsion and weaponry. The patents appear to be hypothetical applications of theoretical physics that no mainstream physicist thinks is feasible, but are viable enough to the US Navy to continue testing. Yet considering there have been all types of theories behind these patents, ranging from a government disinformation campaign to alien emulation technology, it is still inconclusive what is going on here.

 

         Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais

In our continuing investigation into the bizarre inventions of Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, an enigmatic aerospace engineer who works for the U.S. Navy, The War Zone has just obtained a wide range of documents detailing experiments that the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) conducted to test the core concepts and technologies underlying his seemingly out of this world “UFO patents.” These same patents were vouched for by the head of the Navy’s aerospace research enterprise who cited Chinese advances in similar technologies as one of the reasons why the Navy was filing them.

The War Zone’s most recent report on the strange circumstances surrounding these patents underlined that there were indeed some type of physical experiments conducted related to them, even if very limited. Now, new Freedom of Information Act releases provide unprecedented insights not just into how seriously the Navy took Dr. Pais’s work, but also exactly how elements of it were actually tested at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars and where the program may have ended up. The materials even include mention of a “Spacetime Modification Weapon (SMW- a weapon that can make the Hydrogen bomb seem more like a firecracker, in comparison).”

The releases, which are all related to a Naval Innovative Science and Engineering – Basic & Applied Research Program under the project name “The High Energy Electromagnetic Field Generator (HEEMFG),” contain hundreds of pages containing detailed technical drawings, photographs, and data related to actual tests of the HEEMFG. The system was meant to evaluate the feasibility of Dr. Salvatore Pais’s claimed “Pais Effect.” If you haven’t yet read about the ongoing saga of the enigmatic Dr. Pais and the science-fiction-like inventions he made on behalf of the Navy, be sure to get caught up on our previous reporting.

Each one of Dr. Pais’s inventions is stated to be enabled through what he himself described to The War Zone as “the Pais Effect,” a theoretical physics concept that is claimed to be enabled through the “controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients.” This effect, the inventor claims, can lead to incredibly powerful electromagnetic energy fields that can “engineer the fabric of our reality at the most fundamental level” leading to incredible revolutions in power and propulsion, quantum communications, energy production, and even weaponry.

These latest internal documents, which The War Zone obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), show that NAWCAD felt this technology has “National Security importance in leading to the generation of thermonuclear Fusion Ignition Energy with commercial as well as military application potential, in ensuring National Energy Dominance.”

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Space Force Exists to Meet Threats in Space Domain

Article by David Vergun                                             January 22, 2021                                          (defense.gov)

• Speaking at a National Security Space Association “Space Time” online event on January 22nd, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General John E. Hyten characterized the US Space Force as ‘critical’ to national security, given the threats to US access and capability in space posed by Russia and China. Critical space assets include GPS; missile warning; reconnaissance; and position, navigation and timing.

• “Russia and China are building capabilities to challenge us in space because if they can challenge us in space, …they can challenge us as a nation,” Hyten said. “Therefore, it is our responsibility as leaders of the defense enterprise to make sure that we continue to educate the population about the threats that we face and, then put forth recommendations to deal with those threats in a rapid, responsive way” – with emphasis on agility and adaptability.

• Hyten notes that Russia and China are both building antisatellite weapons and other military space assets at an alarmingly fast rate. As a result, the Pentagon has to go just as quickly in defining joint requirements and delivering capable systems to counter the threat. And in doing so, “you have to accept a certain amount of risk”.

• Hyten says there is bipartisan support for the Space Force, and he expects the newest service, along with Space Command, to continue to make great strides in the new administration.

 

     General John E. Hyten

Threats by Russia and China to deny U.S. access and capability in space make the Space Force critical to national security, said the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, spoke at an online National Security Space Association “Space Time” event today.

Critical space assets include GPS; missile warning; reconnaissance; and position, navigation and timing.

“Russia and China are building capabilities to challenge us in space because if they can challenge us in space, they understand as dependent as we are in space capabilities that they can challenge us as a nation,” Hyten said.

“Therefore, it is our responsibility as leaders of the defense enterprise to make sure that we continue to educate the population about the threats that we face and, then, put forth recommendations to deal with those threats in a rapid, responsive way,” he said.

In a time of conflict, DOD must deny adversaries access to space while maintaining its own freedom to maneuver in that domain, he mentioned.

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New Intelligence Community Member Space Force is Looking For a Clearer Picture

Article by Scott Maucione                                       January 7, 2021                                         (federalnewsnetwork.com)

• The Space Force announced last month that it would become the 18th member of the US intelligence community. It still needs to submit its plans to Congress on how it will go about making the move. The Space Force’s two core space squadrons — space analysis and counter space analysis — are currently located at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson AFB (see previous ExoArticle here). During the next year, the Pentagon will set up a National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC) focused on space.

• But the Pentagon wants to maintain the information ‘synergy’ that comes with all of these squadrons being able to interact on a daily basis and talk to each other, says Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback, Air Force director of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance. So while NSIC will be separate from NASIC, their office will remain in the same building. Lauderback said the Air Force and Space Force are looking into the engineering and modeling to best maintain the two centers together.

• Space Force’s intelligence sector will be joining an already crowded community of 17 departments and agencies. Lauderback says that Space Force needs more sensors and presence in Earth’s orbit in order to characterize threats in space. “It’s just is so much more difficult in trying to characterize something that happens 12,000 miles away …that flies over the earth once every 90 minutes, all through technical means,” says Lauderback. “I just want to be able to make a more confident call and in a faster manner.” Another priority is bettering international agreements and education with Five Eye partners and other allies.

• Space Force has already received 2,400 recruits from the ranks of the Air Force. Space Force has just graduated its first seven enlisted trainees straight from basic training. Another 86 Air Force Academy cadets have been commissioned into Space Force, and there are 6,400 Air Force personnel who still plan to move over to the new military branch. “[N]ext year, we’ll have 98 cadets that will come over,” says Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond. “[W]e’re interviewing every single person that comes into the Space Force to be very, very selective.”

• Space Force is comprised of six career fields: Space operations, cyber operators, acquisition, engineering, cyber and intelligence. “[N]ow we have to develop those folks to fill those positions and do that organically,” says Gen. Raymond. “As new missions come about, we will add squadrons. [W]ith the units that were already in the Air Force, bringing them over, [we will] develop the manpower that fills those units today.”

 

         Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback

New details are emerging on how the 18th member of the intelligence community will be set up as the Space Force continues to entrench itself as the newest service of the military.

Maj. Gen. Leah Lauderback, Air Force director of Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance, said within a year the military will set up a National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC).

                     Gen. Jay Raymond

The center will develop from the two core space squadrons — space analysis and counter space analysis — that are now at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC).

“Those squadrons will be the nucleus, they’d be the core of NSIC and then we will smatter a little bit of overhead on that to ensure that they’re getting what they need,” Lauderback said. “We absolutely want that to be co-located with NASIC. As a commander, there’s no way that we want to destroy the synergy that comes out of all of these squadrons being able to walk down the hallway and talk to each other.”

Lauderback said the Air Force and Space Force are looking into the engineering and modeling and other final assessments they need to station the two centers together.

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US Air Force Spacecraft Will Beam Solar Power to Earth

Article by Caroline Dlbert                                            December 30, 2020                                         (popularmechanics.com)

• Cutting edge solar panels on Earth – prototypes developed by scientists for research, not the commercial ones you can readily buy – operate at around 30 to 40 percent efficiency. But if these solar panels operated above the clouds in space, the efficiency would be far greater. As CleanTechnica’s Tina Casey writes: “There are no clouds to block or even reduce solar panel efficacy. They can pivot, maybe even completely freely, to maximize exposure to more sun over a longer time each day. The sunlight is more potent outside of Earth’s atmosphere.”

• In December, the US Air Force Research Laboratory unveiled ‘Helios’ – a component part of the Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) project – that will be launched into space on the Arachne spacecraft in 2024. The Helios component will gather power for other spacecraft as a fueling station in space.

• Arachne/Helios also serves a working model of an emerging technology that can convert solar energy to radio frequency (RF) power, transmitting that energy to the Earth, and converting it to usable power. “Solar is critical to our long-term spaceflight plans because of its plentiful and completely renewable nature,” says Casey. “We’ll likely learn a great deal from the use of solar power in space and then… extend to Earth.”

• The logistical challenge is to get the solar panels positioned into space. But the technology to “beam” power is pretty established at this point, relying on directed mirrors and receiver panels that focus energy into beams that act as wireless wires through the air. The right kind of solar panels paired with storage could periodically beam power to specific places without losing notable energy.

 

Beaming solar power from outer space sounds like a Marvel movie plot, but space could remove barriers to solar acceptance that dominate the Earthbound discourse.

Could the secret to our energy future be solar panels above the clouds, or even above the Karman line altogether?

Besides the logistical challenges of even getting solar panels up in space, the benefits are pretty airtight, as CleanTechnica’s Tina Casey writes. There are no clouds to block or even reduce solar panel efficacy. They can pivot, maybe even completely freely, to maximize exposure to more sun over a longer time each day. The sunlight is more potent outside of Earth’s atmosphere.

Right now, even the best solar panels are reaching something like 30 to 40 percent efficiency, and these are mostly cutting-edge prototypes developed by scientists for research—not the ones you can readily buy.

             Tina Casey

That means the huge advantage of higher-up sunlight would directly translate, perhaps even to the difference between

              USAF’s Arachne spacecraft

feasible solar and not. Again, though, this is without the logistics of putting panels into space.

And the technology to “beam” power is pretty established at this point, relying on directed mirrors and receiver panels that focus energy into beams that act, basically, like wireless wires through the air. The right kind of solar panels paired with storage could periodically beam power to specific places without losing notable energy.

Earlier this month, the Air Force Research Laboratory unveiled a component coyly named Helios (after the original Greek sun god) for its forthcoming Arachne spacecraft, the main part of the Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research (SSPIDR) project. Arachne will launch in 2024.

Helios will gather power for other spacecraft, making it an essential research piece as well as proof of concept for some big ideas NASA has about traveling to the moon and subsequently to Mars.

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Building a 21st-Century Space Force

Article by John W. Raymond                                      December 20, 2020                                          (theatlantic.com)

• Just after World War II, the US military determined a need for a new independent Air Force military branch to compete with the Soviet Union in developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and reconnaissance satellites, and opening the door for space exploration. Employing a lean, focused team, the US Air Force’s unique culture, identity, and focus allowed its leadership to envision and develop crucial technologies, including stealth, smart weapons and precise global navigation.

• In the past five years, the number of active satellites in orbit has grown from 1,250 to 3,400. By 2023, there will be about 5,000 active satellites orbiting the Earth. The Satellite Industry Association estimated the 2019 global space economy at $366 billion, and Morgan Stanley projects that revenues could top $1 trillion by 2040.

• During this period of explosive growth, Russia and China have made obvious their intention to challenge American preeminence in commercial and military space, raising the prospect of war beginning in, or extending into, space. Early in 2020, Russia positioned one of its satellites dangerously close to an American satellite and then instructed it to execute a series of provocative and unsafe maneuvers. By the summer, that Russian satellite backed away, released a target, and then fired a projectile at that target as a raw display of space combat power. We are still dealing with the fallout from China’s own 2007 anti-satellite test, which left a cloud of space debris that still must be carefully tracked to avoid collision with a wide array of spacecraft, including the International Space Station.

• To deal with these challenges, the United States created a 21st-century military branch, the Space Force. Only by staying lean, agile, and tightly focused can Space Force succeed. Speed is a hallmark of our deliberately lean new service to rapidly design, test, and employ new technologies and innovations. Space Force headquarters at the Pentagon will have about 600 military and civilian members in a building that houses more than 20,000 Defense Department employees. We’ve removed several layers of command structure and bureaucracy, and moved leaders closer to the front lines to shorten communication pathways. This is especially important for a service so heavily reliant on technology.

