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Space Officials Wooing Intelligence Airmen

Article by Rachel S. Cohen                           May 20, 2020                           (airforcemag.com)

• Space intelligence is one area the military wants to expand and refine for intelligence Airmen who opt to join the Space Force. Space Force intends to build its own core intel capabilities, separate from the Air Force, to better identify objects in space and whether they pose a threat to U.S. assets. Working with the National Reconnaissance Office, Space Force Intelligence will encompass space-based ‘intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance’ (ISR) of the low orbit space between the Earth and the Moon.

• Space Force is considering how Airmen could broaden their understanding of the space domain by working in multiple career fields, according to Colonel Suzy Streeter, Space Force’s ISR director. Building the new service from scratch allows intel professionals hold command positions usually taken by Airmen who operate satellites, for instance, said U.S. Space Command’s ISR boss, Brigadier General Leah Lauderback.

• Adding new perspectives to Space Force leadership depends on how Airmen plan out their career paths. One option is having Space Force recruit start as a ‘space operator’ for the first four years, move into intelligence for ten years, and then decide whether to jump back into space operations or remain in Space Force intel. “That will give… a more integrated approach,” said Streeter. Any intelligence professional coming up the ranks in Space Force could become ‘chief of space operations’ after three to five years. Or an Airman could enter Space Force as a traditional intelligence officer and remain so for the rest of their career. They could still dabble in space operations, as the Force needs “ISR visionaries”.

• It has also been suggested that the service bring in new officer level recruits from the other services and industry, starting them as captains and majors. This could prove beneficial for targeting, intel collection management, and cyber operations. Enlisted personnel could also be ‘streamlined’ into operations intelligence and cryptologic analysis fields.

• All intelligence Airmen can apply to join or transfer into Space Force, whether they worked for Air Combat Command, Air Force Space Command, or another USAF organization. “It is likely that the [selection] board will be looking for personnel with a wide range of experiences, to ensure that USSF does not pigeonhole itself into one way of thinking.” The Space Force is accepting transfer applications from intel Airmen through May 31.

• In October, ‘selection board’ panels staffed by senior Air Force and Space Force leaders will decide which intel, acquisition, and other space professionals will join the Space Force starting February 1st, 2021. This panel will also process promotions until the Space Force’s ‘Space Training and Readiness Command’ (‘STARCOM”) is up-and-running and able to tailor a new process to the specific needs of Space Force.

• New Space Force bases will open up for intelligence assignments that weren’t previously used by the Space Force’s predecessor, Air Force Space Command, including Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada; Lackland Air Force Base in Texas; Fort Meade in Maryland; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio; and assignments at the Pentagon and in Chantilly, Virginia.

• [Editor’s Note]    Space Force Intelligence, just let us know when you would like a briefing.

 

New opportunities will open up for intelligence Airmen who opt to join the Space Force, intel officials said in a recent livestream.

Space intelligence is one area the military wants to expand and refine as a result of creating a new armed force focused on the cosmos. The Space Force envisions building its own core intel capabilities, separate from the Air Force, to better identify what and where objects are in space and if they threaten U.S. assets. The career field will work with the National Reconnaissance Office in new ways, encompass space-based ISR of the Earth below, and is pushing into cislunar orbit as well.

    Brigadier General Leah Lauderback

In March, the Air Force listed several intelligence organizations that are newly assigned to the Space Force. Some officials have suggested that the National Air and Space Intelligence Center could ramp up its help for the Space Force or spin off a separate space-focused center as well.

The Space Force is considering how Airmen could work in multiple career fields to broaden their understanding of the space domain, according to Col. Suzy Streeter, the service’s ISR director. Building the new service from scratch allows it to shake up its leadership echelons and let intel professionals hold command positions usually taken by the Airmen who operate satellites, said Brig. Gen. Leah Lauderback, U.S. Space Command intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance boss.

Adding different perspectives to Space Force leadership depends in part on how Airmen transfer in and plan out their career paths.

