Tag: China

Building a 21st-Century Space Force

January 2, 2021
ExoNews Editor

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.

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,

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.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

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.

Former Senator Harry Reid Says US Government is Covering Up UFOs

January 1, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by John Vibes December 19, 2020 (anewspost.com)

• Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (pictured above) is the Congressman credited with initiating the $22 million pentagon UFO research program, the ‘Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program’ in 2007. So he’s had an interest in the UFO topic for a long time. In the documentary titled “The Phenomenon,” Reid said that UFOs and potential alien activity have been covered up by the government for years. “Why the federal government all these years has covered up, put brake pads on everything, stopped it, I think it’s very, very bad for our country,” Reid says.

• When asked again about UFOs in a recent interview, Reid said, “Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But at least we know that thousands of people have reported these unusual occurrences over the decades. And as I have said, we cannot ignore what’s going on. Russia, China and France are all working on this. And I hope that we will pick up the ball and continue to work on this.”

• Regarding video footage taken of UFOs engaging with US Navy aircraft pilots, flying around 30,000 feet in the air at hypersonic speeds and showing no visible engines or exhaust plumes, Reid said, “I’m happy that the Pentagon now allows its pilots to report these unusual occurrences. In the past, pilots have been afraid to acknowledge them because it could hurt their promotions. So I think the federal government is doing better at recognizing it’s something we have to stay on top of. And we have better cameras now with the aircraft, and we’ve got pictures we didn’t have before.”

• Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced the formation of a new UAP Task Force to study UFOs after the military acknowledged that pilots were encountering aircraft that might not have been made by humans. Leaked photos recently posted by The Debrief, showing a metallic object hovering 35,000 over the Atlantic Ocean, off the eastern coast of the United States in 2018 were reportedly studied by the task force. The aircraft was an “unidentified silver cube-shaped object”. They suggested that the craft could be “non-human,” “alien” or other “intelligences of unknown origin.”

• As reported in December, retired Israeli general Haim Eshed claimed that the United States and Israeli governments have been in contact with extraterrestrials for many years, but have not revealed this information to the public because they feel that the average citizen is not ready to know.

In a new documentary titled “The Phenomenon,” Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that UFOs and

potential alien activity have been covered up by the government for years.

“Why the federal government all these years has covered up, put brake pads on everything, stopped it, I think it’s very, very bad for our country,” Reid said in the documentary.

The former Senate majority leader has taken an interest in the topic for a long time and even obtained $22 million in taxpayer dollars to study UFOs through the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program while he was in office.

In a recent interview responding to questions about his belief in UFOs, Reid said, “Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But at least we know that thousands of people have reported these unusual occurrences over the decades. And as I have said, we cannot ignore what’s going on. Russia, China and France are all working on this. And I hope that we will pick up the ball and continue to work on this.”

He also commented on the footage that was taken of UFOs engaging with US Navy aircraft pilots.

In the footage, the objects are flying around 30,000 feet in the air at hypersonic speeds and showing no visible engines or exhaust plumes typical of any known aircraft currently on Earth.

“I’m happy that the Pentagon now allows its pilots to report these unusual occurrences. In the past, pilots have been afraid to acknowledge them because it could hurt their promotions. So I think the federal government is doing better at recognizing it’s something we have to stay on top of. And we have better cameras now with the aircraft, and we’ve got pictures we didn’t have before,” Reid said.

1:07 minute video of Harry Reid on UFOs from ‘The Phenomenon’ (‘1091 Pictures’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China’s Chang’e 5 Successfully Lands in Mongolia with Moon Rocks

December 29, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article from Agence France-Presse December 17, 2020 (firstpost.com)

• The unmanned Chinese spacecraft, Chang’e-5, returned and parachuted safely to Earth on December 16th completing the first mission in four decades by any country to collect lunar samples. Scientists hope the samples will give insights into the Moon’s origins and volcanic activity. But the trip was also another high-profile chapter in China’s bid to become a space superpower. In images broadcast on state television, a Chinese flag was flown at the snow-covered grasslands of remote northern Mongolia where the capsule landed.

• The probe’s return “demonstrates the complete accomplishment of China’s first mission to collect samples from an extraterrestrial body,” China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) said. China is only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. While there on the Moon, it planted the Chinese flag.

• When the Chang’e 5 probe left the Moon, it marked the first time that China had achieved take-off from an extraterrestrial body (pictured above). It then linked up with the orbiting part of the spacecraft that brought the samples back to Earth. The Chang’e-5 collected 4.5 pounds of material in a vast, previously unexplored lava plain known as Oceanus Procellarum. The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the Moon samples will be delivered to a research team for analysis and study.

• China has spent billions of dollars on its military-run space program in an effort to catch up with the United States and Russia. China launched its first satellite in 1970. The country’s first human spaceflight was achieved in 2003. The Chinese landed a lunar rover on the far side of the Moon in January 2019.

• Thomas Zurbuchen, a top official at NASA’s science mission directorate, tweeted “The international science community celebrates your successful Chang’e 5 mission. These samples will help reveal secrets of our Earth-Moon system (and) gain new insights about the history of our solar system.” China will make some of the samples available to scientists in other countries.

• China’s future space goals include creating a powerful rocket capable of delivering payloads heavier than those NASA and private rocket firm SpaceX can handle, a lunar base, a permanently crewed space station, and a Mars rover.

**Chang’e 5 return module on the ground in Mongolia**

An unmanned Chinese spacecraft carrying rocks and soil from the Moon returned safely to Earth early

**Staff members examine the return module**

Thursday, completing the first mission in four decades to collect lunar samples. While scientists hope the samples will give insights into the Moon’s origins and volcanic activity on its surface, the trip was also another high-profile chapter in China’s bid to become a space superpower. In images broadcast on state television, a Chinese flag was flown at the snow-covered grasslands where the capsule landed in the country’s remote north.

The probe’s return “demonstrates the complete accomplishment of China’s first mission to collect samples from an extraterrestrial body,” China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

China is now only the third country to have retrieved samples from the Moon, following the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s.

Chang’e-5, named after a mythical Chinese Moon goddess, landed on the Moon on 1 December.

While there, it raised the Chinese flag, the country’s space agency said.

When the probe left the Moon two days later, that marked the first time that China had achieved take-off from an extraterrestrial body, it said.
The module then went through the delicate operation of linking up in lunar orbit with the part of the spacecraft that brought the samples back to Earth.

The Chang’e-5 mission was to collect two kilograms (4.5 pounds) of material in an area known as Oceanus Procellarum — or “Ocean of Storms” — a vast, previously unexplored lava plain, according to the science journal Nature.

The capsule will be airlifted to Beijing for opening, and the Moon samples will be delivered to a research team for analysis and study, China’s space agency said.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

What Happens to Space Force After Trump?

December 25, 2020
ExoNews Editor

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

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Thailand’s Space Program Drifts Away From China’s Orbit

December 23, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Hadrien T. Saperstein December 12, 2020 (eastasiaforum.org)

• Traditionally, Thailand has maintained a ‘multi-directional diplomacy’ – working with many countries and each of the superpowers without bias. But since the 2014 military coup in Thailand, and the increasing tensions between the United States and China which began during the Obama administration and escalated under President Trump, the Thai military and private technology sector has advanced its cooperation with China, while its space agency has maintained a multi-directional approach.

• The Royal Thai Armed Forces has advanced its defense cooperation with China through military-naval exercises and procurements. The Thai private sector has accepted bids on 5G wireless network services development from two Chinese companies — ZTE and Huawei — and accepted Chinese investment projects in Thailand such as the China-ASEAN Beidou Technological City.

• Yet Sino-Thai cooperation does not presently extend to the same degree in the development of space technology. The Royal Thai Air Force, Space Operations Center, and its space agency, ‘Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency’ – responsible for satellite technology development – show a preference for non-Chinese technology and launch service providers. The Thai Air Force procured its CubeSat platforms and first two military satellites from a Dutch company. The first satellite was launched from a French rocket in French Guiana, and the latter is scheduled for launch through the Soyuz rocket in Russia. The Thai space agency is also working with the European aerospace company ‘Airbus’ to replace a low Earth orbit observation satellite system.

• Officials working on the latest draft of Thailand’s National Space Act say it will focus on a ‘NewSpace agenda’, focusing on domestic space technology and sustainable economic development. They say that there is little chance that the Chinese space industry’s technology will receive any competitive advantage. If anything, both the Thai Air Force and Space Program tend to reject Chinese technology in favor of Western technology. The Thai Air Force has laid the groundwork for a long-term relationship with the US by signing a space agreement with the United States Strategic Command.

• Thailand’s Space Agency is promoting an annual ‘Astronaut’s Scholarship Program’ in which three Thai students are selected to study at NASA in America. NASA is also working with the Royal Thai Government Pollution Control Department to create a web application to help mitigate the impact of air pollution in Thailand.