• Space Force’s creation came one year after the Pentagon crafted a new National Defense Strategy designed to pivot toward ‘great-power competition’, and away from the counterterrorism focus of the past two decades. Space Force’s goal is to enhance American military power as space systems assume an ever-greater role in the missions of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard which depend on space for navigation and communication to strike targets with precision and lethality. By staying lean and focused, Space Force can address the challenges that lie ahead, out-competing adversaries, deterring conflict, and keeping Americans safe.

• The article’s writer, General John W. Raymond, is the first chief of space operations for the United States Space Force.

 

                  Space Force personnel

Early in 2020, Russia positioned one of its satellites dangerously close to an American satellite and then instructed it to execute a series of provocative and unsafe maneuvers. This summer, that satellite backed away, released a target, and then conducted a weapons test, firing a projectile at that target. This raw display of space combat power was carefully designed as an act of intimidation, right out of the 1950s Soviet playbook.

Over the past five years, space has become a contested commercial and military realm. During that time,

             Gen. John W. Raymond

the number of active satellites in orbit has grown from 1,250 to 3,400. By 2023, there will be about 5,000 active satellites orbiting the Earth. The Satellite Industry Association estimated the 2019 global space economy at $366 billion, and Morgan Stanley projects that revenues could top $1 trillion by 2040. During this period of explosive growth, Russia and China have made obvious their intention to challenge American preeminence in commercial and military space and to prevent the U.S. from using its space capabilities in crisis and conflict, raising the prospect of war beginning in, or extending into, space. We are still dealing with the fallout from China’s 2007 anti-satellite test, which left a cloud of space debris that even today must be carefully tracked to avoid collision with a wide array of spacecraft, including the International Space Station. The consequences of a full-blown war in space would be far worse.

A year ago, to deal with these challenges, the United States created its first new independent military branch in more than half a century. The U.S. Space Force, which I am privileged to lead, is a new kind of service. The Space Force headquarters at the Pentagon will have about 600 military and civilian members in a building that houses more than 20,000 Defense Department employees. Only by staying lean, agile, and tightly focused on our mission can we succeed in protecting the United States.

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Space Force is Now Part of the Joint Chiefs

Article by J. W. Sotak                                       December 18, 2020                                       (sofrep.com)

• On December 18th, the Pentagon announced General John Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, will join the Joint Chiefs of Staff bringing the total war cabinet members to eight. General Raymond took his seat at the table of America’s most senior uniformed leaders on December 20th. “You’ve treated me like a member ever since [the law was signed],” General Raymond said during a ceremony at the Pentagon. “I can’t thank you enough. I can’t thank my teammates enough. It’s a real privilege to sit at this table.”

• The Joint Chiefs are the primary advisory body on all military matters, reporting to the President, Secretary of Defense, the Homeland Security Council, and the National Security Council. The incorporation of the Space Force underscores the new focus on space and cybersecurity, and suggests that it will be responsible for more than just monitoring satellites and overseeing scientific space missions.

• “This is an incredibly important organization for the United States military and for the United States as a country,” said General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “We recognize [space] clearly as a warfighting domain. And we also know that we, the United States, we’ve got to maintain capabilities in that domain if we are going to continue to deter a great power war.”

• When the Joint Chiefs of Staff was created in 1942, it comprised the chairman and the chiefs of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. In 1978, the Commandant of the Marine Corps was added, followed by the chief of the National Guard Bureau in 2012.

• While the DoD reports that Space Force will to expand to roughly 20,000 servicemembers in the coming years, it would still be only half the size of the Coast Guard, with roughly 40,000 active-duty servicemembers. The Army, the largest branch, had over 450,000 active duty members and another 280,000 in the Reserves according to a 2019 report.

• Space Force is technically a Department of the Air Force. Space Force will rely on the Air Force for “more than 75 percent of its enabling functions” including “logistics, base operating support, civilian personnel management, business systems, IT support, and audit agencies,” allowing the military branch to remain agile, avoid duplicative staff roles, keep costs down, and concentrate on their missions.

• Skeptics and critics had relegated Space Force to President Trump’s pet project. But as the mission of the Space Force has begun to solidify, so has its credibility. As a Space Force video states: “When foreign powers can build bases on the dark side of the Moon, when private companies are inventing a new economy beyond our planet, we need to stay one step ahead of the future.”

• The addition of General Raymond to the Joint Chiefs, Space Force isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

 

        The Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Pentagon announced today that the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been expanded to include General John Raymond, Chief of Space Operations. This brings the war cabinet total to eight members. The decision to enlarge the group was signed into law earlier this year, and while General Raymond won’t be officially added to the roster of America’s most senior uniformed leaders until the one-year anniversary of the formation of Space Force on Sunday, December 20, he says he has already been received by his peers.

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

“You’ve treated me like a member ever since [the law was signed],” General Raymond said during the ceremony at the Pentagon. “I can’t thank you enough. I can’t thank my teammates enough. It’s a real privilege to sit at this table.”

The Joint Chiefs occupy a critical role in national security. They are the primary advisory body on all military matters and report to the president, secretary of defense, the Homeland Security Council, and the National Security Council. The incorporation of the Space Force underscores the new focus on space and cybersecurity. It suggests that the newest military branch will be responsible for more than just monitoring satellites and overseeing scientific space missions.

“We recognize it clearly as a warfighting domain. And we also know that we, the United States, we’ve got to maintain capabilities in that domain if we are going to continue to deter a great power war,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley said during the induction ceremony.

“This is an incredibly important organization for the United States military and for the United States as a country,” he added.

At present, the Space Force is still relatively small. While the DoD reports that it is slated to expand to roughly 20,000 servicemembers in the coming years, even at that number it would be half the size of the Coast Guard, the smallest of the military branches with roughly 40,000 active-duty servicemembers. The Army, the largest branch, had over 450,000 active duty members and another 280,000 in the Reserves at last count according to a 2019 report.

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Navy’s ‘UFO’ Patents Went Through Significant Internal Review and Demo

Article by Brett Tingley                                December 16, 2020                         (thedrive.com)

• In 2019, the US Navy filed and obtained patents on several bizarre technologies such as a “high temperature superconductor,” a “high frequency gravitational wave generator,” a force field-like “electromagnetic field generator,” a “plasma compression fusion device,” and a “hybrid aerospace/underwater craft” featuring an “inertial mass reduction device.” They seemed to describe the theoretical building blocks of a craft with UFO-like performance. Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, an aerospace engineer at NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) in Patuxent (Pax) River, Maryland, was credited in these patents as the inventor.

• Each of Pais’ inventions depended on what the inventor calls “the Pais Effect,” described as the “controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients.” But the patents and their underlying concepts have largely been scoffed at by mainstream scientific experts. Nevertheless, Pais says his work will be proven correct “one fine day.”

• The War Zone has continued to dig into Salvatore Pais and his Navy patents through FOIA filings requesting Naval Air Systems Command email correspondence pertaining to them. These emails add to the backstory and suggest that the patents went through a more rigorous internal evaluation process than was previously known. The emails also indicate that the patent’s research program did in fact result in an experimental demonstration of some sort.

• The emails and invention disclosure forms show that the ‘Inertial Mass Reduction Device’, the ‘High Temperature Superconductor’, the ‘Gravitational Wave Generator’, and the ‘Electromagnetic Field Generator’ are all listed as closely interrelated patents. The inventions were disclosed to multiple employees at NAVAIR prior to application and reviewed by the Technology Transfer Office at Pax River in 2015. Pais defended his inventions in front of the NAWCAD Invention Evaluation Board throughout 2016 and 2017. The inventions appear to have cleared this review process and were then submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office for patent approval.

• It’s curious that Pais’ inventions apparently had no direct correlation to his assigned duties. His duties as an Aerospace Engineer for NAWCAD at the time included working in Fuel Thermal Management Systems design, aircraft analysis, and advanced power, avionics, and thermal technologies. In his invention disclosure form for the inertial mass reduction device patent, Pais signed and dated a form reading “As the invention described herein was made as a direct result of the performance of my assigned duties, I hereby agree to assign the entire right, title and interest in the invention to the government and I understand that I will retain no rights in the invention,” per U.S. Code of Federal Regulation 37 CFR § 501.6.

• However, at the bottom of the disclosure form Pais wrote that “There is no relationship whatsoever between my assigned duties and the invention. The invention was made independently of any job performance or assigned tasks by the Branch or Section.” He later wrote in the same disclosure form that “The entire Inventive Concept and anything that pertains to it, was the inventor’s own work, with no government contribution whatsoever.”

• After one of his academic papers describing the patents was accepted for publication in 2016, Pais wrote in an email to several NAVAIR employees that “What is most unique about this paper is that it has already won the approval of Dr. [REDACTED], … who has given his unreserved approval of this paper, calling it “a very good paper.” [REDACTED] has also forwarded the paper to several of his colleagues, including [REDACTED], another top subject matter expert.” Likely candidates as to who the mystery scientist is who signed off on Pais’ inventions are either perennial ‘weird science’ contract stalwart Hal Puthoff or aerospace engineer H. David Froning whose own works were included along with the patent application.

• The Australian-based Froning has published extensive USAF-funded studies on hypersonic vehicle design and using directed energy to aid in aircraft propulsion, “new directions in electromagnetism for propulsion and power”, and using specially-conditioned electromagnetic fields to control nuclear fusion reactions – some of the same technologies patented by Pais on behalf of the US Navy over the last several years. In mid-2016, a “Salvatore Cezar Pais, Ph.D.” left a glowing five-star Amazon review for Froning’s 2016 book, The Halcyon Years of Air and Space Flight: And the Continuing Quest, years before Pais’ patents were made public.

• In the same April 20, 2016 email in which Pais mentions an unknown (redacted) supportive scientist, Pais wrote that “the enablement of extreme craft speeds, and thus the feasibility of intergalactic travel using current engineering materials and methods, is made possible with this (peer-reviewed) publication.” Similarly, the Amazon book review stated that Froning’s research “takes us several steps toward our ultimate civilizational goal of Intergalactic Flight” and “can occur with state of the art materials and engineering methods.” Pais closes the April 20, 2016 email by adding that the examination process will “hopefully (culminate) in two essential patents for the technologically advanced future of the Navy.”

• Nine days later, Pais emailed that the patent application had been filed with the USPTO, writing “[REDACTED] has done an admirable job and produced an exceptional patent application, [REDACTED] work is highly commendable. The inventive concept due to its simplicity and minimalism, despite its advanced quantum vacuum physics, pays homage to Occam’s Razor. Thank you Sir for your recommendation and your continued support.” It may be that Pais is referring to Mark Glut, NAWCAD’s patent attorney at the time. In a May 2017 email, Pais writes that “[Redacted] is a formidable patent lawyer”.

• In the emails related to the high-temperature superconductor patent, an unknown individual from the Naval Aviation Enterprise writes that “the concept has strong theoretical backing” and offers the enterprises’ help in the patent application process. Later, Pais publicly thanks Naval Aviation Enterprise Chief Technology Officer Dr. James Sheehy who stepped in to personally attest to the USPTO to the ‘operability and enablement’ of the concepts in Pais’ inventions. After the “Inertial Mass Reduction Device” patent application was submitted, an unknown individual from the Naval Aviation Enterprise, likely Dr. Sheehy, congratulated Pais in an email, writing “Congratulations!! Now to build a small demo to put the theory into a demo”. In 2017 and 2019 emails, Pais confirms funding of his work by NAWCAD on “radical new propulsion concepts” and “Hybrid Aerospace-Undersea Craft”.

• In 2017, Pais was turned down publication by energy research journal Joule , saying “we would require you to provide some compelling experimental validation of your proposed theoretical pathway before we could reconsider.” In a June 6, 2019 email, Pais states: “high-temperature superconductor is sound despite a lack of experimental evidence”. Pais finally published his paper on “Room Temperature Superconducting System for use on a Hybrid Aerospace-Undersea Craft” in the AIAA SciTech forum in 2019 without experimental data.