One staffing option gaining traction is having every member of the Space Force start as a space operator, or 13S. Someone could serve as a space operator for the first four years, move into intelligence for 10 years, and then decide whether to jump back into space operations or remain in intel, according to the presentation’s slideshow.

“That will give, really, a more integrated approach as you’re looking at futures, including, quite frankly, the chief of space operations,” Streeter said. “Why not have that open to whoever is a space professional?”

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The Navy Acknowledges UFOs – Why Aren’t They on Washington’s Radar?

Listen to “e167 The Navy Acknowledges UFOs – Why Aren’t They on Washington’s Radar?” on Spreaker.

Article by Christopher Mellon                        November 2, 2019                         (thehill.com)

• Government paralysis is something we’ve grown accustomed to on domestic matters but, when it affects national security as well, we truly are a nation at risk. Sixty years ago, Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union put Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, into orbit. Congress promptly acted on Americans’ concerns and spurred “the space race”, culminating in a Moon landing twelve years later.

• The U.S. Navy has publicly acknowledged that the vehicles observed and recorded by U.S. Navy fighter pilots (off of both the East and West coasts), which are able to maneuver above 80,000 feet; can hover and then instantly accelerate to supersonic and even hypersonic speeds; and use a means of propulsion and control that does not appear to involve combustion, exhaust, rotors, wings or flaps, are indeed ‘unidentified aerial phenomenon’.

• This shocking announcement has scarcely been noticed by Congress. To date, there have been congressional oversight committee briefings but no hearings, no funds appropriated to study the phenomenon, not even a request for a report or a threat assessment. It appears that Congress has no problem with being kept in the dark all of these years by the military regarding these UFOs. Is the information too radical to process? Is the U.S. government in denial? It would seem a matter of utmost urgency.

• The writer, former Defense Department and US Senate intelligence staffer Chris Mellon, has interviewed numerous active-duty and retired military personnel who have encountered these UFOs. Without exception they express grave concern for their colleagues and near disbelief that our government is not reacting more vigorously. Policymakers should pay close attention to the experiences of U.S. military personnel, investigate thoroughly, and respond effectively.

• Myriad services and agencies including the National Reconnaissance Office, Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA, Air Force and Navy, FBI and National Security Agency, possess a pool of relevant data on UFOs, says Mellon. But we are not analyzing the vast quantity of data already collected by America’s vast ‘sensor networks’. We simply need to implement a strategy for the centralized collection and analysis of this data.

• We have entered a new frontier. Similar to our forebears who settled the Western half of the continent, we must still confront the unknown. But as President Eisenhower said in a speech he gave in 1958 in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, nineteenth century frontiersmen “were not turned back by terror; they did not succumb to the tensions …encountered beyond the fringes of civilization. They moved ahead as companions in adventure, well-knowing that danger is often the inseparable partner of progress and honor.”

 

In what could be a precursor to further stunning developments, the U.S. Navy has publicly acknowledged that the advanced aircraft depicted in several recently declassified gun-camera videos are UFOs, or what the Navy prefers to call “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” (UAPs). “The Navy designates the objects contained in these videos as unidentified aerial phenomena,” acknowledged Joseph Gradisher, spokesman for the deputy chief of naval operations, referring to the bizarre vehicles that have brazenly operated in restricted U.S. military airspace.

Christopher Mellon

Strangely, this shocking announcement seems to have scarcely been noticed by Congress or the Trump administration. Is the information too jarring and radical to process? Are U.S. government officials in denial? One can only wonder, given the glaring disconnect between the Navy’s announcement and the limited government actions to protect U.S. military personnel and the nation as a whole.

The vehicles observed and recorded by U.S. Navy fighter pilots seem impervious to altitude or the elements; they are able to maneuver above 80,000 feet; they can hover and then instantly accelerate to supersonic and even hypersonic speeds; they have very low radar cross-sections and use a means of propulsion and control that does not appear to involve combustion, exhaust, rotors, wings or flaps.

Since the Navy asserts these are not U.S. aircraft, we are confronted by the daunting prospect that a potential adversary of the United States has achieved the ability to render our most sophisticated aircraft and air defense systems obsolete. Much like the Japanese reacting to the appearance of Admiral Perry’s steam-powered fleet in Tokyo Bay in the 1850s, it would seem a matter of utmost urgency to determine who is operating these craft, how they work and the intentions of those commanding them.