• Recent legislation has given foreign satellite operators permission to provide domestic services in Thailand. There are concerns that the Thai Space Program’s newly appointed Executive Director, Pakorn Apaphant, will shift towards a newfound acceptance of Chinese satellite technology and launch service providers. Colonel Setthapong Mali Suwan, Vice-Chairman of Telecommunications for Thailand’s Ministry of the Digital Economy and Society, publicly expressed this concern several weeks ago when he stated that Thailand should maintain its traditional balancing role in competition over space affairs between great powers or else it will be required to follow policies dictated by other states. Colonel Setthapong said that there is ‘a need to urgently promote the development of the country’s own space technology’ to prevent a loss of bargaining power.

Since the 2014 military coup in Thailand, the Royal Thai Armed Forces has ‘advanced by leaps and bounds’ in its defence

cooperation with China through tri-service bilateral exercises and military-naval procurements. This characterisation also applies beyond defence. In the private sector, Advanced Info Service has been accepting bids on 5G development from two Chinese companies — ZTE and Huawei — and Chinese investment projects in Thailand like the China-ASEAN Beidou Technological City.

The lasting economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intensifying pro-democracy protest movement will reaffirm the contemporary trendline in Sino-Thai defence cooperation. This cooperation will occur for the short-to-medium risk horizon and for the medium-to-long risk horizon.

Yet Sino-Thai defence cooperation does not presently extend to the same degree in the development of space technology. This is indicated by the latest developments from the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) Space Operation Center in partnership with the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) — a Thai space agency responsible for remote sensing and satellite technology development.

These organisations’ space procurements increasingly show a preference for non-Chinese technology and launch service providers. The RTAF procured its NAPA-1 and NAPA-2 U6 CubeSat platforms — Thailand’s first and second military satellites — from Innovative Solutions in Space of the

**Thai-NASA “Space Camp” Astronaut Scholarship Program**

Netherlands. While the first satellite was launched through the French Arianespace Vega rocket at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, the latter is scheduled for launch through the Soyuz rocket at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. GISTDA also signed a contract with Airbus for the THEOS-2 satellite, a second generation low Earth orbit (LEO) observation system that will replace the THEOS-1 satellite.

Relevant officials in the latest round of draft revision on the forthcoming National Space Act for the National Space Policy Committee have said off the record that there is little indication that either China’s space industry or a domestic lobby will receive a comprehensive edge. It seems that the drafters sought to uphold Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwon’s ‘NewSpace’ agenda to focus on domestic space technology and sustainable economic development.

Despite also confirming that the RTAF sent representatives to participate in the latest round, its influence amid the process remains unclear. The RTAF’s most explicit articulation of the space domain is found in the White Paper 2020. The document’s ‘10-Year Requirement Plan [2020-2030]’ section conveys its intent to invest in space capabilities and space situational awareness. But it does not show any signs of a shift towards procuring Chinese technology.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China vs the US and the Risks of a Space Rivalry

December 15, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Sarah Zheng November 29, 2020 (scmp.com)

• The recent voyage of China’s Chang’e 5 lunar spacecraft to bring Moon samples back to Earth was more than a signal of China’s ambitions to US military officials. To Space Force General John Raymond it represented a threat that China and Russia pose to American access to space. “The two countries seek to stop US access to space, Raymond posted on the DoD website. “[T]hey are developing capabilities that would negate the US advantage.” Raymond is calling for the US to work more closely with its allies, to “stay ahead of the growing threat.”

• Raymond’s approach would continue to deny China access to American technology and ensure a clear separation between the US and Chinese space programs. But Matthew Daniels, a senior fellow at Georgetown University, notes that the division between the US and Chinese space programs is due to US barriers, resulting in almost no direct links between the two countries in space technology research, development and operations. The US is ahead in technologies such as reusable launch systems and satellite manufacturing, but China is narrowing the gap. So cutting the US off from Chinese advancements in technology could come at a cost for the United States and miss an opportunity to reduce the risk of political conflict. So should the US cooperate with China in some areas or continue to freeze it out?

• Further limits on the transfer of space technologies to China could be carried out with still more barriers to US commercial space technology transfers, extra limits on US civil space engagement and coordination, diplomatic pressure on third parties working with both the US and China, and visa restrictions on Chinese aerospace researchers. In the long term, however, it could encourage China to establish a stronger space technology ecosystem of its own. China would then have more of a chance to build alternative international coalitions, including by drawing in Europe and Russia.

• “The current separation will probably continue to slow China in the near term,” says Daniels. “[T]his effect will diminish, however, and it may help grow indigenous supply chains and markets in China.” The US could thereby lose its international leadership in space, while missing a chance to obtain strategic information about China’s space activities and reducing the opportunity to manage crises and conflict.”

When the Chang’e 5 lunar spacecraft lifted off from a launch pad in southern China this week it was not just a signal of China’s ambitions to bring moon samples back to Earth. Half a world away in the United States, the launch was a sign to US Space Force General John Raymond of the threat that China – together with Russia – poses in blocking American access to space.

“The two countries seek to stop US access to space, and they are developing capabilities that would negate the US advantage,” he said in an interview published on the US Department of Defence website.

Raymond called for the US to work more closely with allies, to “stay ahead of the growing threat” from China.

It is an approach that would continue to deny China access to American technology and ensure a clear separation between the US and Chinese space programmes.

But some observers say that this could come at a cost for the United States and miss an opportunity to reduce the risk of conflict.
The two space programmes are already “substantially separated”, according to Matthew Daniels, a senior expert for the Office of the US Secretary of Defence and a senior fellow at Georgetown University.

In a report published in October published by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Daniels said the division was due mostly to US barriers, resulting in almost no direct links between the two countries in space technology research, development and operations.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

America’s ‘Star Wars’ Against China

December 5, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Tom Fowdy November 25, 2020 (news.cgtn.com)

• The Trump administration has announced that it is adding an additional 89 Chinese aerospace companies to the list of those prohibited from acquiring US-made components and technologies without approval, linking them to a “national security threat.” The obvious goal is protectionism – to stifle China’s own development in the aerospace sector, forcing China to rely on US firms such as Boeing.

• The Trump administration has made the decision that China represents a competitor in space exploration and technology, and that Beijing wants to militarize outer space. As China sends its Chang’e-5 lunar module to the Moon, Trump is trying to undermine China’s entire aerospace industry to gain the upper hand.

• In 2018, Trump created Space Force “to protect US and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force” including satellite-orientated warfare and missile technology. Is this not the militarization of outer space contravening the 1967 Outer Space Treaty? The United States wants to gain unchallenged military hegemony over the entire world and sees China as a “competitor.”

• The US defense community claims that it is Beijing that is militarizing space as it works on its own satellite and exploration programs. As an article from Defense News claims, “China wants to dominate space, and the US must take countermeasures.” Beijing, however, claims to uphold the consensus that space is for peaceful development only.

• In December 2019, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang condemned the US Space Force, stating, “The relevant US actions are a serious violation of the international consensus on the peaceful use of outer space, undermine global strategic balance and stability, and pose a direct threat to outer space peace and security.”

• The “China threat” narrative is about maintaining US strategic supremacy as the only major player in outer space. This view predates Trump, with the Obama administration banning coordination of China’s national space agency with NASA in 2011, and excluding China from participating in the international space station.

• More attention should be focused on America’s emerging “Star Wars” against China. Space Force is a new strategic frontier for American militarization, aimed at competitor states such as China, in contravention of international law. The development of outer space exploration and technology ought only to be for peaceful purposes for “the common heritage of mankind.”

• [Editor’s Note] Can the Chinese Communist Party be trusted to be peaceful? The CCP has come under the control of the Deep State and President Trump knows this. As the white hat Alliance is in the process of dismantling the Deep State – in America, in China, and everywhere else in the world – the Deep State would like nothing better than to trigger a global war in order to maintain its long-standing global domination. The Deep State-controlled CCP is desperate as the Chinese people, and even President Xi Jinping himself, see the Chinese government’s corruption and are turning against the established Communist Party. So as things come to a head now in this five-dimensional chess game, Trump and the US military may have a very good reason to keep the pressure on Beijing.

A few days ago the news was announced that the Trump administration was preparing to add an additional 89 Chinese companies to the commerce department’s entity list, prohibiting them from acquiring U.S.-made components and technologies without approval and claiming they are linked to the military and represent a “national security threat.” The firms were noticeably all in the aerospace industry, with an obvious goal of attempting to stifle China’s own development in this sector and force Beijing to be reliant on U.S. firms such as Boeing. Given the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) (a firm being listed) is launching its own domestically made alternative to the 737, the C919, next year, it is difficult to see the move in any other light. It’s obvious protectionism.

But there is another angle, a strategic one too, of outer space. The Trump administration has long made a decision that China represents a competitor in space exploration and technology, and claimed falsely that Beijing seeks to militarize the cosmos as a pretext for their own militarization plans, contravening the 1967 Outer Space Treaty which pledges that space and “celestial bodies” may only be used for “peaceful development” and not military means.