• Inventors working behind closed doors in DoD labs aren’t the only ones pursuing these “Holy Grail” technologies. In mid-October 2020, the journal Nature announced that a room-temperature superconductor was theoretically possible, but required extreme pressures of at least 2.6 million times the atmospheric pressure at sea level, making it impractical except in laboratory settings. In November 2020, researchers at MIT published seven articles in the Journal of Plasma Physics detailing a revolutionary new compact high-temperature superconductor fusion reactor design. One of the key technologies leveraged in the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center design is “a newer electromagnet technology that uses high temperature superconductors that can produce a much higher magnetic field to contain the fusion reaction within.

• These various emails reveal an extensive internal review process wherein scientists and personnel at NAWCAD and the Pax River Invention Evaluation Board supported Pais’ patents for the USPTO application process. We also learned that NAWCAD performed technical and marketing reviews on the inventions, and funded a physical demonstration for patent purposes. Still, The Drive’s ‘The War Zone’ has yet to find any experimental validation or experts who can confirm Pais’s theories, or what these bizarre patents mean for the future of the Navy.

 

The War Zone continues to dig into the bizarre U.S. Navy patents authored by enigmatic inventor Dr. Salvatore Pais and the seemingly unusual circumstances of their approval by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). As part of our investigation, we recently obtained a tranche of internal emails from Naval Air Systems Command, or NAVAIR, which appear to have been sent between Pais and personnel in different NAVAIR offices. While the Navy’s exotic energy production patents remain as mysterious as ever, these emails add to the backstory surrounding the inventions of Salvatore Pais and suggest that the patents went through a more rigorous internal evaluation process than was previously known. The emails also seem to indicate that the research program that emanated from the patents did in fact result in an experimental demonstration of some sort.

Last year, the publication of several unusual patents assigned to the U.S. Navy raised eyebrows due to the seemingly radical and unconventional claims found within them. These patents included bizarre technologies such as a “high temperature superconductor,” a “high frequency gravitational wave generator,” a force field-like “electromagnetic field generator,” a “plasma compression fusion device,” and a hybrid aerospace/underwater craft featuring an “inertial mass reduction device.” They truly sound like the stuff of science fiction and seem to describe the theoretical building blocks of a craft with UFO-like performance.

Each of the Navy inventions are credited to one Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, who, at the time the patent applications

              Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais
     Dr. James Sheehy

were submitted, was an aerospace engineer at NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) in Patuxent (Pax) River, Maryland. Every one of Pais’ recent inventions depends on what the inventor calls “the Pais Effect,” described in numerous publications by the inventor as the “controlled motion of electrically charged matter (from solid to plasma) via accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration under rapid (yet smooth) acceleration-deceleration-acceleration transients.”

Despite the fact that leadership at NAVAIR went to bat for the patents in appeals with the USPTO, the patents and their underlying concepts have largely been scoffed at by subject matter experts due to the lack of experimental evidence provided for them and their seeming similarity to controversial and highly theoretical concepts such as mass reduction or quantum vacuum engineering. Nevertheless, The War Zone obtained a statement from Dr. Pais in a series of email correspondences in which the inventor claimed his work will be proven correct “one fine day.”

Internal NAWCAD And NAVAIR Emails Contain Additional Details

The internal NAVAIR emails The War Zone has recently obtained are all related to the creation of the patent

                 Hal Puthoff

application and internal review process for Pais’s seemingly bizarre “Craft Using an Inertial Mass Reduction Device” patent. All names within this release have been redacted, but it appears possible that many of the emails could have been written by Dr. Salvatore Pais based on portions of email signatures left unredacted, not to mention the fact that they describe Pais’s patents and publications in the first person. Still, it’s ultimately impossible to be 100% certain that these emails were indeed written by Pais himself despite The War Zone referring to the author as Pais throughout this reporting for simplicity.

     H. David Froning

While much remains unknown about these patents and their provenance, these emails offer a few new details about the internal processes Pais and other NAWCAD employees at Pax River undertook in getting some of the patents approved. For one, these emails reveal that Pais made an additional $700 between 2016 and 2018 from two separate incentive awards for the “Craft Using An Inertial Mass Reduction Device” patent.

The emails largely discuss bureaucratic procedures and paperwork related to the invention disclosures and patent application processes. These emails include individuals from NAWCAD, including its Office of Counsel, as well as elsewhere within NAVAIR, such as the Naval Test Wing Atlantic, and at a drafting company in Uniontown, Ohio that was hired to illustrate the patent applications.

The invention disclosure forms contained in these releases show that Pais claims several of his patents – “Craft Using an Inertial Mass Reduction Device,” “Piezoelectricity-induced High Temperature Superconductor,” “High Frequency Gravitational Wave Generator,” and “Ultrahigh Intensity Electromagnetic Field Generator” – are all interrelated. The gravitational wave generator application was cited as a follow-up to both the electromagnetic wave generator application and the inertial mass reduction device application, and is also listed as a closely related patent in the high-temperature superconductor application.

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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

What Happens to Space Force After Trump?

Article by Samantha Masunaga                                       December 15, 2020                                     (latimes.com)

• Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond says “proliferating technology” and “competitive interests” have changed space from a benign environment to “one in which we anticipate all aspects of human endeavor — including warfare.” The goals of Space Force include developing new capabilities, increasing cooperation and enabling a “lean and agile service.” Whether Space Force can achieve that mission is an open question. While Trump champions the initiative, he has done little to ensure it has the funding, staffing and authority to succeed. When he exits the White House next month, the Space Force’s trajectory remains unclear.

• Created last year as the first new armed service since 1947, Space Force has gained control of some space operations, but many others are still spread throughout the nation’s other military branches. Space Force is still technically part of the Air Force, just as the Marine Corps is part of the Navy. The Air Force’s Space Command is responsible for supporting and maintaining satellites for GPS, missile warning and nuclear command and control, as well as paying United Launch Alliance and SpaceX to launch national security satellites. “The whole point of this was to consolidate,” said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. The US Army, US Navy, and especially the US Air Force all conduct space operations.

• Consolidating these disparate programs into the Space Force has been slow. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida will change their names and become the first two Space Force installations. Eventually, all Air Force space missions are supposed to follow suit. But there has been no progress on integrating the Army‘s or Navy’s space missions.

• The Pentagon Space Force budget is lean. With about 2,100 personnel as of November 1st, Space Force commanded a budget of $40 million in 2020. Meanwhile, the Air Force has more than 325,000 active duty personnel and a budget of $168 billion for 2020. ($14B of that was designated to the Space Force.) The Space Force will probably always be the smallest military service, Harrison said. “Space is more dictated by capabilities than mass,” he said. Space Force “shouldn’t try to organize itself in the way of these much larger services because that’s not what it is. That’s not what it’s going to grow into.” For fiscal year 2021, the Space Force is requesting a budget transfer from the Air Force of $15.3 billion. Over time, as space programs from other services start consolidating into the Space Force, their budgets should follow.

• But David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank, says that Space Force’s 2020 resources aren’t enough to carry out its mission of organizing, training and equipping forces to deter or defeat threats in space. US intelligence officials have warned that China and Russia have discussed developing new electronic warfare capabilities, which could have implications for U.S. military satellite communications or GPS satellite interference. “The nation is facing some very significant threats in the space realm,” says Deptula.

• “Space Force really needed to be stood up to remain competitive with the very real threats coming from our nearest adversaries,” said James Marceau, managing director of aerospace and defense at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, who has also served as a senior advisor to the Pentagon on major strategies including the Space Force. “We can’t afford to neglect that domain.”

• As the strategic role of satellites came to the forefront in the early 1990s, congressional leaders and military officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, considered consolidating space operations. In 2016, Representatives Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) began advocating for a “space corps.” But there wasn’t enough support in the U.S. Senate for the proposal. Then, in March 2018, Trump seized upon the idea and suggested creating a ‘Space Force’ in a speech to Marines at Air Station Miramar in San Diego. (Cooper would later say Trump “tried to hijack” the idea of the space corps.) Five month later, Vice President Mike Pence announced the creation of Space Force. It was included in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act and signed into law in December 2019.

• At this point, it’s “highly unlikely” that the Biden administration would try to eliminate the Space Force, Harrison said. It would require a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the president’s signature, he said. “I have not heard anyone seriously contemplating the idea of disestablishing it,” Harrison said. “It hasn’t even gotten a chance to get started yet.”

• “You’ve already transferred thousands of individuals into the Space Force,” said Doug Loverro, former deputy assistant secretary of Defense for space policy. “Can you imagine pulling the rug out from under them?” General Raymond says that he met with the Biden transition team in early December, and the conversation “was good”. So it appears that Space Force will be sticking around.

 

President Trump has a penchant for grandiose promises that go unfulfilled. So when he announced a

          Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond

plan to establish a Space Force, there was some skepticism.

Then-Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ranking member on a Senate committee that deals with aviation and space, disliked the idea of consolidating space programs from the other military branches, saying at the time there were “too many important missions at stake” to “rip the Air Force apart.”

The idea of the new service became fodder for late-night comedians and a Netflix sitcom.
The Space Force, however, was not merely a presidential musing. Created last year as the first new armed service since 1947, it was established with the mission of protecting U.S. interests in space from potential adversaries, be they rival nations or gobs of space junk.

 Representative Jim Cooper

Whether it can achieve that mission is an open question. Though Trump champions the initiative, he has done little to ensure it has the funding, staffing and authority to succeed. When he exits the White House next month, the Space Force’s trajectory remains unclear.

            Todd Harrison

The Space Force has gained control of some space operations, but many others are still spread throughout the nation’s other military branches.

Within the Defense Department, the Air Force has the lion’s share of space programs and budget for space operations. It’s responsible for supporting and maintaining satellites for GPS, missile warning and nuclear command and control, as well as paying United Launch Alliance and SpaceX to launch national security satellites.

The Army and Navy also have their own space operations.

Consolidating these disparate programs into the Space Force has been slow. Some Air Force missions have transferred to Space Force control or are in the process of doing so — last week, Vice President Mike Pence announced that Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base in Florida would change their names and become the first two Space Force installations. Eventually, all Air Force space missions are supposed to follow suit. But there has been no progress on integrating the Army‘s or Navy’s space missions.

 Representative Mike Rogers

“The last thing you want … after all of this reorganization and creating a new military service is to continue to have the fragmentation of our space programs and space organizations across the military,” said Todd Harrison, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “The whole point of this was to consolidate.”

           David Deptula

Compared with the budgets and personnel of the other branches of the U.S. military, the Space Force is lean. And technically it’s part of the Air Force, just as the Marine Corps is part of the Navy.

Consisting of about 2,100 people as of Nov. 1, the Space Force commanded a budget of $40 million for its operations and maintenance in fiscal year 2020.

Meanwhile, the Air Force has more than 325,000 active duty personnel and a budget of $168 billion for fiscal 2020. (The Air Force designated almost $14 billion of that for space capabilities. These projects have since become part of the Space Force.)

The Space Force will probably always be the smallest military service, Harrison said.

“Space is more dictated by capabilities than mass,” he said. The Space Force “shouldn’t try to organize itself in the way of these much larger services because that’s not what it is. That’s not what it’s going to grow into.”

          Doug Loverro

But the Space Force’s 2020 resources aren’t enough to carry out its mission of organizing, training and equipping forces to deter or defeat threats in space, said David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies think tank.

For fiscal year 2021, the Space Force is requesting a budget transfer from the Air Force of $15.3 billion. And over time, as space programs from other services start consolidating into the Space Force, their budgets should follow.

“The nation is facing some very significant threats in the space realm,” Deptula said. “Let’s make sure that service is set up for success.”

U.S. intelligence officials have warned that China and Russia have discussed developing new electronic warfare capabilities, which could have implications for U.S. military satellite communications or GPS satellite interference. In 2007, China tested an anti-satellite weapon and destroyed one of its own inactive weather satellites.

“Space Force really needed to be stood up to remain competitive with the very real threats coming from our nearest adversaries,” said James Marceau, managing director of aerospace and defense at consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal, who has also served as a senior advisor to the Pentagon on major strategies including the Space Force. “We can’t afford to neglect that domain.”