I’ve interviewed numerous active-duty and retired military personnel who have encountered these mysterious vehicles. Without exception they express grave concern for their colleagues and near disbelief that our government is not reacting more vigorously.

This situation is not altogether unprecedented. Some 60 years ago Americans were shocked when the Soviet Union orbited Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. Sputnik garnered sustained front-page coverage, however, and Congress promptly acted on Americans’ concerns by approving increased space and defense expenditures and enhanced education programs for math and science. The concerns roused by Sputnik spurred America to enter “the space race.” The nation rallied to the cause and the commitment paid off when astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon a mere 12 years later.

Consider by contrast our government’s tepid response to the latest news about UAPs. Some congressional oversight committees have asked for and received briefings, but none has held a hearing, either open or closed; none has appropriated funds for collection or analysis; none has even asked for a report or a threat assessment. Nor have Congress members expressed concern over apparently being kept in the dark on this issue for years by the executive branch, a situation that changed only after a small private organization — To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, which I advise on national security affairs — made Department of Defense gun-camera footage available to the press and to Congress.

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UFO Conspiracy Theorists See Space Force as Evidence

by Melanie Poteat                   February 9, 2019                   (techstockstandard.com)

• On December 18, 2018, President Trump signed an order to establish a Space Command to oversee the military’s vast operations beyond the Earth’s atmosphere in defending American assets in space, such as satellites, and fending off cyberattacks. The US Space Command would be organized as an adjunct to the Air Force. This seemed to be a compromise to Trump’s initial effort to create a separate sixth branch of the armed services. But the Pentagon prefers to keep space operations within the Air Force.

• The idea of a separate Space Force has some believing that this is a step toward the government’s acknowledgment of extraterrestrials and technology gleaned from crashed alien spacecraft — what the UFO community calls “full disclosure.” But it also pits Trump against his natural enemy: the “Deep State” within the federal government which is the keeper of alien secrets, according to UFO researchers.

• Well known author, Michael Salla, noted that Pentagon top brass oppose the establishment of a sixth branch of the military to patrol above the atmosphere. “It is important to understand that by ordering the creation of a , is shaking the bureaucratic and corporate tree that hides the Secret Space Program that the Air Force runs along with the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency,” Salla posted on his ExoPolitics website. “Large aerospace companies such as , Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, etc., supply the technologies and components for the Air Force’s Secret Space Program. Consequently, the Military Industrial Complex/Deep State has played a major role in setting space policy due to its ability to manipulate Air Force officials through the supply and acquisition process.”

• Disclosure filmmaker, Jordan Sather, tweeted last summer that the Pentagon would not want a separate Space Force. “This is HUGE and something the Deep State does NOT want,” said Sather. An independent Space Force would provide an avenue for the public release of advanced technologies such as free energy and anti-gravity.

• There is abundant evidence that the Pentagon already has top-secret operations in space, such as advanced craft and spy satellites. Jan C. Harzan, executive director of MUFON, claims that the Air Force’s unmanned X-37B space plane has “been up there two years at a time doing classified missions.” The X-37B, basically a space drone that resembles a small version of NASA’s retired space shuttles. It has flown clandestine missions in Earth orbit since 2010. Mr. Harzan doubts the government was getting closer to “full disclosure” of what he believes the government hides about aliens. “I do believe that we have technology which has been reverse-engineered from aircraft that are not from here and that we are probably using that technology someplace. But are we trolling out amongst the stars like ‘Star Trek’ or something else? I don’t know that it has gotten that far,” Harzan said.

 

President ’s order to create a military gave conspiracy theorists another tantalizing piece of evidence — some say the best yet — that the government is hiding the truth about extraterrestrial visitors.

The idea is that launching the will be a big step toward the government’s acknowledgment of extraterrestrials and technology gleaned from crashed alien spacecraft — what the UFO community calls “full disclosure.”