In doing so, the administration has over the past few years put in place plans to transform space into the newest “strategic frontier” and now, as China launches Chang’e-5, seeks to undermine China’s entire aerospace industry to gain the upper hand. As a result, this is a sphere worth watching.
The U.S. “Space Force”.

In 2018, Trump announced the creation of a “U.S. space force” or “space command.” Although the idea was ridiculed for sounding like something out of a science fiction novel, it is, in fact, something serious. The strategic objectives of such a command is, as is stated on its website, “to protect U.S. and allied interests in space and to provide space capabilities to the joint force.” That is the militarization of outer space. This includes things such as satellite-orientated warfare and missile technology. The United States wants to gain the upper hand in this sphere in order to maintain unchallenged military hegemony over the entire world and with that viewpoint comes the designation of China as a “competitor.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Air Force Secretary Barrett Calls for Clean-Up of Space Debris

November 28, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Frank Wolfe November 16, 2020 (defensedaily.com)

• On November 16th, Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett called on industry to help the US Space Force with cleaning up space debris to help avoid collisions in space. Barrett told the ASCEND 2020 forum sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “What we’d like to see in the future is not just tracking, but cleaning up that litter–figuring ways how do you consolidate, how do you get that hazard–17,500 miles per hour rocketing through space, it is a great hazard.”

• “Just think about the GPS system alone,” Barrett said. “Consider how much we depend upon the GPS system. It’s free and accessible to everyone globally, and it’s operated by just eight to 10 people on a shift. So a total of 40 people operate this extraordinary system upon which so much of our current economy depends. It’s broadly used. It’s transformative, but it’s fragile. So that space debris is really a danger to things like our GPS systems. We’ve got to replace those. We’ve got to minimize their vulnerability, and we have to have, as the Space Force will do, space capabilities that will deter others from doing damage to that system upon which so much depends.”

• According to NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO), there are 23,000 large pieces of debris greater than 10 cm tracked by the Space Force’s US Space Surveillance Network. Prior to 2007, the principal source of debris was from explosions of launch vehicle upper stages and spacecraft. But the intentional destruction of a weather satellite by China in 2007 and the accidental collision of the American communications satellite with a retired Russian spacecraft in 2009 greatly increased the number of large debris in orbit and now represent one-third of all cataloged orbital debris.

• US Space Command’s 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg AFB, California monitors 3,200 active satellites for close approaches with approximately 24,000 pieces of space debris, and issues an average of 15 high-interest warnings for active near-Earth satellites, and ten high-interest warnings for active deep-space satellites, every day.

• NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recently suggested that nations that damage satellites are risking a legal challenge under the 1972 Liability Convention to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. In the only claim under the Liability Convention, the Soviet Union paid Canada $2 million after a Soviet nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellite crashed in western Canada in 1978, scattering radioactive debris.

• The US Space Force and the UK are working together to reduce orbiting space debris. Last year, the UK became the first nation to join the US-led Operation Olympic Defender to deter “hostile” space actors, such as China, Russia, and Iran, and decrease the spread of on-orbit space debris. The White House has noted that private companies are developing ‘on-orbit robotic operations’ for active space debris removal. Last March, Space Force chief General John ‘Jay’ Raymond announced that Lockheed Martin‘s ‘Space Fence radar system’ had achieved initial operational capability track smaller objects in low Earth orbit and in Geostationary orbit.

Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett on Nov. 16 called on industry to help the Air Force and U.S. Space Force with cleaning up space debris to help avoid collisions in space.

“For a long time, the United States Air Force has been tracking space debris, but there’s a lot more to be done,”

**progression of orbiting space debris**

Barrett told the ASCEND 2020 forum sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). “What we’d like to see in the future is not just tracking, but cleaning up that litter–figuring ways how do you consolidate, how do you get that hazard–17,500 miles per hour rocketing through space, it is a great hazard.”

“Just think about the GPS system alone,” she said. “Consider how much we depend upon the GPS system. It’ s free and accessible to everyone globally, and it’s operated by just eight to 10 people on a shift. So a total of 40 people operate this

extraordinary system upon which so much of our current economy depends. It’s broadly used. It’s transformative, but it’s fragile. So that space debris is really a danger to things like our GPS systems. We’ve got to replace those. We’ve got to minimize their vulnerability, and we have to have, as the Space Force

will do, space capabilities that will deter others from doing damage to that system upon which so much depends.”

Barrett said that processes and doctrines to outline rules of the road in space and aid space traffic management are underway.
According to NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office (ODPO), there are 23,000 large pieces of debris greater than 10 cm tracked by the Space Force’s U.S. Space Surveillance Network.

“Prior to 2007, the principal source of debris was from explosions of launch vehicle upper stages and spacecraft,” per ODPO. “The intentional destruction of the Fengyun-1C weather satellite by China in 2007 and the accidental collision of the American communications satellite, Iridium-33, and the retired Russian spacecraft, Cosmos-2251, in 2009 greatly increased the number of large debris in orbit and now represent one-third of all cataloged orbital debris.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China’s Chang’e 5 Mission to Collect First Moon Samples Since 1976

November 27, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Mike Wall November 23, 2020 (space.com)

• On November 23rd, China’s robotic Chang’e 5 mission launched to land on the Moon and retrieve lunar rocks, and bring them back to Earth in mid-December. The last time Moon rocks were brought back to Earth was the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976. Chinese officials have been characteristically vague about the details.

• The Chang’e 5’s will arrive in lunar orbit around November 28th, then send two of its four modules — a lander and an ascent vehicle — to the lunar surface a day or so later. The landing target is the Mons Rumker area of the Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”) volcanic plain. This area has been extensively explored by a number of other missions, including NASA’s Apollo 12 in 1969.

• Over the course of two weeks, the stationary lander will use cameras, ground-penetrating radar, and a spectrometer to study the area. It will collect about 4.4 lbs of lunar material, some of which will be dug from up to 6.5 feet underground. The timeline is tight given that it needs to accomplish its objectives before the sun light turns to shadow in two weeks, as the lander is solar powered.

• The rocks at Mons Rumker were formed 1.2 billion years ago. The 842 lbs of Moon rocks brought home by the Apollo astronauts between 1969 and 1972 are considerably older, providing a window in the deeper lunar past. Chang’e 5 “will help scientists understand what was happening in the more recent past of the Moon’s history.

• The Chang’e 5 lander will transfer its rock samples to the ascent vehicle, which will launch them to lunar orbit for a meetup with the other two mission elements, a service module and an attached Earth-return capsule. Loaded into the return capsule, the rocks will be brought back to Earth by December 16th or 17th. Rather than relying on strong heat shielding to blast through the atmosphere on re-entry, as the Apollo capsules did, Chang’e 5 will perform a ‘skip reentry,’ bouncing off the atmosphere once to slow down before plummeting to a landing in Inner Mongolia.

• Chang’e 5 is the sixth mission in the Chang’e program of robotic lunar exploration, which is named after a moon goddess in Chinese mythology. China launched the Chang’e 1 and Chang’e 2 orbiters in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the Chang’e 3 lander-rover duo touched down on the Moon’s near side in December 2013. The Chang’e 5T1 mission launched a prototype return capsule traveling around the Moon in October 2014, to help prepare for Chang’e 5. And in January 2019, Chang’e 4 became the first mission ever to ace a soft landing on the Moon’s far side. Chang’e 4’s lander and rover are still going strong, as is the Chang’e 3 lander. (The Chang’e 3 rover died after 31 months of work on the lunar surface.)

• Chang’e 5 is part of a recent surge in ‘sample-return missions’. On December 6th, for example, pieces of the asteroid Ryugu collected by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission are scheduled to touch down in Australia. And NASA’s OSIRIS-REx probe gathered a hefty sample of the asteroid Bennu last month. That material will return to Earth in September 2023.

The first lunar sample-return mission since the 1970s is underway.

China’s robotic Chang’e 5 mission launched today (Nov. 23) from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, rising into the sky atop a Long March 5 rocket at about 3:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT; 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 24 local time in Hainan).

If all goes according to plan, the bold and complex Chang’e 5 will haul pristine moon samples back to Earth in mid-December — something that hasn’t been done since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 mission in 1976.

Chang’e 5’s short mission will be action-packed. The 18,100-lb. (8,200 kilograms) spacecraft will likely arrive in lunar orbit around Nov. 28, then send two of its four modules — a lander and an ascent vehicle — to the lunar surface a day or so later. (Chinese officials have been characteristically vague about Chang’e 5’s details, so timeline information has been pieced together from various sources by China space watchers like Space News’ Andrew Jones, who also provides articles for Space.com.)

The mission will land in the Mons Rumker area of the huge volcanic plain Oceanus Procellarum (“Ocean of Storms”), portions of which have been explored by a number of other surface missions, including NASA’s Apollo 12 in 1969.

The stationary lander will study its environs with cameras, ground-penetrating radar and a spectrometer. But its main job is to snag about 4.4 lbs. (2 kg) of lunar material, some of which will be dug from up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) underground. This work will be done over the course of two weeks, or one lunar day — a firm deadline, given that the Chang’e 5 lander is solar-powered and won’t be able to operate once night falls at its location.