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Trump Administration’s ‘National Space Policy’ and Space Force’s Role

Article by Sandra Erwin                                       December 9, 2020                                         (spacenews.com)

• On December 9th, the Trump administration released a new National Space Policy to replace the previous version issued by the Obama administration in 2010. The new policy “highlights the Department of Defense as a key agency in implementing and achieving the nation’s goals in this important domain,” with the US Space Force as the vanguard.

• The policy states that the Space Force is responsible for “defending the use of space for US national security purposes. This includes protecting and preserving lines of communication that are open, safe and secure in the space domain”. The service will also “deter adversaries and other actors from conducting activities that may threaten the peaceful use of space by the United States, its allies and partners; while compelling and imposing costs on adversaries to cease behaviors threatening that peaceful use.”

• Gen. John Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, said the national space policy “guides the efforts of the United States Space Force as we continue to deliver capabilities and forces in defense of our nation’s interests in space.”

• Christopher Miller, Acting Secretary of Defense, said, “Over the last year we have established the necessary organizations to ensure we can deter hostilities, demonstrate responsible behaviors, defeat aggression and protect the interests of the United States and our allies.”

 

  President Trump and Gen. John Raymond

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration released a new national space policy Dec. 9 that articulates U.S. goals in civil space exploration, commercial growth and national security. The document recognizes the U.S. Space Force as the primary organization responsible for defending the nation’s interests in space.

The previous version of the national space policy was issued by the Obama administration in 2010.

The Pentagon in a statement said the new policy document “highlights the Department of Defense as a

                    Christopher Miller

key agency in implementing and achieving the nation’s goals in this important domain.”

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said: “Over the last year we have established the necessary organizations to ensure we can deter hostilities, demonstrate responsible behaviors, defeat aggression and protect the interests of the United States and our allies.”

The policy states that the Space Force, which was established in December 2019, is responsible for “defending the use of space for U.S. national security purposes. This includes protecting and preserving lines of communication that are open, safe and secure in the space domain. The service also will “deter adversaries and other actors from conducting activities that may threaten the peaceful use of space by the United States, its allies and partners; while compelling and imposing costs on adversaries to cease behaviors threatening that peaceful use.”

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The UFO Phenomenon is About to Get Very Real

Article by Rick Moran                                       December 3, 2020                                        (pjmedia.com)

• While many believe in UFO/UAPs and alien visitation, proof seems to be lacking except for eyewitness accounts. Numerous reports point to a government conspiracy to “hide the truth” about alien visitation. But this “conspiracy” may simply be a military disinformation campaign to hide its development of super-secret, super-capable weapons.

• Some of these eyewitness accounts come from fighter pilots with video from sophisticated, high-tech imaging systems. A recent 2020 DoD report, shared throughout the civilian and military intelligence community (see previous ExoArticle here), includes an extraordinary photograph taken in late 2019 of a triangle-shaped UFO by a F/A-18F fighter jet operating off the US East Coast. According to the report, the Triangle UFO rose out of the Atlantic Ocean and rapidly accelerated out of sight on a vertical axis.

• If the military and the intelligence community are at a loss to explain these UFO sightings, might they be slowly coming to the conclusion, through the process of elimination, that these UFO/UAP craft did not originate on planet Earth? For anyone in government to reach this conclusion demands attention from the rest of us.

• These UFO/UAPs are apparently powered by unconventional, non-jet based flight propulsion systems, exhibiting no exhaust trails. And they are capable of rapidly navigating water, air, and space. No nation or corporation has been shown to possess, let alone manifest, such advanced engineering. Also, the UFOs seem to be particularly attracted to the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and regularly appear over our nuclear missile bases.

• The US Navy has sonar nets strung out around the world to listen for foreign submarines. But remarkably, the Navy is also tracking USOs – Unidentified Submersible Objects – moving at impossible speeds with no cavitating propellers and no known propulsion system.

• What could these UAP of alien origin want with our nuclear technology? Why would the US military believe that UAP pose a potential threat? These aliens have traveled trillions and trillions of miles, and for what? We don’t know. Their intelligence may operate on a completely different plane than ours — perhaps even a different reality.

• The UFO phenomenon is becoming too widespread and there have been far too many witnesses, not just on fighter jets but also on Navy warships. Soon – probably sometime in the next five years – the US Navy will have no choice but to admit the truth. Unfortunately, the most momentous announcement in human history will probably be a leak that the Navy will reluctantly confirm. Not the parades and brass bands such an announcement deserves, but it will do.

• [Editor’s Note]  This article claims that “No nation or corporation has been shown to possess, let alone manifest, such advanced engineering.” Apparently, mainstream scientists, researchers and military personnel don’t read the ExoNews. If they did, they would know that the Navy itself has publicly divulged – through its patent applications – that it possesses the type of “alien” technology for ‘transmedium’ vehicles that can travel effortlessly through air, water and the vacuum of space. (see previous ExoArticles: “US Navy Disclosing Secret Space Program Technologies through Patents System” and “US Navy Regards Electromagnetic Propulsion & Tesla Shield Patents as Operable”) The US Navy is absolutely capable of building these type of craft, and the fact that they’ve submitted patents means that they possess at least an operational model. Perhaps the Navy doesn’t mind people believing that these craft are of ‘extraterrestrial origin’, although though they did derive the technology from extraterrestrial allies.

As the former head of Israel’s space program, Professor Haim Eshed recently revealed, the extraterrestrials themselves think that the people on Earth are not yet mentally ready to know the truth. (see previous ExoArticle: “Former Head of Israel’s Space Program Says Aliens Asked Not to Be Revealed as Humanity is Not Ready”) It is a fallacy, perpetuated by the deep state, that some isolated space crew of alien explorers traveled “trillions and trillions of miles” and just happened upon our planet. In reality, extraterrestrial civilizations permeate the galaxy (and universe), and this sector of the Milky Way is no exception. Representatives of the Galactic Federation, the benevolent authority in this galaxy, asked President Trump to hold off on announcing the long-standing presence of the many species of extraterrestrial beings that reside on, within, and around the Earth and our solar system, especially since World War II, until the Earth population is accustomed to the idea and it won’t cause “mass hysteria”. Therefore, full disclosure will depend on how long it will take for the population to ‘wake up’ and accept the pervasive ET reality.

 

             recent ‘triangle USO’, 2019

Sometime in the next five years, the United States Navy will announce unmistakable, undeniable proof of the extraterrestrial origin of what they term “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP). The most recent report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which is run out of the Office of Naval Intelligence, comes very close to making that determination public.

       ‘tic tac’ UFO off of San Diego, 2004

While many believe in alien visitation, the proof has been lacking except for eyewitness accounts. There also have been numerous reports of a government conspiracy to “hide the truth” about alien visitation. The “conspiracy” was a useful part of the military’s disinformation campaign to hide what they were really doing: building super-secret, super-capable weapons.

But these reports from fighter pilots with video from sophisticated, high-tech imaging systems have the spooks stumped. Through the process of elimination, they are slowly coming to the conclusion that the UAP phenomenon features aircraft that did not originate on planet Earth.

        ‘FLIR1’ UFO off of Florida, 2015

No-brainer, right? Except these are some of the most brilliant scientists in the world. They don’t leap to conclusions. They don’t play hunches. They don’t tell us what’s obvious. They base their conclusions on the facts. And for anyone in government to reach this conclusion demands attention from the rest of us.

Washington Examiner: It is the 2020 report, however, which is most striking. Shared very widely across

      ‘Go Fast’ UFO off of Virginia, 2015

the civilian and military intelligence community, it includes an extraordinary photograph taken in late 2019 of a triangle-shaped UFO. The photograph was taken by a F/A-18F fighter jet operating off the U.S. East Coast. According to the report, the Triangle UFO rose out of the Atlantic Ocean and rapidly accelerated out of sight on a vertical axis. I believe, but have been unable to confirm, that the aircrew responsible for the photo were operating off either the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower or the USS John C. Stennis.

The UAP are attracted to our nuclear reactors like bees to honey.

This is big news, or should be, for four reasons.

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‘Fast Movers’ and ‘Transmeduim Vehicles’ – The Pentagon’s UAP Task Force

Article by Tim McMillan                                 December 2, 2020                                (thedebrief.org)

• US military and intelligence officials have offered a glimpse into what is currently going on with the Pentagon’s “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force,” in an exclusive for The Debrief.org website. For the last two years, the DoD has been busy briefing lawmakers, intelligence community members, and the highest levels of the US military on encounters with UAP/UFOs that defy conventional explanations. In addition, two classified intelligence reports on UFOs have been widely distributed to the US Intelligence Community, including clear photographic evidence. The reports also explicitly state that these UFOs could be operated by “intelligences of unknown origin”.

• In June, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offered its support for the “efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence” and requested an unclassified report detailing the analysis of ‘Anomalous Aerial Vehicles’. In mid-August, the Pentagon formally acknowledged they had established a UAP Task Force “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to US national security.”

• The Debrief learned that on October 21, 2019, a UFO briefing was conducted at the Pentagon for several Senate Armed Services Committee staffers. Attendees said they were provided information on two Pentagon UFO research programs that preceded the UAP Task Force. Two days later on October 23rd, staffers with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee were provided the same information. Dr. Hal Puthoff, who claims to be one of a handful of persons who conducted the October UFO briefings, said that he had been invited to brief congressional staffers on more than one occasion. He said that staffers were “engaged”, and provided “positive responses, [with] more details always being requested.”

• An email obtained by The Debrief shows an October 16, 2019 exchange between then Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Robert Burke, and current Vice Chief of Staff for the Air Force General Stephen “Steve” Wilson, in which Adm. Burke tells Gen. Wilson, “Recommend you take the brief I just received from our Director of Naval Intelligence VADM Matt Kohler, on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).” Adm. Burke concludes the email, “SECNAV [Secretary of the Navy] will get the same brief tomorrow at 1000.”

• Pentagon Spokesperson Susan Gough did not confirm or deny the existence of the UAP intelligence reports, and declined to make any comment on their contents. It seems the Pentagon is not interested in sharing any more information on the UAP topic.

• However, several current and former officials with the DoD and individuals working for multiple US intelligence agencies told The Debrief that there was much more going on behind closed doors. Details on the two classified intelligence position reports, which the UAP Task Force provided to the US Intelligence Community, suggest both a greater degree of Pentagon involvement and an indication that the hunt for UFOs isn’t confined to aerial phenomena.

• A 2018 intelligence report provided a general overview of the UAP/UFO topic, including details of previous military encounters. According to sources who had read the classified reports, the report also contained an unreleased photograph of a silver “cube-shaped” flying object captured from the cockpit of an F/A-18 fighter jet with a pilot’s personal cell phone. The object was “hovering” completely motionless when Navy pilots encountered it. Based on the photo, the object was at an altitude of 30,000 to 35,000 feet, and approximately 1,000 feet from the fighter jet.

• Defense and intelligence officials expressed shock that the classified UAP Task Force report had been so widely distributed amongst the Intelligence community. “In decades with the [Intelligence Community] I’ve never seen anything like this,” said one intelligence official. The report’s most disconcerting aspect was a “list” of possible explanations for these mysterious encounters, and that the potential for UAP/UFO to be “alien” or “non-human” technology was of legitimate consideration.

• A second classified UAP Task Force report was issued in the summer of 2020. Like the first report, this report was also widely distributed amongst the Intelligence Community. “It went viral,” said one intelligence official who had read the report. The most striking feature of the second report was the inclusion of new and “extremely clear” photograph of an unidentifiable triangular aircraft also taken from inside the cockpit of a fighter jet off the East Coast of the United States. The UFO in the photograph is described as a large equilateral triangle with rounded or “blunted” edges and large, perfectly spherical white “lights” in each corner. Two DoD officials said the photo was taken after the triangular craft emerged from the ocean and began to ascend straight upwards at a 90-degree angle.