Making it all the more real, the plan pits against his natural enemy: the “deep state” within the federal government. The deep state is also the keeper of alien secrets, according to UFO researchers.

“This is HUGE and something the Deep State does NOT want,” conspiracy theory filmmaker Jordan Sather posted on Twitter after issued the surprise June 18 order for the Pentagon to start planning a .

“Understand that with the #SpaceForce, the advanced technologies (free energy, antigravity) kept in secret think-tanks within , , & other corporate contractors will now have an avenue to be released publicly,” Mr. Sather tweeted.

Michael Salla, an author who promotes theories about secret U.S. space programs and longtime extraterrestrial presence on Earth, noted that Pentagon top brass oppose the establishment of a sixth branch of the military to patrol above the atmosphere.

“It is important to understand that by ordering the creation of a , is shaking the bureaucratic and corporate tree that hides the Secret Space Program that the Air Force runs along with the National Reconnaissance Office, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency,” he posted on his ExoPolitics website.

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

Are the U.S. Space Forces Starting to Muster?

by John Breeden II                 October 2, 2018                   (nextgov.com)

• With all of the proposals for space-based operations being bandied about in Washington D.C., who is doing what in space?

• Space Force – A entirely new and separate branch of the U.S. military, proposed by President Trump. Such a specialized space force could maintain the current technological advantage that the United States may have over China and Russia. A recent proposal by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan called for a tight integration between the new Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office to gather intelligence using satellites. According to an Air Force memo, a new Space Force would initially require 13,000 new personnel and cost $13 billion over the next five years, including $2.2 billion in order to set up a headquarters and $7.2 billion for new assets and equipment.

• NASA – The U.S.’s “peaceful” space program, NASA has recently launched a new effort to search for extraterrestrial, intelligent life known as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

• Space Corps – The 2017 version of Trump’s Space Force that was included in the House of Representative’s fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, but was voted down in the Senate.

• Space Command – An alternative to the Space Corps, led by the U.S. Air Force, that would integrate space-based assets, such as military satellites, into the future operations of all branches of service through the development of a Multi-Domain Command and Control system. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is already developing a program called ‘Hallmark’ that will provide better situational awareness in space, especially in the lower Earth orbit zones, which are cluttered with everything from satellites to space junk.

• Strategic Support Force – The Chinese operations center that manages its space program, cyberspace and electronic warfare.

• [Editor’s Note] Here are some past ExoNews articles on President Trump’s Space Force:
House Panel Lays Foundation for Future Space Force  May 14, 2018
Trump Directs DOD to Establish a Space Force in a Surprise Announcement  Jun 18, 2018
Pence Details Plan for Creation of Space Force in What Would Be the Sixth Branch of the Military  August 9, 2018
New Pentagon Memo Lays Out Action Plan to Establish Space Force by 2020  September 13, 2018

 

When President Donald Trump proposed creating the Space Force as a separate branch of the military, quite a few people ended up scratching their heads. While it would be cool to have a bunch of sleek spaceships like in Star Trek, the sad truth is that we are probably decades or even centuries away from anything close to technology like that, if we ever get there at all. Looked at pessimistically, we would get about as much value out of creating a military branch of time travelers, let’s call them Paladins of the Past, charged with protecting our history from temporal manipulation. It might make for great sci-fi but would not offer much practical value.

We also already have the most advanced, peaceful space program in the world through NASA. Just this spring they launched TESS, the short name for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which is bristling with artificial intelligence designed to optimize the search for extraterrestrial, intelligent life. Nobody else is even close to something like TESS.

But NASA works on peaceful projects, and the idea of a militarized space force has been kicked around Washington for a while. The House included such a provision in the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, calling the new military branch the “Space Corps.” That idea died in the Senate, though the Defense Department was asked to study the issue.

Trump’s support has given the idea new life, and the Air Force was asked to take the lead on proposing what an independent space command might look like. Previously, the Air Force’s focus was on integrating space-based assets, such as military satellites, into the future operations of all branches of service. They have been working on developing a Multi-Domain Command and Control system which would accomplish that.

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