Mons Rumker harbors rocks that formed just 1.2 billion years ago, meaning that Chang’e 5 “will help scientists understand what was happening late in the moon’s history, as well as how Earth and the solar system evolved,” as the nonprofit Planetary Society noted its description of the mission. (The 842 lbs., or 382 kg, of moon rocks brought home by the Apollo astronauts between 1969 and 1972 are considerably older, providing a window in the deeper lunar past.)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

A Conversation With US Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett

November 21, 2020
ExoNews Editor

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.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Biden Not Seen as a Threat to Space Force

November 17, 2020
ExoNews Editor

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

• President-elect Joe Biden has said he plans to reverse a number of Trump policies but he is expected to continue to support the US Space Force. “If Space Force did not already exist, I think Joe Biden probably would not create it. However I think it’s pretty unlikely that Biden would seriously try to eliminate Space Force at this point,” said David Burbach, associate professor of national security affairs at the US Naval War College. Burbach’s views are his own and he does not speak for the government.

• The Space Force is enshrined in Title 10 of the U.S. Code as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed services so any move to dismantle it would require congressional legislation. And the Republicans are poised to control the Senate. “No way the Republican Senate would go along with undoing that accomplishment for Trump,” said Burbach. “Things get institutionalized pretty quickly in Washington,” Burbach said. “I think it would be very difficult to roll back Space Force. We now have officers and enlisted personnel in the Space Force even if they haven’t figured out what to call them.”

• Burbach noted that there is broad consensus in Washington that space is a “contested domain.” Many Democrats agree that the Pentagon needed to do more to address threats to US space assets. “Space Force is not the solution that Democrats would have preferred but given that it’s been done, I think the focus will be on trying to make it work effectively.”

• Joshua Huminski, director of the Mike Rogers Center for Intelligence and Global Affairs’ National Security Space Program, said it is too early to tell how President Biden will view Space Force. “I think the important thing to consider is that the intellectual foundation of the Space Force existed well before President Trump — the need for a separate culture, space as a warfighting domain, and the threat from Russia and China on orbit. That foundation, those needs, and the mission and threat will continue on and perhaps accelerate into President Biden’s administration, so you may see more constancy than immediate change.” “President Biden can set the tone, for sure,” says Huminski. “But Congress will ultimately have the final say.”

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force was a signature initiative of the Trump administration. President-elect Joe Biden has said he plans to reverse a number of Trump policies but he is expected to continue to support the U.S. Space Force, experts told SpaceNews.

“If Space Force did not already exist, I think Joe Biden probably would not create it. However I think it’s pretty

unlikely that Biden would seriously try to eliminate Space Force at this point,” said David Burbach, associate professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College.

Burbach said his views are his own and he does not speak for the government.

The Space Force is enshrined in Title 10 of the U.S. Code as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed services so any move to dismantle it would require congressional legislation.

With Republicans poised to control the Senate, that would be a non-starter, Burbach said. “No way the Republican Senate would go along with undoing that accomplishment for Trump.”

Burbach said the Space Force would not be targeted even if Democrats gained control of the Senate. “Things get institutionalized pretty quickly in Washington,” he said. “I think it would be very difficult to roll back Space Force. We now have officers and enlisted personnel in the Space Force even if they haven’t figured out what to call them.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Defense Officials Highlight Space Force’s Achievements, Path Forward

November 13, 2020
ExoNews Editor

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.”

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.

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.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Space Force Sets Priorities to Prevent Future Space War & Maintain U.S. Dominance

November 11, 2020
Michael Salla

On November 9, General Jay Raymond, the U.S. Space Force’s Chief of Space Operations, released a foundational document outlining the new military service’s priorities and management practices for the U.S. to remain ahead of its major adversaries in space. The 12-page document, “Chief of Space Operations Planning Guidance” (CPG), makes clear that space is now viewed as a “warfighting domain”, and that in order for the U.S. to maintain dominance and deter hostile actions, it needs to take immediate action to integrate, equip, train, and organize its military space assets.

General Raymond warns about the danger posed by major adversaries, such as China and Russia, that have developed sophisticated anti-satellite technologies capable of disrupting or destroying the U.S. satellite grid. Such a possibility was first outlined in a January 11, 2001, Space Commission Report, chaired by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, warning about a “Space Pearl Harbor” and the need for a new military service to prevent it

General Raymond begins his Planning Guidance document by explaining how space has shifted from a benign security environment to one where warfare can be expected in the near future:

The Space Force has a mandate in national strategy, policy, and law to be both pathfinder and protector of America’s interests as a space-faring nation. The convergence of proliferating technology and competitive interests has forever re-defined space from a benign domain to one in which we anticipate all aspects of human endeavor – including warfare. The return of peer, great power competitors has dramatically changed the global security environment and space is central to that change (CPG, p.1).

According to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, space was considered to be a peaceful domain for scientific exploration. No country was allowed to station military forces or weapons in space, the Moon, or other celestial objects. General Raymond is here acknowledging that recent developments such as Russia and China’s deployment of a range of anti-satellite weapons systems mean that space is no longer a benign environment, and that preventative military measures need to be taken.

He goes on to explain how the Space Force can prepare for future warfare in space:

The United States Space Force is called to organize, train, equip, and present forces capable of preserving America’s freedom of action in space; enabling Joint Force lethality and effectiveness; and providing independent options – in, from, and to space… While we will extend and defend America’s competitive advantage in peacetime, the ultimate measure of our readiness is the ability to prevail should war initiate in, or extend to space (CPG, p.1).

Deterring major adversaries from launching military hostilities is explained as a key priority in order not to lose U.S. space dominance:

America needs a Space Force able to deter conflict, and if deterrence fails, prevail should war initiate in or extend to space. Space capabilities enhance the potency of all other military forces. Our National leadership requires resilient and assured military space capabilities for sustained advantage in peaceful competition, or decisive advantage in conflict or war….

The change in the geo-strategic and operating environment that compelled the creation of the Space Force means that many of our legacy space capabilities must be reevaluated for ongoing relevance. Let me be clear – if we do not adapt to outpace aggressive competitors, we will likely lose our peacetime and warfighting advantage in space (CPG, p.2).

China and Russia are both viewed as the primary adversaries capable of militarily destroying the U.S. satellite grid in a future war or in a surprise attack, a Space Pearl Harbor:

Chinese and Russian military doctrines indicate they view space as essential to modern warfare, and view counterspace capabilities as potent means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness. Modern Chinese and Russian space surveillance networks are capable of finding, tracking, and characterizing satellites in all earth orbits. Both Russia and China are developing systems using the electro-magnetic spectrum, cyberspace, directed energy, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based antisatellite missiles to destroy space-based assets (CPG, p.2).

From the perspective of China’s Communist Party leadership, as I explain in Rise of the Red Dragon (2020), China is merely catching up to what the United States (and Russia) had already secretly developed and deployed in space decades earlier.

Not surprisingly, General Raymond emphasizes developing breakthrough space technologies in dealing with potential military conflict:

Space Force will use strategic investments to cultivate a strong, diverse and competitive American space industrial base. Civil and commercial developments that pave the way for exploration and commercialization beyond near-Earth orbit will both generate technology that benefits the USSF and require an order of magnitude expansion of our ability to sense, communicate and act to protect and defend American interests in cis-lunar space and beyond. (CPG, p.9).

General Raymond is here suggesting major aerospace defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Boeing, etc., will play vital roles in developing breakthrough space technologies that can be used to deter adversaries in space. While development of breakthrough space technologies is framed as a future need, the reality is that such technologies have already been secretly developed by major aerospace companies. The produced technologies have been subsequently sold off to different “customers” such as U.S. military commands, intelligence agencies, and major allies for decades.

Extensive testimonial and documentary evidence is presented in my Secret Space Programs book series showing how the U.S. Air Force and the Navy developed separate secret space programs in response to earlier developments in Nazi Germany that carried over into the post-war era. As a result of decades-long cooperation with major corporations in reverse engineering captured Nazi and alien spacecraft, advanced anti-gravity spacecraft and electromagnetic weapons systems were developed and deployed by different entities within the US national security establishment.

The critical requirement for gaining access to such breakthrough aerospace technologies by a U.S. military service, combatant command, or intelligence agency was to demonstrate a clear need for such advanced technologies for completing space-related missions.

As long as space was considered a benign environment, then this favored the acquisition of reverse-engineered technologies by intelligence services or special operations groups that used space for intelligence gathering or small-scale covert operations. The bulk of breakthrough aerospace technologies would consequently go to defense intelligence entities such as the National Reconnaissance Office, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and covert groups such as Air Force Special Operations and Special Operations Command.