• The second report primarily focused on “Unidentified Submersible Phenomena”, or “transmedium” vehicles capable of operating both under water and in the air, and apparently originating from within the world’s oceans. The idea of unidentified submersible objects, or “USOs”, is not something new. MUFON astronomer Marc D’Antonio has shared an experience involving the detection of an underwater “Fast Mover,” which occurred while he was sailing as a civilian aboard one of the US Navy’s prized attack submarines. Defense journalist Tyler Rogoway spoke with several veteran submariners to get their take on D’Antonio’s account. The Navy vets interviewed by Rogoway almost unanimously acknowledged that unexplained, very high-speed sonar targets are indeed recorded by some of the most sophisticated listening equipment on the planet.

• A senior member of the Intelligence Community, whose responsibilities for decades involved underwater surveillance and reconnaissance programs, told The Debrief there was validity to claims of extremely fast-moving underwater objects being detected by US military systems. “On occasion, there are detections made of non-cavitational, extremely fast-moving objects within the ocean.” The intelligence official cited the high-levels of security classification associated with underwater reconnaissance. One active defense official said the UAP Task Force has a wealth of photographic evidence collected from military pilots’ personal devices as well as sophisticated DoD surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. There are many accounts – some going back centuries – in which people have observed unidentifiable craft operating in and out of the water.

• In 2017, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Dana White confirmed to Politico that the DoD had studied UFOs under the Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program (AATIP) run by Luis Elizondo. Then in December 2019, the Pentagon issued a statement saying AATIP was not UAP related, and that Elizondo had “no responsibilities” in the program. When The Debrief pointed out that its investigation had confirmed that AATIP did, in fact, involve UFOs and that Luis Elizondo was, in fact, the custodian of the AATIP portfolio, Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough replied, “Please keep in mind (Elizondo) left DoD over three years ago, and there are personnel and privacy matters involved.”

• From closed-door meetings, to senior military leadership and the issuance of classified intelligence reports, all indications suggest the DoD is indeed taking the UAP/UFO issue seriously. But when it comes to underwater systems, the extremity of official secrecy falls into a class by itself. For instance, retired Navy Admiral Bobby Ray Inman acknowledged that he served as director for the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office (NURO) decades ago. Yet to date, the government denies that the NURO even exists.

• Even if the Senate Select Intelligence Committee’s request for an unclassified UAP report ends up being enacted in the FY2021 Intelligence Act, the UAP report provision is not binding law. There’s no guarantee the public will be provided any comprehensive information on UAP/UFOs. And while Congress is required to have access to classified information, only the Executive Branch has the authority to declassify national security information to make it public.

• Should the DoD become more willing to discuss UAPs publicly, there are plenty of indications that it might be a disappointment compared to many of the popular myths and narratives intertwined with the UFO subject over the last 70 years. Every source familiar with the activities of the UAP Task Force said that no concise estimate of the situation for UAP has been achieved, and the US government presently lacks any definite explanation for UAP-related events.

• US Air Force Brigadier General Bruce McClintock, who served as Special Assistant to the Commander of Air Force Space Command until his retirement in 2017, and presently heads up the RAND corporation’s space-related research, told The Debrief that he is dismissive of the idea that US military encounters with UAP/UFO could be related to any form of classified aerospace testing by either the US or a foreign adversary. “It is unlikely that the US government would intentionally conduct tests against its own unwitting military assets. To do so would require a very high level of coordination and approval for the potential safety and operational security risks.”

• The Debrief has been unable to find anyone willing to speculate as to the source of UFO encounters reported by military aviators, whether they may be a US black budget program or the ‘testing’ of US air defense by foreign governments. A transition team spokesperson for Biden said that his administration would “[i]mmediately return to daily press briefings at the White House, US Department of State, and US Department of Defense. Our foreign policy relies on the informed consent of the American people. That is not possible when our government refuses to communicate with the public.”

 

               ‘equilateral triangle’ ufo

In an exclusive feature for The Debrief, U.S. military and intelligence officials, as well as Pentagon emails,

 Air Force General Steve Wilson

offer an unprecedented glimpse behind the scenes of what’s currently going on with The Pentagon’s investigation into UFOs, or as they term them, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” (UAP).

For the last two years, the Department of Defense’s newly revamped “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force” (or UAPTF) has been busy briefing lawmakers, Intelligence Community stakeholders, and the highest levels of the U.S. military on encounters with what they say are mysterious airborne objects that defy conventional explanations.

Along with classified briefings, multiple senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter say two classified intelligence reports on UAP have been widely distributed to the U.S. Intelligence Community. Numerous sources from various government agencies told The Debrief that these reports include clear photographic evidence of UAP. The reports also explicitly state that the Task Force is considering the possibility that these unidentified objects could, as stated by one source from the U.S. Intelligence Community said, be operated by “intelligences of unknown origin.”

           Admiral Robert Burke

Significantly, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and head of RAND corporation’s Space Enterprise Initiative has—for the first time—gone on record to discuss some of the most likely explanations for UAP. His responses were surprising.

BRIEFINGS AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS

In June, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s FY2021 Intelligence Authorization Act contained an

Naval Intelligence VADM Matt Kohler

intriguing section titled report on “Advanced Aerial Threats.” In the inclusion, the committee gave an eye-opening official hint (in recent history) the government takes UFOs seriously by offering its support for the “efforts of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force at the Office of Naval Intelligence.” The Intelligence Committee additionally requested an unclassified report detailing the analysis of “UAP” or “Anomalous Aerial Vehicles.”

Though already acknowledged by the Intelligence Committee, in mid-August, the Pentagon formally acknowledged they had established a task force looking into UAP. In a press announcement, the Secretary of Defense’s Office stated, “the UAPTF’s mission will be to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.” According to the release, authority for the Task Force was approved by the DoD’s chief operating officer, Deputy Secretary of Defense David L. Norquist.

The summer news of the establishment of the UAPTF seemingly suggests—for the first time since the shuttering of Project Blue Book (the Air Force’s official investigations into UFOs) in 1969—that the Pentagon is now taking the subject of UFOs seriously.

However, an internal email obtained by The Debrief shows that almost one year before the DoD’s announcement, the highest levels of the U.S. military were already being briefed on UAP.

           David L. Norquist

The email, obtained via Freedom of Information Act request, shows an October 16th, 2019 exchange between

                Bruce McClintock

then Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Robert Burke, and current Vice Chief of Staff for the Air Force General Stephen “Steve” Wilson.

In the email, Adm. Burke tells Gen. Wilson, “Recommend you take the brief I just received from our Director of Naval Intelligence VADM Matt Kohler, on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP).” Adm. Burke concludes the email, “SECNAV [Secretary of the Navy] will get the same brief tomorrow at 1000.”

The “SECNAV” referenced in Adm. Burke’s email was then-Secretary of the Navy, Richard V. Spencer. A little over a month after this UAP briefing, Spencer was fired by then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper over public disagreements stemming from a series of controversies involving the court-martial of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher.

Speaking on background, one U.S. Defense official lamented that a lack of continuity with DoD leadership might have hindered some of the UAPTF’s work. Within the past 24 months, there have been four different Secretaries of the Navy and five additional Secretaries of Defense. Vice Admiral Matt Kohler, noted for having provided the briefings, retired after 36 years with the Navy in June of this year.

            Marc D’Antonio

Reaching out to several active government officials and individuals who retain their government-issued security

             Dr. Hal Puthoff

clearances, The Debrief learned that last fall was a busy time for the UAPTF. On October 21st, 2019, a briefing on UAP was conducted at the Pentagon for several Senate Armed Services Committee staffers.

Attendees at the meeting told The Debrief that they were provided information on two previous DoD-backed UFO programs: The Advanced Aerial Weapons Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP) and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). They were also briefed on “highly sensitive categories of UFO investigations.” Only two days later on October 23rd, staffers with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee were provided the same information in a meeting on Capitol Hill.

A former private contractor for AAWSAP and AATIP, Dr. Hal Puthoff, confirmed for The Debrief he was one of a handful of persons who conducted the October briefings. “I have been invited to brief congressional staffers on the Senate Armed Services Committee on UAP matters in the last couple of years,” Puthoff said in an email, “and have done so on more than one occasion.” Dr. Puthoff described the staffers during these meetings as being “engaged,” and provided “positive responses, [and] more details always being requested.”

          Luis Elizondo

The Debrief reached out to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Office and DoD Executive Services

              Bobby Ray Inman

Office and formally requested an interview with someone authorized to speak on the UAP briefings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In an email, Senior Strategist and Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough responded, “To maintain operations security, which includes not disseminating information publicly that may be useful to our adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examination of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP – and that includes not discussing the UAPTF publicly, also.”

Official public affairs channels indicate the Pentagon is not interested in sharing any more information on the UAP topic. However, several current and former officials with the DoD and individuals working for multiple U.S. intelligence agencies told The Debrief that there was much more going on behind closed doors.

UAP INTELLIGENCE POSITION REPORTS

Multiple sources confirmed for The Debrief that the UAPTF had issued two classified intelligence position reports, which one individual described as “shocking.” Details provided on these reports suggest both a greater degree of Pentagon involvement, and that the UAPTF’s hunt for unidentified objects isn’t confined only to aerial phenomena.

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US Marines Say Goodbye Tanks and Hello Space

Article by Peter Suciu                                      November 27, 2020                                   (news.clearancejobs.com)

• Back in 1775, the US Marine Corps was known as the Continental Marines. It consisted of two battalions with one Colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors and other officers. Following the American Revolution, the Continental Marines, was dis-established as part of the Continental Navy, and then re-established in 1798. Since then, the Marine Corps has played a role in every American conflict, continuing to evolve with the times.

• The Marine Corps is now undergoing its biggest transformation in decades, transitioning from a “second land army” back to its maritime roots, which include defending ships at sea, island-hopping, and battling for contested coastlines – all in preparation for potential conflict with adversaries such as China.

• In March, the Marine Corps announced it would undergo a 10-year transformation, eliminating its tank battalions, bridging companies, and law enforcement battalions to better meet the demands of the 2018 United States National Defense Strategy. The USMC is also scaling back the number of infantry battalions, artillery cannon batteries, and amphibious vehicle companies. In addition, the Marines could cut back on the MV-22 Osprey, attack and heavy-lift squadrons, and stealth fighters.

• As tanks and bridging units are phased out, the Marine Corps reactivated the 2nd Landing Support Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina last month. The landing support unit, which played a crucial role during World War II’s Pacific island hopping campaign, hadn’t been active in more than four decades.

• “The re-establishment of 2nd Landing Support Battalion comes during a time of significant transformation within the Marine Corps,” said Lt. Col. Randall L. Nickel, commanding officer of 2nd Landing Support Battalion. “[L]anding support to the Fleet Marine Force is essential to ensure … a persistent forward naval presence that has long been the hallmark of US expeditionary forces.”

• The Marine Corps’ tradition of island hopping may evolve into “planet hopping” with the service’s future role in space. This month, Marine Corps Commandant General David Berger directed the activation of Marine Corps Forces Space Command (MARFORSPACE). Based out of Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska, MARFORSPACE will provide space operation support to the Fleet Marine Force.

• MARFORSPACE is under the command of Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Matthew G. Glavy who also serves as commander of the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command. “Space and cyber are critical capabilities in the information environment that, when brought together, can provide a competitive advantage,” said Glavy. “We cannot be successful in these technology-heavy domains without prioritizing people, ideas and things … in that order.”

 

November 10 marked the 245th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps – which back in 1775 was known as the Continental Marines. At the time, it consisted of two battalions with one Colonel, two lieutenant-colonels, two majors and other officers. Following the American Revolution, the Continental Marines, as part of the Continental Navy, was disestablished – but was reestablished in July 1798 under President John Adams.

The Marine Corps has played a role in every American conflict since then, and over the past 245 years this elite fighting force has continued to evolve. It is now undergoing its biggest transformation in decades.

TRANSFORMATION PLAN

 

     Commandant General David Berger

In March, the Marine Corps announced it would undergo an ambitious 10-year transformation plan, which would see the service eliminate its entire tank force – including all of its tank battalions as well as its bridging companies and law enforcement battalions.