Even U.S. Space Command (1985-2002) and Air Force Space Command (1982-2019) would be limited in how much access they had to such breakthrough “black world” technologies as acknowledged in a comprehensive 1996 Intelligence Commission report to the US Congress:

Two organizations within the Department of Defense manage space assets: the U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM) is responsible for so-called “white world” satellites (i.e., satellites that are publicly acknowledged) for military programs, and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) deals with “black world” (i.e., classified) satellites for intelligence programs. SPACECOM launches and operates satellites for military communication, weather and navigation, which are designed and procured by the military services. NRO designs, acquires, launches, and operates classified reconnaissance satellites.

The Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and the unified combatant commanders, with the notable exceptions of Special Operations Command and (Air Force) Space Command, were largely denied access. This was because major military space operations were deemed unnecessary due to space being considered a benign environment, and such operations violating international space law.

All that changes with General Raymond’s Planning Guidance document, which expands upon President Donald Trump’s earlier Space Policy Directive 4 which made space a hostile environment requiring defense of America’s space assets. Space is now considered a war fighting domain where large scale military operations may be necessary to protect the U.S. satellite grid. This means that breakthrough corporate technologies that previously were denied to the different military services due to their high-level security classification and international space law constraints, are now permitted either through Space Force (which incorporates the former USAF Space Command) or U.S. Space Command, both of which were respectively created or reconstituted in 2019.

General Raymond emphasizes the haste with which these advanced technologies should now be incorporated into Space Force and for immediate action to be taken to protect the U.S. satellite grid:

The strategic environment demands we act boldly now to build a Service designed to act with speed and decisiveness to ensure the United States maintains its advantage in the domain….This CPG identifies those characteristics and capabilities within the force that must evolve. We do not have the luxury of delay for further analysis. (CPG, p.9).

Raymond’s thinking is mirrored in recent statements by the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, Barbara Barret, calling for declassifying many space technologies kept hidden from the general public and even from different elements of the Air Force itself. On December 7, 2019, she declared:

Declassifying some of what is currently held in secure vaults would be a good idea… You would have to be careful about what we declassify, but there is much more classified than what needs to be.

In conclusion, redefining space as a warfighting domain means that formerly highly classified technologies developed by corporations and military laboratories for exclusive use by the intelligence and special operations communities will be acquired by Space Force. These advanced space technologies will be made available for large scale deployment in future space combat operations.

The release of General Raymond’s “Planning Guidance” document makes it highly likely that soon after Space Force is fully set up by May 2021 (the end of its 18 months set up period), we are likely to witness the official disclosure of multiple highly classified aerospace technologies, including anti-gravity propulsion systems, acquired by Space Force. The release of such advanced technologies will revolutionize the civilian transportation industry and military defense and take our planet into an exciting but dangerous new age.

[An audio version of this article is available here]

Further Reading

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

November 7, 2020
ExoNews Editor

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.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Space Force Built for War?

October 30, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Ryan Faith October 16, 2020 (realcleardefense.com)

• Space Force keeps a tight lid on its military intentions. Therefore, Russian or Chinese space warfare theorists might assume that a ‘kinetic’ (ie: shooting) war could be in the works. As in the US Air Force, the purveyors of kinetic mayhem tend to be culturally dominant. And Space Force has been no exception. These kinetic mayhem purveyors present a louder, more muscular, aggressive face of the Space Force. The non-kinetic approaches to space dominance get little discussion. The overall message suggests a Space Force with a strong bias towards kinetic warfare.

• At the same time, the US Space Force does not discuss the activities of its potential foes, and publicly there’s little to suggest that US opponents are hostile and aggressive. This makes the cultural bias in Space Force towards kinetic action appear to be an itchy trigger finger, not a response to real-life aggression.

• Kinetic action in space comes with an immense risk associated with orbital debris. In 2007, China demonstrated an anti-satellite weapon, and created more than 3,000 bits of space shrapnel in space. At immense orbital speeds, an impact by even a small bit of debris can have a devastating effect. This in turn creates more orbital debris in a sort of feedback effect called the Kessler Syndrome. This in itself creates some talk of strategic deterrent to an orbital debris chain-reaction that results in unintentional mutually assured response and destruction.

• The US Space Force would probably benefit by clarifying that a kinetic response must be in response to a legitimate threat or attack. Secondly, the US has a variety of tools at its disposal to manage the escalation of a space conflict without blowing a space asset to smithereens.

• But these suggestions are just a small part of the extensive political-social-media context of space operations as the backdrop to combat operations for the foreseeable future. The reality of a space conflict today may be a matter of winning the security battle versus losing the messaging war tomorrow.

If I were a Russian or Chinese space warfare theorist, thinking about a future war with the United States, it might be reasonable to bet that the newly-minted U.S. Space Force was planning for a kinetic space conflict, starting on Day 1.

Understandably, the Space Force keeps a tight lid on broader discussions of its capabilities. There isn’t a lot of direct information one way or another. Without a clear understanding of what the U.S. can do, an analyst might start trying to figure out U.S. intentions.

The culture of the Space Force might still be unformed and changing; it does bear at least a family resemblance to its sister services in at least one significant respect. In the services, the purveyors of kinetic mayhem — the shooters and the killers — tend to be culturally dominant within their respective services. The Space Force has been no exception to this.

Whether or not the Space Force shooters want to or not, they present a louder, more muscular, aggressive face of the Space Force. Conversely, non-kinetic approaches to space dominance get little discussion indeed.

Between the relative boldness of the kinetic space warfare community and the comparative silence of the non-kinetic warfare practitioners, the overall message suggests a Space Force with a strong bias towards kinetic warfare.

Compounding this problem, the USSF does not speak a lot about the activities of its potential foes. In public discussion, there’s little to suggest that U.S. opponents are hostile and aggressive and that need a muscular response. Keeping malicious actions secret makes the cultural bias towards kinetic action appear spontaneous — that it is not a response to unfortunate real-life conditions, but more of an itchy trigger finger.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Space Force Developing Offensive Capabilities in Space

October 30, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Frank Wolfe October 19, 2020 (satellitetoday.com)

• In 1958, the United States was the first nation to test an ‘Anti-Satellite’ (ASAT) weapon, launched from a bomber. Since then, Russia, China, and India have demonstrated their abilities to destroy orbiting satellites as well. US Air Force and Space Force officials have largely promoted the resilience and redundancy of US space assets and protecting them from enemy attacks. At last year’s Space Symposium, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein stated, “If …your country is interested in participating in manned spaceflight, then you should not be …creating (a) risk to manned spaceflight. So demonstrating any capability that would create more (dangerous space) debris, in my mind, is a step in the wrong direction.”

• That type of thinking may have changed in 2007 when the Chinese demonstrated their anti-satellite weaponry on one of their own satellites, creating a swarm of space debris. “That was a clarifying event,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations. “I can almost chart from there the establishment of the Space Force, because suddenly space was contested.” “[T]hat kinetic attack on a satellite really shook the foundations that this is no longer a benign environment, and we started asking the questions about are we properly structured and organized and doing the right kinds of things to be able to maintain our advantage.”

• “[T]o some degree, the aggressive behavior of our competitors has clarified what we need to do as a nation and in the Department of Defense,” Saltzman continued. “They awoke the great giant that is the United States. [W]e are now moving rapidly toward developing capability to ensure that we maintain that strategic advantage…for a long time.” “I think the best defense sometimes is a good offense.”

• In April, after Russia tested a direct-ascent ASAT, John “Jay” Raymond, the Space Force’s chief of space operations, called it “further proof of Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control proposals designed to restrict the capabilities of the United States, while clearly having no intention of halting their counter-space weapons programs.”

• A recent ‘Roadmap for Assessing Space Weapons’ report from Aerospace Corporation‘s Center for Space Policy and Strategy said that the U.S. should not rush headlong into the development of new space weapons. “To avoid Russia and China imposing unnecessary costs on the United States, US decisions on space weapons should not be made simply in reaction to China and Russia’s space weaponization. US decisions on space weapons require an exhaustive comparative analysis of the value to US national security to develop, build, and deploy any type of space weapon, and the downsides to such a decision. Is the United States better off with or without space weapons of any type? …The analysis might lead to a conclusion that certain types of weapons or certain functions of such weapons are advantageous while others are not.”

**Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein**

The U.S was the first nation to test Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapons in 1958 with bomber-launched ASATs, and three other nations have demonstrated the ability to destroy orbiting satellites — Russia, China, and, most recently, India, with a test in March last year. Officials from the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force have largely confined themselves to talking about building the resilience and redundancy of U.S. space assets and protecting them from enemy attacks, such as ASATs.

At last year’s Space Symposium, Air Force leaders discussed space deterrence through a lens of rapid response to adversary actions, and then Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told Via Satellite sister publication Defense Daily that an ASAT test “absolutely isn’t the way” to demonstrate a space deterrent capability.

**Air Force Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman**

“If you take the long view and your country is interested in participating in manned spaceflight, then you should not be contributing in any way, shape or form to creating risk to manned spaceflight,” he said. “So demonstrating any capability that would create more debris, in my mind, is a step in the wrong direction.”

That thinking may be changing.

“I was on the ops floor in 2007 when the Chinese shot their own satellite down,” Air Force Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said during an Oct. 16 Aerospace Nation forum sponsored by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “That was a clarifying event, and I can almost chart from there the establishment of the Space Force because suddenly space was contested.”

“We knew there was other kinds of [space] contesting going on, but that kinetic attack on a satellite really shook the foundations that this is no longer a benign environment, and we started asking the questions about are we properly structured and organized and doing the right kinds of things to be able to maintain our advantage,” Saltzman said.

“And so, to some degree, the aggressive behavior of our competitors has clarified what we need to do as a nation and in the Department of Defense,” he said. “They awoke the great giant that is the United States, and we are now moving rapidly toward developing capability to ensure that we maintain that strategic advantage. We’re going to be able to compete in that area for a long time.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Pentagon Taps Elon Musk’s SpaceX to Track Hypersonic Weapons from Space

October 28, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Nolan Peterson October 6, 2020 (wearethemighty.com)

• The US Department of Defense has awarded Elon Musk’s ‘Space X’ a $149 million contract to build satellites to track hypersonic missiles, as part of the Space Development Agency’s planned “mega-constellation” of weapons-tracking satellites. Both SpaceX and L3 Harris Technologies Inc. will produce four satellites for the Pentagon each. The satellites will be equipped with ‘wide field of view’ ‘overhead persistent infrared’ (OPIR) sensors.

• The commercial-built satellites will form the first layer of a planned surveillance network to track hypersonic missiles. Under the Space Development Agency’s National Defense Space Architecture, the US will put into orbit a constellation of hundreds of satellites, primarily in low Earth orbit, to track maneuverable hypersonic missiles — a weapons technology currently under development by both Russia and China.

• In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled new weapons that he touted would be able to defeat US missile defense systems. Among those new weapons was the ‘Avangard’ hypersonic glide vehicle, supposedly capable of flying at Mach 27. The Avangard reportedly went operational in December.

• In August, China tested a ballistic missile capable of carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle. The flight paths of intercontinental ballistic missiles can be easily predicted after launch. Hypersonic missiles, however, can be steered in flight, making them much harder to track and a more evasive mark for anti-missile defense systems.

• Some experts warn that the Pentagon’s ‘Hypersonic and Ballistic Missile Tracking Space Sensor’ program doesn’t have enough funding and is plagued with challenges when it comes to integrating with other missile defense systems and linking to advanced interceptors and directed energy weapons.

• The US Space Force already possesses missile-tracking satellites in high geosynchronous orbits. The new satellites will operate from much lower orbits and will therefore have a comparatively limited field of view, requiring the creation of a constellation of satellites that can effectively hand off tracking responsibilities as they follow the flight path of a hypersonic weapon from horizon to horizon.

• SpaceX and L3 Harris are expected to deliver their first of eight satellites by fall of 2022. Initial operating capability is expected by 2024. The entire missile-tracking constellation is planned for completion by 2026.

• SpaceX has already launched two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, powered into orbit by the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. It marked America’s return to active spaceflight operations after a nine-year hiatus following the last space shuttle flight in 2011. SpaceX was recently selected by the Space Force to carry out national security space launch missions over the next five years. SpaceX’s Starlink program is currently creating a mega-constellation of small satellites in low Earth orbit to provide global broadband coverage for high-speed internet access. SpaceX anticipates Starlink will achieve “near global coverage of the populated world by 2021.”

SpaceX has won a $149 million Department of Defense contract to build satellites to track hypersonic missiles, marking the first government contract for building such equipment for Elon Musk’s groundbreaking commercial spaceflight company.

As part of the Space Development Agency’s planned “mega-constellation” of weapons-tracking satellites, both SpaceX and L3 Harris Technologies Inc. will produce four satellites for the Pentagon to track hypersonic weapons. The L3 Harris contract to build its four satellites is reportedly valued at $193 million.

The eight commercially produced satellites will be equipped with wide field of view (WFOV) overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) sensors. Those satellites will form the first layer of a planned surveillance network to track hypersonic missiles.

Under the Space Development Agency’s National Defense Space Architecture, the US will put into orbit a constellation of hundreds of satellites, primarily in low Earth orbit, to track maneuverable hypersonic missiles — a weapons technology currently under development by both Russia and China.

In 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled new weapons that he touted would be able to defeat US missile defense systems. Among those new weapons was the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, supposedly capable of flying at Mach 27. The Avangard reportedly went operational in December.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

DOD Outlines Space Strategy

October 20, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by David Vergun October 7, 2020 (defense.gov)

• In June, the US Defense Department released its Space Strategy Summary document (see here) laying out the DoD’s four-pillar strategy for space activities within the next decade and beyond.

• The first line of effort, says Justin T. Johnson, the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, is for the Space Force to build a comprehensive military advantage in space.

• The second effort is to integrate space in the joint force of the US Space Command and with allies and partners, to organizes military exercises and prepare for battle in space, should that become necessary.

• The third effort is to shape the strategic environment. This includes educating the public about off-planet threats, promoting responsible activities in space, and putting adversaries on notice that harmful meddling will be met with a deliberate response from the United States military.

• The fourth effort, said Johnson, is to work with allies, partners, industry and other US agencies such as NASA, the FAA and the Commerce Department, to help streamline regulations for the space industry, which the DoD relies upon. The Space Development Agency is the key strategist in this regard. Allies and partners are excited to work with the United States Defense Department. Already, 20 nations and 100 academic and industry partners are collaborating with the DoD.

• “China and Russia are aggressively developing counter-space capabilities specifically designed to hold US and allied space capabilities at risk,” said Johnson. “China and Russia have made space a warfighting domain” by deploying systems that could potentially knock out US satellites – satellites which are vital to the missile warning system; precision, navigation and timing; and weather forecasting.

• In addition to the military aspect of space, Johnson notes that space is vital to US and global commerce. “Our $20 trillion US economy runs on space.”

In June, the Defense Department released its Space Strategy document. That document lays out the department’s four-pillar strategy for work that

needs to be done in space within the next decade and beyond.

Justin T. Johnson, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, discussed that strategy at a virtual Heritage Foundation event today.
The first line of effort, he said, is for the U.S. Space Force to build a comprehensive military advantage in space.

The second effort is to integrate space in the joint force and with allies and partners. That mission is primarily the responsibility of U.S. Space Command, which organizes exercises and prepares for the fight in space, should that become necessary, he said.

The third effort, he said, is to shape the strategic environment. That includes such things as educating the public about threats, promoting responsible activities in space and putting adversaries on notice that harmful meddling will be met with a deliberate response from the department at the time and means of its choosing.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China’s Qing Dynasty UFO Occurrence of 1892

October 18, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Dianna Clary October 5, 2020 (asumetech.com)

• On September 28, 1892, in the 18th year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign in China, a crowd gathered on Zhuque Bridge, near the Confucius temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu province to see a burning ball cross the sky. The Qing Dynasty scene was the first highlighted account of a UFO occurrence in China, memorialized in a painting by Wu Youru, known as ‘Red Flame Skyrocketing in the Sky’. (pictured above)

• A translation of the 190- character description on the painting reads as follows: ” At 8 O’clock On The Night Of September 28, A Bright Red Object Appeared Suddenly In The Southern Sky Of Nanjing City. Its Shape Resembled A Gigantic Egg And It Was Traveling Gradually Eastward. The Object Was Clearly Visible In The Night Sky. Hundreds Of Civilians Were Basing On Red Sparrow Bridge, Scrambling For A Great View, Basing On Tip-Toe, Craning Their Necks Upward.”

• “It Remained For A Duration Of A Meal’s Time, Fading Into The Range Little By Little. Some Stated It Was A Meteor, But A Meteor Takes However An Instant To Slip Away, While This Ball’s Movement — From Its First Appearance In The Near Sky To The Final Disappearance In The Distance — Was Rather Stagnant. It Can Not Have Been A Meteor.”

• “Others Said It Was A Lantern-Kite That Children Flew. However The Wind Was Blowing To The North That Night While That Things Was Heading East. It Can Not Have Actually Been A Lantern-Kite Either. For A Time Everyone Spoke, But None Could Solve The Mystery. None Of The Theories Made Good Sense.”

• “An Elderly Man Stated, ‘When It Initially Developed, There Was A Minor Noise Which Was Hardly Audible, Like The Buzzing Method Of Guys Darting Across The South Gate. The Noise Was So Soft That The Majority Of People Would Have Missed It.’ He Included That The Things Soared Up Into The Sky From The Southern Outskirts Of The City. It Was So Unusual!”

On the 28th day of the 9th month in the 18 th year of the Guangxu Emperor’s reign–1892– a crowd gathered on Zhuque Bridge, near the Confucius

temple in Nanjing, Jiangsu province to see a burning ball cross the sky.

The Qing Dynasty scene was tape-recorded by painter Wu Youru, whose’ Red Flame Skyrocketing in the Sky’ (赤焰騰空 ‘ Chi Yan Teng Kong‘) is the first highlighted account of a UFO occurrence in China. The work has in fact ended up being a valuable historic file for UFO scientists.