       Lt. Col. Randall L. Nickel

The changes are meant to allow the Marine Corps to be better optimized to meet the demands of the United States National Defense Strategy. This focus began last year when the service began force design activities focused on adapting capabilities to properly shape the Marine Corps’ contributions to naval warfare and joint force operations.

The Marine Corps is now making that transition from a “second land army” back to its maritime roots, which include defending ships at sea, island-hopping, and battling for contested coastlines, all in preparation for potential conflict with near-peer adversaries such as China.

    Maj. Gen. Matthew G. Glavy

As part of this ambitious plan, the USMC announced that it would also scale back the total number of infantry battalions from 24 to 21, artillery cannon batteries from 21 to five and amphibious vehicle companies from six to four. In addition, the Marines could cut back on the MV-22 Osprey, attack and heavy-lift squadrons – and would even reduce the number of F-35B and F-35C fifth-generation stealth fighters per squadron from 16 to just 10.

NO MORE TANKS

The reorganization efforts have brought an end to the USMC 1st Tank Battalion, which was activated on November 1, 1941, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and attached to the 1st Marine Division. Tanks from Companies A and B took part in the landings at Guadalcanal in August 1942 and had their first major encounter with the enemy on August 21.

The Marine Corps has been steadily deactivating its tank units, and this month that included Bravo Company, 2d Tank Battalion. In accordance with Marine Corps Force Design 2030, the 2nd Tank Battalion was deactivated to optimize the Marine Corps’ ability to conduct naval expeditionary warfare.

In total, about 1,300 Marines will be impacted by the tank deactivations.
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Air Force Ready to Begin Its ‘Internet of Military Things’

Article by Jared Serbu                                      November 25, 2020                                  (federalnewsnetwork.com)

• Air Force acquisitions has confirmed that the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), also known as an “internet of military things”, is ready to move into a “steady-state demonstration-deployment phase” and start delivering real-world capabilities on existing military platforms as soon as next year.

• Will Roper, in the department of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, told reporters, “This will be something new (and) needs a new construct for how we manage and execute.” “[T]he reality of this business that we are handed a budget that we don’t make, and we have to do our best job executing it.”

• AMBS is the Air Force’s main contribution to the DoD’s broader vision of Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) – born in 2008 – when the service decided not to build a replacement for the Joint Surveillance Target and Attack Radar System, an aging aircraft that tracks targets and sends that information to ground forces. Instead, the Air Force shifted to a plan to connect all of its systems through an “internet” of military platforms.

• The Air Force used the same architectural underpinnings as the AMBS system when it created new data links between F-35, F-22, AC-130 aircraft and commercial satellites last December. In September, the Air Force demonstrated new abilities to use AI and cloud technologies to track and destroy a simulated cruise missile.

• “Air Mobility Command, for example, is one of most forward-leaning commands we have…and they are ready to go put [ABMS capabilities] on mobility platforms so they can act as data relays,” said Roper. “We’ve got tankers that top you up with gas – [so] the vision of topping you up with data makes a lot of sense: You’re going to be there anyway to get fuel. And then that tanker standing off also can act as a battlefield relay and a network node. So they’ve got the right thinking.”

• “ABMS has been something we have put in front of…every program office and said, ‘you are part of this, you must figure out how to integrate with this, and we’ve made it personal for them. …[I]f someone ever walked into my office and said ABMS doesn’t have anything to do with me, that would be a long mentoring discussion that we would have.”

 

                            Will Roper

The Advanced Battle Management System, a future system-of-systems that the Air Force likes to think of as an “internet of military things” is likely to start delivering real-world capabilities on existing military platforms as soon as next year, the Air Force’s top acquisition official said Tuesday.

ABMS crossed a significant milestone this week when Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, signed a memo saying the construct is ready to move into a “steady-state demonstration-deployment phase” and assigning a program executive office to manage future developments.

The Department of the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office, Roper said, will serve as an “integrating” PEO — a recognition that since every part of the Air Force and Space Force will have a hand in building ABMS, no single PEO can tackle the entire project.

“This will be something new, and something that’s new like ABMS probably needs a new construct for how we manage and execute,” he told reporters during a virtual roundtable Tuesday. “The RCO will gain the components that do not have a natural home within the Department of the Air Force, but they will also be responsible for providing the consolidated work breakdown structure, the consolidated baselines and most importantly, making funding trades when there’s not enough funding to do everything. That is something our program executive offices are accustomed to doing, and it’s the reality of this business that we are handed a budget that we don’t make, and we have to do our best job executing it.”

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Will Traditional Launch Services Suit the Needs of Space Force?

Article by Sandra Erwin                                    November 24, 2020                                   (spacenews.com)

• The Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise (under the auspices of the US Space Force) issued a request for information on November 10th asking companies to submit details on planned investments that would support space mobility and logistics by January 15th. The director of Space Force’s launch enterprise, Col. Robert Bongiovi, said his office is trying to gain better insight into the next wave of space innovation and how the military could acquire those capabilities.

• How the Pentagon buys launch services in the future could change as the military considers emerging technologies and services. A future space ecosystem would include satellite refueling and servicing, space vehicles, space manufacturing, and space tugs that relocate satellites. This is part of a crucial space infrastructure that the military terms “space mobility and logistics”.

• One example of the future use of sub-orbital space vehicles to transport cargo and personnel to distant locations on Earth. Senior officials in acquisitions for the Department of the Air Force have shown interest in such point-to-point delivery. But Space Force and launch enterprises currently have no plans to change the structure of its national security launch program, which relies on SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to fly military and intelligence community satellites to multiple orbits, said Col. Bongiovi.

• So the Space Command will wait and see how new technologies and new uses for commercial launch systems will play out in the private sector before the Pentagon makes any financial commitments.. “I think we will watch it closely to see how effective it becomes on the commercial side,” said Lt. Gen. John Shaw.

• In the meantime, Space Force is studying the market to establish the requirements of launch providers in the next national security space launch competition in 2024. “We have to have honest conversations with industry on where they’re going and why,” said Col. Bongiovi. “We also have to talk to our satellite providers and understand the demand.”

 

WASHINGTON — SpaceX and United Launch Alliance were selected as U.S. national security launch providers

    Col. Robert Bongiovi

based on their ability to deliver spacecraft to specific Earth orbits. How the Pentagon buys launch services in the future could change, however, as the military considers using emerging technologies and services known as “space mobility and logistics.”

Col. Robert Bongiovi, the director of the Space Force’s launch enterprise, said his office is trying to gain better insight into the next wave of space innovation and figure out how the military could acquire those capabilities.

The Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise issued a request for information Nov. 10 asking companies to submit by Jan. 15 details on planned investments that would support space mobility and logistics.

Space tugs that move satellites to different orbits or within orbits, satellite refueling and servicing vehicles, and in-space manufacturing are some of the capabilities mentioned in the request for information as examples of the future space ecosystem.

           Lt. Gen. John Shaw

These are all new space missions and capabilities that the military doesn’t currently do. Bongiovi said last week at a Mitchell Institute event that the information submitted by the industry will help the Space Force decide on future investments in space access, mobility and logistics.

The Space Force in its vision document mentions space mobility and logistics as “core competencies” of the service.

Bongiovi said there are currently no plans to change the structure of the national security launch program, which relies on two launch providers to fly military and intelligence community satellites to multiple orbits. But he said the Space Force is doing market research that could inform the requirements for launch providers for the next national security space launch competition in 2024. “Industry has a view of the future that is very expansive,” he said.

 

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The National Space Intelligence Center Takes Shape

Article by Rachel S. Cohen                                     November 16, 2020                                    (airforcemag.com)

• As part of the Department of the Air Force’s review of which units should transfer to the Space Force, two pieces of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base – the Space Analysis Squadron and Counter-Space Analysis Squadron – will be turned over to Space Force to form the basis of a new National Space Intelligence Center (NASIC).

• NASIC, whose roots date back to analysis of a Soviet space launch in the 1950s, is tasked with identifying air, space, missile, and cyber threats facing the Air Force and Space Force. Threats run the gamut from projectile attacks in space or anti-satellite missiles from the ground, to signal jamming and other electronic interference, to intelligence-gathering on US assets in the cosmos.

• “The need for space domain intelligence continues to increase in the face of changing missions and emerging threats,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said in the Space Force’s planning guidance. “We will develop and expand shared strategies [with the Intelligence Community] … to detect and characterize threats, defeat attacks, and respond to aggression.”

• Former Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper raised questions about whether a space-focused center would unnecessarily duplicate work already underway at NASIC. “The National Space Intelligence Center will be an independent organization manned by highly trained space subject matter experts capable of providing quality intelligence support to space warfighters, senior leadership, and policymakers through independent and collaborative work with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center,” said Space Force spokesperson Col. Catie Hague.

• Still, it’s unclear when NASIC would come to fruition. “The Intelligence Community, through a deliberate analytical process, determined the need to establish the NASIC to provide dedicated foundational intelligence support to the USSF, senior leadership, and policy makers to increase unity of effort and effectiveness of space operations between the Department of Defense and the IC,” said Hague. “We need to think differently so we can drive things differently,” said NASIC boss Col. Maurizio D. Calabrese.

 

          Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond

The Space Force is planning its first steps toward a new intelligence center to make the great unknown a little less mysterious.

Two pieces of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, will form the basis of a new National Space Intelligence Center, Space Force spokesperson Col. Catie Hague said. Those units are the Space Analysis Squadron and Counter-Space Analysis Squadron.

The Space Force is taking custody of the two squadrons as part of the Department of the Air Force’s broad review of which units should join the new service. Air Force Magazine reported Nov. 10 that recent Space Force guidance included a plan for a National Space Intelligence Center.

     Col. Maurizio D. Calabrese

“Their designation for realignment into the Space Force is driven by their performing direct support to the space intelligence mission,” Hague said.

NASIC is tasked with offering the scientific and technical know-how to find and describe new air, space, missile,

                      Col. Catie Hague

and cyber threats facing the Air Force and Space Force. The services use that information to decide which technologies to pursue and tactics to adopt. Last year, the organization released an unclassified report, entitled “Competing in Space,” to discuss trends and challenges posed by foreign countries in that arena.

NASIC says its space roots date back to its analysis of a Soviet space launch in the 1950s. Now, some military space watchers argue a specialized NSIC would offer more comprehensive operational support to troops who need to know what challenges they face from global adversaries and objects on orbit.

Threats run the gamut from projectile attacks in space or anti-satellite missiles from the ground, to signal jamming and other electronic interference, to intelligence-gathering on U.S. assets in the cosmos.

“The need for space domain intelligence continues to increase in the face of changing missions and emerging threats,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said in the Space Force’s planning guidance. “We will develop and expand shared strategies [with the Intelligence Community] … to detect and characterize threats, defeat attacks, and respond to aggression.”

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Could New Microchip Boost US Military Power?

Article by Dave Makichuk                                   November 13, 2020                                    (asiatimes.com)

• A Massachusetts-based aerospace and defense company, Mercury Systems Inc. has developed a new radio frequency processing microchip that will give the Pentagon the ability to reduce the processing time for radar, electronic warfare and 5G communication applications. The technology comes at a time when microelectronics is the Defense Department’s top research-and-development priority, National Defense reported.

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning prototypes are being inserted into electronic warfare systems and will soon be in the hands of select operational units. “Every soldier is holding a device that is enabled by microelectronics,” said Tom Smelker, vice president and general manager for microsystems at Mercury Systems. “It’s imperative to keep our technology advantaged against our adversaries.”

• Advancements in hypersonics and stealth by adversarial countries (China, Russia) are driving the need for new radar capabilities, Smelker noted. Driving down processing times will help the Pentagon counter enemy electronic warfare systems. Increasing processing speeds “where we can process a lot of signals quickly and respond is going to really drive the electronic warfare market and really be a game changer for defense systems,” Smelker said. The microchip can enable real-time spectrum processing for 5G communications, which is expected to be up to 20 times as fast as 4G.

• In July, Mercury Systems received a US$11.7M order to deliver advanced digital RF Memory (DRFM) Jammers to the US Navy. The DRFM jammers are designed to be used in airborne pod-based solutions to validated electronic attack techniques and custom RF components supporting advanced electronic warfare test and training capabilities.

• Col. Philip J. Corso was a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and former head of the Foreign Technology Desk at the US Army’s Research & Development. In his groundbreaking 1997 book, The Day After Roswell, Corso claims to have distributed extraterrestrial technology to US corporations that were retrieved from UFO crashes, such as at Roswell in 1947. The corporations were permitted to register the patents for themselves. These reverse-engineered technologies include fiber optics, integrated circuits (microchips), Kevlar material and particle beams. The microchip went on to change the world.

 

In his groundbreaking 1997 book — The Day After Roswell — Col. Philip J. Corso claims that during his service he distributed to corporations foreign technology which was actually extraterrestrial in origin.

Corso, a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and former head of the Foreign

                          Tom Smelker

Technology Desk at the US Army’s Research & Development, claims that such artifacts were retrieved from UFO crashes, such as that which reportedly happened at Roswell in 1947.

According to Corso, the corporations involved were permitted to register the patents.

He also said that technologies such as fiber optics, integrated circuits (microchips), kevlar material and particle beams were all reverse engineered from extraterrestrial spacecraft.

                      Philip J. Corso

Whether you want to believe that or not, there is one thing we do know — the microchip has changed the world. Dramatically.

Case in point, a Massachusetts-based aerospace and defense company says it has developed a new radio frequency processing microchip that could give the Pentagon the ability to reduce the processing time for radar, electronic warfare and 5G communication applications, National Defense reported.

Mercury Systems Inc. recently introduced its RFS1080 RF systems package, a high-frequency processing compact chip.
The technology comes at a time when microelectronics is the Defense Department’s top research-and-development priority, National Defense reported.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) prototypes are being inserted into electronic warfare systems and will soon be in the hands of select operational units.

“Every soldier is holding a device that is enabled by microelectronics,” said Tom Smelker, vice president and general manager for microsystems at Mercury Systems.

“It’s imperative to keep our technology advantaged against our adversaries. How do we do that? Through microelectronics advancement.”

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A Conversation With US Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett

Article by Steve Forbes                                      November 13, 2020                                 (forbes.com)

• Space is a far cry from the peaceful region it was when we landed a man on the Moon over 50 years ago. China and Russia have become aggressive and space has become a theater of power politics. In response, the US created the Space Force almost a year ago, the first new military branch since the creation of the Air Force in 1947. It was Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett (pictured above) who oversaw the launch of Space Force.

• Barrett points out that the US and the global economy are totally dependent on satellites, especially the GPS. But as China has demonstrated, those satellites are vulnerable to attack. “It is a remarkable thing how completely dependent most Americans and people around the world are in our day-to-day lives on space (assets – i.e.: satellites),” said Barrett. She pointed out things that we take for granted that depend on GPS and other satellites. The time on our clocks are set by a satellite. Likewise our ATM machines and gas pumps. Weather predictions, crop monitoring, and environmental monitoring all depend on satellites.

• “[W]e built a glass house before we knew about stones, in that we have a vulnerable system,” says Barrett. “[W]e built it without consciousness of that vulnerability. So now … [w]e need to be able to protect that capability, and we need to deter others from attacking our GPS satellites. …[W] need to replace the current satellites with less vulnerable, more jam-resistant and protected satellites.”

• Forty people at a base in Colorado run the entire GPS system – free to the world. “I would put forward the GPS system… has had a bigger impact in a shorter time on all of mankind than any other invention in mankind’s time. I mean, think of fire, or the wheel, or the printing press — what would compete with the GPS system that has been fully operational just 25 years and is used by so many people around the world with so few people managing it?” asks Barrett. “It’s a remarkable reality of our time.”

• At age 13, Barrett become her family’s bread-winner for five siblings and her incapacitated mother, after the sudden death of her father. In the 1950’s, she trained as an astronaut in Kazakhstan and Russia where she learned the Russian language. She was the first civilian woman to land in an F-18 fighter aircraft on a moving aircraft carrier. She’s held executive positions in both the private and public sectors. She served as our ambassador to Finland, where she engaged in a war game dog fight in the air in an F-18 against the head of the Finnish Air Force. The joust was a draw.

• “[S]cience (and) technology, these are moving very rapidly right now, with artificial intelligence, machine learning, hypersonics, biological, nuclear, and chemical developments and training,” notes Barrett. “[W]e have to be fast and nimble… [a]nd that’s why the Space Force is being designed to be innovative, bold and agile.”

 

Almost a year ago, Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett oversaw the launch of a new branch of our military, the U.S. Space Force, the first new service since the creation of the Air Force itself in 1947.

In this sobering, eye-opening segment of What’s Ahead, Barrett persuasively explains the crucial need for a service totally focused on our needs in

There are currently 1,100 active and 2,600 inactive satellites orbiting the Earth.

space. Like it or not, space has become a cockpit of power politics, a far cry from the peaceful area it was when we landed a man on the moon over 50 years ago. China and Russia have become aggressive. Beijing, for instance, used a missile to blow up one of its satellites to show what it could do to the thousands of satellites that now populate space. Barrett describes two hair-raising, space-based incidents that occurred with Russia.

We are vulnerable. For example, the U.S. and the global economy are totally dependent on satellites, most especially the GPS, which is operated by the Space Force.

Barrett is the perfect person to get this mission off the ground. She trained in her late 50s as an astronaut in Kazakhstan and then in Russia. She had to learn Russian while simultaneously undergoing intense training. She was the first civilian woman to land in an F-18 fighter aircraft on a moving aircraft carrier. She has successfully held executive positions in both the private and public sectors. She served as our ambassador to Finland, where she engaged in a war game dog fight in the air in an F-18 against the head of the Finnish Air Force (the joust was a draw).

At age 13 Barrett had to become her family’s bread-winner—for five siblings and her incapacitated mother—after the sudden death of her father.
You’ll leave our conversation wanting to learn even more about the Space Force and about Barbara Barrett herself.

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Doubts Cast on 1967 Malmstrom AFB UFO Incident

Article by Ryan                                   November 6, 2020                                (topsecretwriters.com)

• In 2008, Robert L. Hastings published his book entitled: UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites, detailing the shutdown of ten nuclear missiles at the “Oscar-Flight” control center underground silos at Malmstrom Air Force Base near Great Falls, Montana on the morning of March 16, 1Post967. The same thing reportedly happened that same day at Echo-Launch missile control center twenty miles away.

• Hastings took most of his information from former Lieutenant Robert Salas, who was the Oscar Flight Launch control center commander at the time. Salas claimed that base security patrols on the surface above him phoned to report seeing UFOs hovering above one of the E-Flight silos at the Air Force base. Then an alarm sounded indicating that one of the Minuteman missiles had become ‘inoperable’. Then nine more missiles at Oscar Flight went inoperable as well.

• Salas acknowledged that members of the Echo-Flight missile and maintenance crew included Captain Eric Carlson and First Lieutenant Walt Figel. Salas indicated that they had also seen the UFOs directly above their base.

• James Carlson is the son of Captain Eric Carlson who was a maintenance officer at Echo-Flight. James Carlson contends that while ten of the Malmstrom missiles did shut down that day, both his father and retired Colonel Walt Figel denied seeing any UFOs. Hastings responded by saying that James’ father simply didn’t tell him the truth, and that James had never spoken with Figel at all. James Carlson responded to Hastings’ accusation by providing uncontroverted evidence of his correspondence with Figel. And James insisted that his father, Eric Carlson, “never lied to (him) about anything”. James Carlson states: “I can say with complete confidence today that both Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have knowingly mislead their entire audience into believing a lie they were well aware of in order to sell their books.”

• In his documented conversation with Walt Figel, James Carlson related that Figel had read Hasting’s book and he told the authors that “there are many inaccurate statements and events in the books”. He goes so far as to say that Salas was never involved with the Echo Flight, and that neither Echo-Flight nor Oscar-Flight at Malmstrom ever had any UFO incident “or any other equipment failures”. Figel confirmed that he doesn’t believe in UFOs, has no interest in Ufology, and he is not a fan of Salas, Hastings or the “whole UFO crowd”.

• James Carlson says that Hasting’s primary source for the UFOs over Echo-Flight base, according to Hasting’s own statements – is Walt Figel – and that Figel’s assertions are proof that Eric Carlson has lied about this event. James calls Hastings and Salas out accusing them of making knowingly false statements. James Carlson stated publicly that Hastings has said ‘over and over again’ that James’ assertions are lies, and that Hastings can easily prove this. And yet, Hastings has produced nothing to dispute James’ father Eric and Walt Figel’s account denying any UFO interference at Malmstrom.

• Walt Figel recalls that after the first missile silo shut down, he and Eric Carlson were ran maintenance checklists when the second missile shut down. Shortly thereafter, the other eight missiles shut down as well. Figel said that there was no “large gathering” of people on site that morning. No one from any UFO office in the Air Force ever interviewed or debriefed him or Eric Carlson. In fact, Figel said he didn’t even know that the Air Force had a UFO office that monitored “UFO sightings”. Back then, whenever someone mentioned UFOs, Figel just laughed it off as a joke.

• Then James Colson turned to his father, Eric Carlson’s account of the incident. “[T]here is no doubt in my mind that there were no reports of UFO’s and no incident at Oscar flight,” said Eric Carlson. “The report that we had lost ten missiles is accurate. It was not uncommon to lose one missile or even two to no-go status. It was unheard of to lose all ten.” Eric said that Figel never spoke to a security guard above them on the surface who told them about hovering UFOs, as Salas claims. And neither Carlson nor Figel were “visibly shaken” as Salas claims.

• Eric Carlson says that the “voice reporting system did report a guidance and control system malfunction”. But subsequent investigations by Boeing engineers turned up no explanation for what could have caused the shutdown, and some speculated that only a high-energy electromagnetic pulse could have entered the shielded system to cause the failure.

• Since the USAF frowned upon the reporting or even internal acknowledgement of UFO events or sightings, could it be that Air Force personnel would not provide an accurate accounting? “I never felt constrained in any way regarding reporting any unusual activities around missile sites,” said Eric Carlson. “In fact, I believe we were encouraged to report unusual incidents or events.”

• “The crew members of the 10th SMS were a tight group,” said Eric Carlson. “We were the first minuteman squadron activated and did a lot together. …At no time were UFOs mentioned to me.” Hastings has publicly questioned Eric Carlson’s memory, and stated that Eric Carlson told Hastings that his son, James, has suffered with “severe mental problems that have worried my family”, implying that James cannot be trusted. James says that he is “seriously considering a lawsuit directed at Robert Hastings for slander and defamation of character”.

 

                     Robert Hastings

According to Ufology researcher/writer Robert Hastings, on March 16, 1967, the appearance of UFOs at Echo-Flight nuclear missile facility allegedly shut down the missile silo. Robert Hasting’s information came from a man named Robert Salas who claimed he had witnessed the event.

Background of the Malmstrom AFB Missile/UFO Case

The son of one of the officers who was involved in the Echo flight incident, named James Carlson, took Hastings and Salas to task for those claims. Carlson contends that both his father and retired Col. Walt Figel, the other officer involved in the incident, both reported that there were no UFOs.

Hastings denied that James was ever in touch with the second witness, Col. Walt Figel. James Carlson provided us with records of his correspondence with Figel, which proved that Figel actually confirmed James Carlson’s interpretation of how the event actually occurred.

                   nuclear warhead

In March of 2010, James Carlson wrote:
Robert Hastings has made much of the fact that I have refused to interview his witness, Col. (Ret.) Walter Figel, Jr., regarding his recollections of the Echo Flight Incident on March 16, 1967.

I have, in fact, contacted Col. Figel, but didn’t feel that it would be very ethical to discuss in detail the event he recalls without securing first his complete cooperation, authority, and permission to do so. Having secured that this very evening, I am now prepared to discuss the matter in full. I can also add, very strongly, that my father never lied to me about anything, as Hastings claims, and that his recollections match exactly those of Col. Figel’s. I’ve “slandered and libeled” nobody, and I can say with complete confidence today that both Robert Hastings and Robert Salas have knowingly mislead their entire audience into believing a lie they were well aware of in order to sell their books.