Wu Youru’s ‘Red Flame Skyrocketing in the Sky’ (赤焰騰空 ‘ Chi Yan Teng Kong’)

A translation of the 190- character description on the painting checks out as follows:
” At 8 O’clock On The Night Of September 28, A Bright Red Object Appeared Suddenly In The Southern Sky Of Nanjing City.

Its Shape Resembled A Gigantic Egg And It Was Traveling Gradually Eastward. The Object Was Clearly Visible In The Night Sky. Hundreds Of Civilians Were Basing On Red Sparrow Bridge, Scrambling For A Great View, Basing On Tip-Toe, Craning Their Necks Upward.

It Remained For A Duration Of A Meal’s Time, Fading Into The Range Little By Little. Some Stated It Was A Meteor, But A Meteor Takes However An Instant To Slip Away, While This Ball’s Movement — From Its First Appearance In The Near Sky To The Final Disappearance In The Distance — Was Rather Stagnant. It Can Not Have Been A Meteor.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China’s FAST Telescope May Detect Over 1,000 New Pulsars in 5 to10 Years

October 6, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Fahad Shabbir September 24, 2020 (urdupoint.com)

• The world’s largest Aperture Spherical Telescope, China’s FAST Telescope, has ‘priority tasks’ of finding pulsar stars and extraterrestrial life in the vast Milky Way galaxy. Completed in 2016, the FAST Telescope is located in the mountains of Pingtang county in southwestern Guizhou province, China. The telescope is the size of 30 football fields and cost $176 million USD to build.

• FAST senior researcher, Li Di, says that FAST’s sensitivity makes it possible to process signals coming from possible extraterrestrial civilizations within a few hundred light-years. The telescope is also equipped with a special digital terminal for high-speed and highly efficient sampling and research of the electromagnetic field of our galaxy.

• Li Di also says that the FAST Telescope may detect over 1,000 new pulsars in the next 5 to 10 years. A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular beams of electromagnetic radiation. Since the launch in 2016, FAST has found 114 new pulsars.

BEIJING – China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the largest one in the world, may detect over 1,000 new pulsars in the next five to 10 years, FAST senior researcher Li Di told the CCTV broadcaster.

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits regular beams of electromagnetic radiation. Since the launch in 2016, FAST has found 114 new pulsars.

“We hope that in five to 10 years, it [FAST telescope] will be able to detect more than 1,000 new pulsars in a blind search,” the scientist said.
Along with studying pulsars, the telescope’s priority tasks include searching for extraterrestrial civilizations.

Li Di noted that FAST’s sensitivity makes it possible to process powerful signals coming from possible extraterrestrial civilizations within a few hundred light-years.

The telescope is also equipped with a special digital terminal for high-speed and highly efficient sampling and research of the electromagnetic field of our Milky Way galaxy, the researcher added.

With the project first proposed back in 1994, the construction of the huge telescope began in 2011 and was completed in 2016. Located in the mountains of Pingtang county in southwestern Guizhou province, the 1.2 billion Yuan ($176 million at the current exchange rate) telescope is the size of 30 football fields.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Why the US is Risking a Pearl Harbor in Space

September 25, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Brandon J. Weichert September 12, 2020 (nypost.com)

• For the last decade, Beijing and Moscow have both reorganized their militaries — and developed weapons to wage a space war against the United States. President Trump created the US Space Force and charged it with ensuring American dominance in space. But over the past 20 years, US leaders have failed to maintain American dominance in space. The situation is now so precarious that we could see another “Pearl Harbor” in space.

• Without the Space Force, America’s satellites would be left completely open to attack. Still, Space Force is criticized, lampooned, or opposed based only on partisan politics. It has received no support from the US Air Force, as it thinks that the Space Force will siphon funding and resources away from it. Congress itself has not adequately resourced the new military branch, and in-fighting at the Pentagon has not helped.

• Meanwhile, China has developed multiple ways of deactivating or destroying an orbiting satellite, from powerful lasers that can blind American satellites to ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) rockets. In 2007, China demonstrated its capabilities by launching an ASAT weapon to decimate a derelict Chinese weather satellite, thereby creating the largest debris field in human history. Beijing even has the ability to “spoof” American GPS satellites, to confuse American military units and weapons in times of war.

• On September 3rd, China launched a reusable spacecraft that, before returning to Earth three days later, released a smaller object that still remains in orbit today. There is concern that this device is an offensive “space stalker” designed to covertly tailgate American satellites and push them from their orbits. (see ExoArticle here) Russia has nearly identical counter-space capabilities. As recently as July, the US and UK governments accused Russia of illegally testing a space stalker in orbit.

• Without the dominant protection of our assets in space, US forces patrolling the South China Sea could find themselves under attack and unable to respond due to our satellites being disabled. Russia could do the same to nudge US satellites out of orbit, rendering vulnerable our NATO forces in Eastern Europe. Space Force will need considerably more support and less bureaucratic squabbling to provide this essential protection – and it must happen in relatively short order.

• [Editor’s Note] The US’ military and those of China and Russia are well aware of the United States’ vast but undisclosed secret space program which is decades ahead of anything that the Chinese or the Russians have. Starting with Space Force, President Trump is consolidating our disparate space assets and programs to secure space dominance in near orbit (cis-lunar) space while the Navy’s Solar Warden will continue to patrol the solar system and deep space. Not that there aren’t other advanced space programs out there to worry about, such as the Draco Reptilian fleet and the Nazi Dark Fleet. But from an exopolitical standpoint, China and Russia are the least of our worries.

For the last decade, Beijing and Moscow have both reorganized their militaries — and developed weapons — to wage a space war against the United States. The situation is now so precarious that America could face a Pearl Harbor in space.

As far back as 2007, China shocked the world when it launched an antisatellite (ASAT) weapon into low-Earth orbit and decimated a derelict weather satellite. ASAT technology is not new but the way China deployed it was both irresponsible and aggressive. Traditionally, countries have publicly announced when they planned to conduct ASAT tests, because they could damage satellites passing by the test site. China told no one. Then, China’s ASAT test created the largest debris field in human history. It also signaled to the West that China was ready for a new form of combat.

China has invested heavily in lasers powerful enough to blind American satellites. Beijing has also developed the ability to “spoof” American GPS satellites, which could confuse American military units and weapons in times of war. On Sept. 3, China surprised the world when it launched a reusable spacecraft that, before returning to Earth three days later, released a smaller object that still remains in orbit today. There is concern that this device is an offensive “space stalker” designed to covertly tailgate American satellites and push them from their orbits.

Russia has nearly identical counterspace capabilities. As recently as July, the US and UK governments accused Russia of illegally testing a space stalker in orbit.

This is all deeply worrying. Either Beijing or Moscow could use their technological might to rewrite the geopolitical order in their favor. US forces patrolling the South China Sea, for example, could find themselves under attack from China but unable to call for reinforcements or coordinate a viable defense — simply because their critical satellites have been destroyed before the siege began.

Similarly, Russia could disable NATO forces charged with defending an Eastern European state — simply by nudging US satellites out of orbit.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China Quietly Launches ‘Reusable Experimental Spacecraft’

September 17, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Eric Mack September 4, 2020 (cnet.com)

• On September 4th, with little fanfare China’s state-run Xinhua media outlet announced the launch of a “reusable experimental spacecraft” from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. Space industry watchers believe it to be some sort of unmanned space plane similar to the X-37B operated by the US Air Force and Space Force, that the Chinese have been developing since 2017.

• The statement reads: “After a period of in-orbit operation, the spacecraft will return to the scheduled landing site in China. It will test reusable technologies during its flight, providing technological support for the peaceful use of space.”

• The mission was conducted under a veil of secrecy with no official launch photos, and not even the time of launch made public. Jonathan McDowell with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speculated that China’s secrecy “leads one to think this is not only a space plane, it’s a military space plane”.

• [Editor’s Note] While the Chinese test flight lasted two days, the Americans have kept its umnanned X-37B aloft in space for more than two years. (see previous ExoArticle on the X-37B craft)

To be fair, the Air Force is just as secretive about its X-37B craft. But the unmanned Chinese craft, called ‘Chongfu Shiyong Shiyan Hangtian Qi’ (translation: ‘Repeat Use Test Space Craft’) returned safely two days after the September 4th launch. Interestingly, it appears that the Chinese craft released an object into space before returning back to the Earth. (see follow-up article “China’s reusable experimental spacecraft returns to Earth after two-day mystery mission”)

China says it has successfully launched a “reusable experimental spacecraft” under increased levels of secrecy. Space industry watchers believe it to be some sort of unmanned space plane similar to the X-37B operated by the US Air Force and Space Force in recent years.

A short statement from China’s state-run Xinhua media outlet announced the launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Friday.

“After a period of in-orbit operation, the spacecraft will return to the scheduled landing site in China. It will test reusable technologies during its flight, providing technological support for the peaceful use of space,” the statement reads.

The mission was conducted under a veil of extra secrecy, with no official launch photos or even the time of launch made public.