James reported that Col Figel reported:
1. Col. Figel does not believe UFOs were “even remotely associated with the Echo Flight Incident, or any other equipment failures at Malmstrom.”

              Robert Salas

2. Col. Figel confirmed that he has no interest in Ufology and is not a fan of the UFO crowd.
3. Figel stated, “I have read both of their books. There are many inaccurate statements and events in the books. I have told them both that.”
4. He also stated that Salas was “never involved in any of them (the flights) at all.

The Figel Communications

In August of 2010, James learned that there were rumors floating about that his communications with Figel had never taken place. To set the record straight, James Carlson wrote the following commentary in a post on RealityUncovered (a now defunct UFO forum):
“I’ve discovered that there a lot of people out in the world who are convinced that I have not had any discussions with COL.(Ret.) Walter Figel, Jr., […] This is patently untrue and can be easily shown as such. Robert Hastings has knowingly published versions of this event that he has been told are false by both my father and Walt Figel, and his claims to the contrary are little more than silly attacks that are intended to delay the ruination of his and Robert Salas’ Echo Flight claims until after his pathetic little dog and pony show at the National Press Club in Washington, DC next month. The fact that he would do so at the expense of another man’s reputation doesn’t surprise me.

This back and forth between Hastings and Carlson set off a firestorm of debate on UFO forums at the time. Either Figel denied claims made by Hastings about the Malmstrom AFB UFO incident, or he didn’t.

Debate and drama aside, this was the one issue that needed to be confirmed or denied — because such a source denying Hastings claims cast doubt upon all of the rest of the claims about the incident.

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Defense Officials Highlight Space Force’s Achievements, Path Forward

Article by Charles Pope                                     October 29, 2020                                  (spaceforce.mil)

• On October 28th, Department of the Air Force Secretary, Barbara M. Barrett, described in stark terms how the shifting security environment in space is validating the nation’s new Space Force military branch. “Increasingly, free and open access to space is under threat. Though the United States will not be the aggressor in space, we will, we must, build a Space Force to defend our space interests,” Barrett said in a virtual address at Space Symposium 365, an influential gathering of space advocates from government, commerce and defense sponsored by the Space Foundation.

• Barrett was joined by Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, highlighting the mounting threats in space. “Last year, Russia maneuvered an ‘inspector satellite’ into an orbit threateningly close to a sensitive US satellite. And just two months ago, China launched and recovered a reusable space plane … suspiciously similar to our own space plane, the X-37B.”

• As space is becoming more crowded and contested, it became necessary to establish Space Force as “purpose built” to meet its missions and responsibilities in space. “We set out for this first year to invent the force. And I use that term ‘invent’ purposefully because we were given an opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper and not do business the way we’ve done in the past,” said Raymond.

• “On all fronts—on organization, on personnel, on doctrine, on budget—we have tried to think differently and be an incubator for change across the department, while delivering goodness and value to our nation,” Raymond continued. The goal is to form a “lean and agile” digital service that, while the smallest of all the military services, delivers on a much bigger scale. This demands a “forward leaning, forward looking strategy.”

• The result is a command structure that fights bloat and inefficiency in which the field command organizational structure has “collapsed two layers of command”. Efficiency is also displayed in an acquisition process “that delegates authority down to the lowest level, shortening the gap between approval authority and those who are actually doing the work,” said Raymond. “Big organizations are slow and we don’t want to be slow.”

• As Space Force approaches its first anniversary on December 20th, the service is evolving from establishing foundational elements of policies and doctrines to actually ‘inventing’ the force. Today, the Space Force numbers more than 2,000 men and women. At full strength, Space Force is expected to have about 16,000 people. The work ahead is challenging, with a relentless need to go fast. Other goals include revising the acquisition system and re-evaluating how information and hardware are classified. “We don’t deter (aggressor nations) from their negative behavior if they don’t know what our (military hardware) capabilities are,” said Barrett. “We reveal to deter, and conceal to win.”

• As the session came to a close, Barrett suggested that perhaps the biggest Space Force achievement to date is the public’s increasing understanding that space is important and it must be protected. “A year ago, Space Force was an idea,” said Barrett. “There’s been a big mindset change, and we’ve got to build on that … to achieve what people now agree needs to be done.”

 

         Gen. John “Jay” Raymond

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) — Department of the Air Force Secretary, Barbara M. Barrett, offered an upbeat assessment Oct. 28 of the Space Force’s development while also describing in stark terms how the shifting security environment in space is validating the nation’s newest branch of the military.

“Increasingly, free and open access to space is under threat. Though the United States will not be the aggressor in space, we will, we must, build a Space Force to defend our space interests,” Barrett said in a virtual address at Space Symposium 365, an influential gathering of space advocates from government, commerce and defense sponsored by the Space Foundation.

                  Barbara M. Barrett

Barrett, who was joined by Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, underscored that assertion by highlighting activities and threats in space that in the past had been given less emphasis.

“Last year, Russia maneuvered an ‘inspector satellite’ into an orbit threateningly close to a sensitive U.S. satellite. And just two months ago, China launched and recovered a reusable space plane … suspiciously similar to our own space plane, the X-37B.”

That environment, and the fact that space is becoming more crowded and contested, coincide with the creation of the first new and independent branch of the military since 1947. Together, Barrett and Raymond provided a detailed status report on the Space Force as it approaches its first anniversary and looks to the future.

“We set out for this first year to invent the force. And I use that term ‘invent’ purposefully because we were given an opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper and not do business the way we’ve done in the past,” Raymond said, describing the Space Force as “purpose built” to meet its missions and responsibilities in space.

“On all fronts—on organization, on personnel, on doctrine, on budget—we have tried to think differently and be an incubator for change across the department, while delivering goodness and value to our nation,” he said.

The goal, Raymond said, is to form a “lean and agile” digital service that, while the smallest of all the military services, delivers on a much bigger scale. This demands a “human capital development strategy … a forward leaning, forward looking strategy.”

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Space Force’s Gen. Raymond Charts Service’s Galactic Mission

Article by David Vergun                                  October 22, 2020                                 (defense.gov)

• “A war that begins or extends into space will be fought over great distances at tremendous speeds, posing significant challenges.” This is among the remarks that Space Force Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond (pictured above) provided at the virtual Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office Advanced Manufacturing Olympics on October 22nd. Noting the challenges of the ‘Great Power’ competition with Russia and China, Raymond outlined Space Force’s role in the National Defense Strategy. “Today, we’re entering a defining period for this country in space. Our nation is leading an expansive spirit of space exploration and experimentation.”

• Space Force’s area of responsibility extends from 100 kilometers above Earth’s surface to the outer edge of the universe. On-orbit capabilities move at speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour. Direct ascent and satellite missiles can reach low-Earth orbit in a matter of minutes. Electronic attack and directed-energy weapons move at the speed of light.

• Raymond said his guidance to Space Force’s military professionals is to be bold, innovative; use the outstanding talent the service has; and be lean, agile and fast. “Since establishment, we have slashed bureaucracy, delegated authority and enhanced accountability,” he said. Space Force is working with industry and academia to find the “disruptive innovators and incubators for change.” (‘Disruptive’ means innovations that are new, and not simply upgrades or retooling old technologies.) “Today our space capabilities are, by far, the best in the world,” said Raymond. “But they were built for an uncontested domain.”

• The U.S. needs a more defensible architecture, one that is equipped for offensive operations should deterrence fail. All of this capability has to come at an affordable price. Advanced manufacturing is rapidly transforming the way space capabilities are designed and delivered. Spacecraft fuel tanks, antennas, structures and engines are already being produced via techniques with materials uniquely tailored for space. “These technologies allow us to move rapidly from capability design to prototyping,” said Raymond.

• Raymond points out that America is a spacefaring nation and has long led military, civil and commercial space centers. “Today, we’re entering a defining period for this country in space. Our nation is leading an expansive spirit of space exploration and experimentation. And we are strongest when space is secure, stable and accessible to enterprising Americans for scientific, economic and security interests.”

 

The chief of space operations and commander of U.S. Space Command discussed challenges the U.S. is facing in space and the Space Force’s efforts to address them.

Space Force Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, provided remarks from the Pentagon today at the virtual Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office Advanced Manufacturing Olympics today.

“A war that begins or extends into space will be fought over great distances at tremendous speeds, posing significant challenges,” said Raymond, noting Great Power competition with Russia and China, outlined in the National Defense Strategy, which could pose future challenges.

Spacecom’s area of responsibility extends from 100 kilometers above Earth’s surface to the outer edge of the universe, he noted.

Today, we’re entering a defining period for this country in space. Our nation is leading an expansive spirit of space exploration and experimentation.”
Space Force Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, commander, U.S. Space Command

On-orbit capabilities move at speeds greater than 17,500 miles per hour. Direct ascent and satellite missiles can reach low-Earth orbit in a matter of minutes, Raymond said. Electronic attack and directed-energy weapons move at the speed of light.

In response, Raymond provided a galactic roadmap to what his service is doing. He said his guidance to Space Force’s space professionals at all levels is to be bold, innovative; use the outstanding talent the service has; and be lean, agile and fast.

“Since establishment, we have slashed bureaucracy, delegated authority and enhanced accountability,” he said.

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Space Force Swears in First Recruits

Article by Steve Beynon                                October 20, 2020                                (stripes.com)

• Space Force has roughly 2,000 “space professionals” serving in the military branch at the moment. While all of these members were transfers from the Air Force, the first seven enlisted Space Force recruits were sworn in Tuesday by Gen. David Thompson, the vice chief of space operations.

• “Today is an important milestone as we stand up the Space Force,” Thompson said in a statement. “Until now, we’ve been focused on building our initial ranks with transfers from the Air Force. With these new recruits, we begin to look to the future of our force by bringing in the right people directly to realize our aspirations of building a tech-savvy service that’s reflective of the nation we serve.”

• Among the recruits, two are women and five are men, two are Black and five are white. They are from Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia, and range in age from 18 to 31. All seven of the new recruits hold a 1C6 military occupation specialty — space systems operations, according to Lynn Kirby, a Space Force spokeswoman. The job focuses on detecting sea-launched ballistic missiles and tracking satellites to assisting in rocket launches and space flight operations.

• After being sworn in at Baltimore Military Entrance Processing Station at Fort Meade, Md., the Space Force recruits are bound for seven and a half weeks of Air Force basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio. As there are no Space Force recruiting stations yet, the Air Force is recruiting for both branches. Space Force hopes to recruit 300 enlisted service members in 2021, and along with Air Force transfers, they hope to have 6,500 members overall within a year.

• “We’re excited to see this happen,” said Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman, senior enlisted adviser for Space Force. “The Air Force team at basic military training has been outstanding and deserves most of the credit for making this happen quickly. To watch these first Space Force recruits take their oath for the first time is something I will never forget. They are the future, and it’s incredible to be in their service!”

 

    Gen. David Thompson

WASHINGTON — The first seven recruits for Space Force, the military’s newest service branch, were sworn in Tuesday by Gen. David Thompson, the vice chief of space operations.

 Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman

Space Force has roughly 2,000 “space professionals” serving. Until now, all the branch’s members were transfers from the Air Force. These new recruits are the first service members to enlist directly into Space Force.

“Today is an important milestone as we stand up the Space Force,” Thompson said in a statement. “Until now, we’ve been focused on building our initial ranks with transfers from the Air Force. With these new recruits, we begin to look to the future of our force by bringing in the right people directly to realize our aspirations of building a tech-savvy service that’s reflective of the nation we serve.”

The new recruits all hold the 1C6 military occupation specialty — space systems operations, according to Lynn Kirby, a Space Force spokeswoman. The job focuses on detecting sea-launched ballistic missiles and tracking satellites to assisting in rocket launches and space flight operations.

“Space Force leadership has previously stated diversity among its ranks is one of its priorities in standing up the new service,” according to a service statement.

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