“That leads one to think this is not only a space plane, it’s a military space plane,” said Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell on a European Space Agency sponsored Zoom conference Friday.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

China Leads Charge in Space Race

September 13, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Brandon J. Weichert September 3, 2020 (washingtontimes.com)

• China yearns to displace the United States as the dominant space power, and to inspire its people to make China a global hub of scientific research and development – the cornerstone of a knowledge-based economy. By placing the first rover on the dark side of the Moon in 2019, and by being the first nation to construct a lunar colony or to land ‘taikonauts’ on Mars, China is telling the world that it is truly the leader of today’s knowledge-based economy.

• But as China ascends, America is in decline. In 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, a Harris Poll asked young people in both the United States and China what they wanted to be when they grow up. Most of the American youth surveyed said they wanted to be professional “Vlogger/YouTubers” when they grow up. The Chinese youth overwhelmingly aspired to be astronauts.

• In the 1970s and 80s, China made great wealth by becoming the world’s sweatshop. In the 1990s, China invested that wealth in infrastructure to build a large middle class and a stable economy. This was all part of China’s long-term plan to ultimately become the dominant knowledge-based economy in the world. Today, China is at the forefront of quantum computing, biotech, alternative energy, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and space technologies.

• In 2018, the head of China’s lunar program, Ye Peijian, put their national space ambitions this way: “The universe is an ocean, the Moon is [an island], Mars is [an island]. If we don’t get to [these islands] now, even though we’re capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won’t be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough [to go to the Moon and beyond].”

• Meanwhile, American leadership oscillates between indifference and abdication on the matter of space policy. President Donald J. Trump has developed a truly robust national space policy, but his policies and his new military branch, Space Force, are only met with derision by bureaucratic lawmakers. Democrats on Capitol Hill have already stated that Trump’s plans to return American astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024 will not be fiscally possible. NASA’s director of manned spaceflight challenges the very notion of successfully returning astronauts to the Moon before the decade is over.

• The future belongs to the country that wants it more. Without higher levels of funding, the Space Force will never mature into the robust force it must become to defend American interests in the strategic high ground of space. The American nationalist call to greatness is being squelched by the globalist demand for mediocrity. Without the embrace of nationalism in the United States, the country’s national mission in space will end in failure and its people will stop dreaming. America’s greatness will erode at every level.

• [Editor’s Note] How could America fall behind in the space race you ask? It was by design. Just after the Roswell crash in July 1947, Truman appointed twelve military, intelligence and scientific officials to form a secret group whose purpose was to hide from the public all evidence of the advanced extraterrestrial beings that were visiting the Earth, and to hide the fact that we were building our own space fleets and colonizing the solar system. This group is known as Majestic 12, and it still exists in the dark corridors of the deep state government’s power elite.

MJ-12 would use any means available to keep the truth from the American public, from ridiculing anyone who claimed to have seen a UFO or an alien being (and basically ruining their lives), to directing deep state funded media, scientists and academia to never take sightings seriously. The result has been generations of Americans who are conditioned to scoff at and ignore anything pertaining to UFOs and extraterrestrials. The deep state government doesn’t want people interested in exploring space. The deep state driven military hawks and corporate owners want to have space all to themselves – and the advanced space technology that goes with it. They simply deny that any of it exists. Deep state legislators routinely reject spending on space endeavors and laugh at the notion of a Space Force. They want to keep a lid on the enormous fraud that has been perpetrated on an unwitting public since World War II.

On the other hand, the Chinese have encouraged space exploration for both its national pride and to usurp American geopolitical and exopolitical dominance. Indeed, the deep state has become entrenched within the Chinese government as well, and will try to keep its space empire a secret. But how long can it be before countries such as China, Russia and India have pushed their way into deep space, and these ubiquitous deep state Secret Space Programs become obvious? The deep state won’t be able to hide the truth for very much longer.

On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, Harris Poll asked young people in the United States and China what they wanted to be when they grew up. The results were strange. Most American youth surveyed — the young people who belonged to the only country to have ever placed astronauts on the lunar surface — admitted that they wanted to be professional “Vlogger/YouTubers” when they grew up. It was the Chinese youth

who overwhelmingly aspired to be astronauts.

Speaking to Chinese state media in 2018, the head of China’s lunar program, Ye Peijian, outlined the Chinese view of their national space strategy in explicit geopolitical terms, specifically in naval terminology: “The universe is an ocean, the moon is the Diaoyu Islands [sic], Mars is Huangyan Island. If we don’t get there now even though we’re capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won’t be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough [to go to the moon and beyond].”

China made great wealth by becoming the world’s sweatshop in the 1970s and ’80s. Throughout the 1990s, it reinvested that wealth into building out the infrastructure needed to both support an enlarged middle class and to ensure that China moved up the international development ladder.

China’s leadership never intended to remain just an industrial power subordinated to the United States in the post-industrial, knowledge-based
economy. China planned to become the dominant knowledge-based economy in the world. They have pioneered many innovations in the new industrial economy, notably 5G Internet, but are also heavily invested in quantum computing, biotech, alternative energy, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and space technologies.

For China, these new scientific innovations are not merely about making more money or even gaining a military edge over the West (Beijing certainly does care about those things). More than that, though, China yearns to displace the United States and dominant space power simply out of national pride.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

Space Weapons to Counter China and Russia

September 5, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Dave Makichuk August 28, 2020 (asiatimes.com)

• The Pentagon and President Trump consider space to be a warfighting domain on par with land, air and sea. And the newly established US Space Command indeed faces a clear and present danger. China has already tested anti-satellite missiles, while Russia has deployed on-orbit systems that could threaten US satellites. America’s adversaries now have the ability to use jammers, ground-based lasers, ground- and space-based kinetic weapons, attack ground facilities that support space operations or even carry out a nuclear detonation in space.

• “As a geographical combatant command focused on the space domain, those are the things that keep us up at night,” says Army National Guard Major General Tim Lawson. But Lawson told the virtual audience at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Space Warfighting Industry Forum (on August 21st) that America has new capabilities are on the way to mitigate the threat. But these capabilities classified as “black budget” projects, and he can’t tell you about them.

• “A lot of times you listen to that threat picture and you kind of get a little dismayed at what you’re seeing, but then you look at our side and — trust me — we’ve got some things coming. So, it’s good news,” said Lawson.

• Lawson highlighted the need to have resilient space architectures that utilize large networks of small communications and intelligence-gathering satellites that would be less vulnerable to enemy attacks. “If you had hundreds of small satellites up there in a constellation … the enemy can take out quite a few of those and it will really never have an impact on us,” he said. “That really is the resiliency piece that we’re seeking out there and we need.” The ‘Spacecom’ command is also interested in developments in space logistics such as on-orbit refueling or servicing of satellites. Lawson says that if American industry could put assets into orbit to overwhelm adversaries’ ability to shoot them down, “it would be a game-changer”.

• But it’s not the first time a US president has launched a major military defense project in space. President Ronald Reagan envisioned a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as an array of space-based X-ray lasers would detect and deflect any nukes headed toward the United States. On March 23, 1983, Reagan called upon the US scientists who “gave us nuclear weapons to turn their great talents to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.”

• But politicians and scientists argued that SDI was overambitious. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy referred to it as Reagan’s ”reckless ‘Star Wars’ schemes.” The “Star Wars” moniker stuck. Over the course of 10 years, the government spent up to $30 billion on developing the concept without achieving operational status. It was scrapped by President Bill Clinton in 1993.

• [Editor’s Note] So where did this $30 billion go? By coincidence, the 1980’s was when the US Navy created and deployed its deep space fleet of eight oversized submarine-type warp drive spacecraft known as ‘Solar Warden’, unbeknownst to the public.

To say that officials at the newly established US Space Command face a clear and present danger, is an understatement.

America’s adversaries now have the ability to use jammers, ground-based lasers, ground- and space-based kinetic weapons, attack ground facilities that support space operations or even carry out a nuclear detonation in space.

China has already tested anti-satellite missiles, while Russia has deployed on-orbit systems that could threaten US satellites.

But according to Army National Guard Major General Tim Lawson, new capabilities are on the way to mitigate the threat — he just can’t tell you about them, because they are classified under the umbrella of “black budget” projects.

“As a geographical combatant command focused on the space domain, those are the things that keep us up at night,” said Lawson, who made the remarks at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Space Warfighting Industry Forum, which was held virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I would love to sit behind some closed doors and have this discussion on some of the things we really think we need,” Lawson said when asked about the types of capabilities Spacecom is seeking.

“A lot of times you listen to that threat picture and you kind of get a little dismayed at what you’re seeing, but then you look at our side and — trust me — we’ve got some things coming. So, it’s good news.”

Significant portions of the US military’s space programs are classified, making it difficult for outside observers to know what’s coming down the pike.

Meanwhile, Lawson highlighted the need to have resilient space architectures that utilize large networks of small communications and intelligence-gathering satellites that would be less vulnerable to enemy attacks.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE