Tag: Russia

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.”

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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.

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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.”

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Kennedy’s Last Stand & the Trump Card: Space Cooperation Used Against Deep State

November 13, 2020
Michael Salla

On November 12, 1963, President Kennedy reached a bold agreement with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev: joint lunar missions to end the Cold War. While Kennedy’s earlier September 20, 1963 speech at the United Nations calling for the Soviets to cooperate on joint space missions and a moon landing is a well-known historical fact, Khrushchev’s acceptance less than two months later is virtually unknown to most.

Kennedy’s request and subsequent agreement with Khrushchev represented far more than an attempt to end Cold War tensions over the escalating number of nuclear weapons being built by the U.S. and Soviets. Kennedy was boldly attempting an end-run around the Deep State’s blockade on releasing classified UFO-related technologies that could spark worldwide advances.

On June 28, 1961, President Kennedy sent a Top Secret National Security Memorandum requesting his CIA Director, Allen Dulles, prepare for him a “review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they relate to Cold War Psychological Warfare Plans.” Kennedy referred to an interagency control group called Majestic 12, which had been secretly set up on September 24, 1947, to manage the UFO-related issues and technologies. This authority placed MJ-12 at the core of the Deep State in the U.S. at that time.

While Kennedy’s June 28 Memorandum has not been officially declassified, expert examination of the leaked document supports its authenticity.

Dulles’ response to Kennedy’s memorandum is revealed in another leaked Top Secret document issued on November 5, 1961. Dulles’ response gives an overview of the MJ-12 activities with regard to psychological activities, which he confirms involves the UFO issue. It describes UFOs as part of “Soviet propaganda” designed “to spread distrust of the government.”

Dulles’ letter acknowledges it is possible that some “UFO cases are of non-terrestrial origin,” but these do not “constitute a physical threat to national defense.” Most significantly, Dulles’ letter states: “For reasons of security, I cannot divulge pertinent data on some of the more sensitive aspects of MJ-12 activities.”

What Kennedy did not know was that in addition to denying his request and blocking his other efforts to assert Presidential authority over MJ-12 operations and UFOs, Dulles organized for MJ-12 to issue eight directives in October 1961. The Directives authorized the removal from office of members of Kennedy’s administration if they threatened MJ-12 operations.

In Kennedy’s Last Stand (2013), I document Kennedy’s multiple efforts to assert Presidential authority over the MJ-12 Group and classified UFO files. In brief, after Kennedy reached his groundbreaking agreement with Khrushchev for joint space and lunar missions, the head of the CIA’s counterintelligence division, James Jesus Angleton, implemented one of the MJ-12 directives authorizing the removal from office of political figures.

The most extreme of the eight MJ-12 directives was a cryptic assassination authorization:

Draft – Directive Regarding Project Environment – When conditions become non-conducive for growth in our environment and Washington cannot be influenced any further, the weather is lacking any precipitation … it should be wet.

Dr. Robert Wood, the foremost expert in analyzing MJ-12 documents using forensic methods, has concluded that the burned document is an assassination directive. He points out that the cryptic phrase, “it should be wet” originates from Russia, where the phrase “wet works” or “wet affairs” denotes someone who had been killed and is drenched with blood.

The implementation of Project Environment led to Kennedy’s very public assassination and served as a clear warning to other political leaders not to challenge the Deep State.

The MJ-12 Group did not want U.S. and Russian cooperation in space since this threatened to expose their covert space operations using reverse engineered technologies acquired from Nazi Germany and crashed alien spacecraft. Even more sensitive were the agreements reached with the German breakaway colony in Antarctica and different extraterrestrial groups.

In the subsequent decades, the MJ-12 Group, working through the CIA, was in control of covert operations and intelligence activities in space. This was made possible by an enormous black budget of over one trillion dollars annually that the CIA funneled into various classified programs and defense agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office.

The Department of Defense and the President’s executive office were largely left in the dark over exactly what was happening in Earth’s orbit and beyond.

Before becoming Secretary of Defense on January 20, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld headed a Congressionally appointed National Security Commission that delivered a report recommending the creation of a Space Corps to defend the U.S. from a Space Pearl Harbor:

An attack on elements of U.S. space systems during a crisis or conflict should not be considered an improbable act. If the U.S. is to avoid a “Space Pearl Harbor” it needs to take seriously the possibility of an attack on U.S. space systems. The nation’s leaders must assure that the vulnerability of the United States is reduced and that the consequences of a surprise attack on U.S. space assets are limited in their effects….

The use of space in defense of U.S. interests may require the creation of a military department for space at some future date…

A Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force may be an appropriate model in its own right or a useful way station in the evolution toward a Space Department.

Only eight months later, on September 10, 2001, as Congressional legislation for a Space Corps was about to be unveiled, Rumsfeld revealed 2.3 trillion dollars could not be accounted for and declared the Pentagon Bureaucracy to be America’s greatest threat:

The topic today is an adversary that poses a threat, a serious threat, to the security of the United States of America. This adversary is one of the world’s last bastions of central planning, governs by dictating 5 year plans… You might think I’m describing one of the last decrepit dictators in the world, but their day too is almost past and they cannot match the strength and size of this adversary. The adversary is closer to home, it’s the Pentagon bureaucracy… In this building, despite the era of scarce resources, taxed by mounting threats, money disappears into duplicative duties, bloated bureaucracy, not because of greed but gridlock. Innovation is stifled not by ill intent but institutional inertia.

In his speech, Rumsfeld was not only identifying the reasons for the missing money, but also signaling that it could be used to fund necessary, though expensive, Pentagon initiatives such as Space Corps.

One day after his provocative speech, the September 11 (false flag) terrorist attacks embroiled America in unending Middle East wars against a contrived global terrorist threat. Consequently, the proposal for a Space Corps was shelved for nearly 20 years until the second year of Donald Trump’s Presidency.

On March 13, 2018, President Trump first introduced and, in succeeding months, formally proposed the creation of Space Force as a 6th branch of the U.S. military.

Like President Kennedy before him, Trump had a bold vision of cooperating with Russia to implement his Presidential agenda and end the new Cold War. During his first presidential election campaign, Trump made many overtures to President Putin of Russia to cooperate on a range of global issues.

Again, like Kennedy, Trump envisaged the release of new technologies to take humanity into a new era of prosperity and cooperation. This is evidenced in Trump’s 2017 inaugural address where he said:

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.

Like Kennedy, Trump called for joint moon missions with other space-faring nations, including Russia. On December 11, 2017, President Donald Trump issued Space Policy Directive-1, which called for the return of humans to the Moon, the commercial exploitation of space, and human missions to Mars and beyond.

The Directive called for “an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.”

Just as Kennedy had attempted an end-run around the Deep State’s opposition to him gaining access to classified UFO files, Trump’s Space Force proposal is likewise an end-run around the Deep State’s blockade on releasing classified reverse engineered technologies that could spark a global technological revolution

In addition, Trump’s creation of Space Force threatens the Deep State’s attempt to make America vulnerable to a Space Pearl Harbor by embroiling it in a never-ending war on terror. At the same time, the Deep State has been covertly helping Communist China for decades to develop antigravity spacecraft, and to build a powerful space navy, as I warn in Rise of the Red Dragon (2020).

Trump is facing massive retaliation from the Deep State over his plans for outer space cooperation, joint moon missions, ending the Cold War with Russia, and establishing a Space Force, just like Kennedy had before him.

The eight Majestic-12 directives, or some updated iteration of them, establish drastic methods that can be used to remove or take out any political leader who threaten their operations. Today, a stolen election, rather than physical assassination, is the Deep State’s solution to removing President Donald Trump, yet another troublesome leader, from political office.

The key to understanding what is happening today in America is to identify the mysterious group behind the Kennedy Assassination, and how its modern-day manifestation is covertly attempting to remove Trump from the presidency for his efforts to similarly build international cooperation around a number of space-related initiatives.

November 22 will mark the 57^th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination. The real perpetrators skillfully remained in the shadows and were never prosecuted for their crime. Thus, their successors continue to plot and implement Deep State agendas tracing back to the original eight MJ-12 directives.

[Note: To learn more about President Kennedy’s assassination, the group behind it, and why this information critically links to President Trump’s epic battle today, I will be holding a Webinar Intensive on Sunday, November 22, 2020 – click here or banner below for more info].

Further Reading

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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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China’s Space Supremacy Could Wipe Out Our Satellites and Send Us Back to the Stone Age

September 22, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Douglas MacKinnon September 7, 2020 (thesun.co.uk)

• There is no nation on Earth more dependent upon its satellites for its national, economic, communications, and navigational security than the United States. The People’s Republic of China and Russia understand that reality better than anyone else, and factor that vulnerability into their military strategies. If China was one day able to take out America’s satellites, it would blind our military and send the U.S. back to the technological Stone Age.

• To the Pentagon, the nightmare of a United States waking up to the collapse of our phone, television, radio, GPS, and banking networks – is all too real. Within hours, panic, chaos, and anarchy would rule much of the nation. And if China did target and destroy the U.S. military, communication, and financial satellites, they would think nothing of taking out those of the United Kingdom or any other perceived adversaries.

• In testimony given to Congress last November, the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission warned in part: “China views space as a critical U.S. military and economic vulnerability and has fielded an array of direct-ascent, cyber, electromagnetic, and co-orbital counter-space weapons capable of targeting nearly every class of U.S. space asset.”

• While in the recent past, the White Houses and the Pentagon were more concerned about the threat posed to our assets in space by Russia. Although Russia has demonstrated its anti-satellite weaponry, the fact is that both Russia and the U.S. are playing catch-up with the Chinese military in space.

• The United States, Great Britain and many of our allies tend to see the future in terms of weeks, months, and years. China sees its future in terms of years, decades, and centuries. It is China’s intention to one day create the ultimate “High Ground” by controlling all within the Earth to Moon orbit.

• The Obama administration cut or curtailed much of the U.S. human spaceflight program and putting our military space program on a back burner. China instantly noted the U.S. Government’s abandonment of the space arena and aggressively moved to fill and control that vacuum. The Trump administration created the U.S. Space Force. The sixth branch of the U.S. military is now rushing to get back into the game to protect our space assets. But China has been given a tremendous head start. And the clock is ticking.

• [Editor’s Note] If only the geopolitical situation was this simple. In reality, this is more of the Deep State’s continuing efforts to incite World War III. The Deep State wasn’t able to create a war between Russia and the U.S. So it is attempting to foment war between the U.S. and China by having the Mockingbird Media create a public panic about it.

The truth is, as Dr. Michael Salla points out in this new book, Rise of the Red Dragon, the Deep State set up this scenario back in the 1950’s when they deported one of America’s top aerospace engineers, Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen, who also knew about our advanced spacecraft propulsion technology gleaned directly from extraterrestrials, back to China. Dr. Salla theorizes that the Deep State intended to allow the Chinese space program to unfold, at which time the Deep State cold infiltrate the Chinese government – which it now has – and instigate hostilities between the U.S. and China – which it now is – in order to cause global upheaval and thereby gain more power and control. Alliance forces are well aware of the Deep State’s tactics, however, and have a few surprises in store for them as well.

Why should that be of concern to the political and military leadership of the United States and those of our allies?

There is no nation on Earth more dependent upon its satellites in low and geosynchronous orbit for its national, economic, communications, and navigational security and survival than the United States. No nation.

The People’s Republic of China and Russia not only understand that reality better than anyone else, but factor that vulnerability into their ongoing military strategies.

The scenario which sends a chill down the spine of the White House, the U.S. Military, and many Members of Congress, is that China – unchallenged in space – will one day take out all of those satellites and thereby blind our military and send the United States back to the technological Stone Age.

Once done, the President of China only has to reach the President of the United States – be that Trump, Joe Biden, or Michelle Obama, or Nikki Haley in the future – and dictate their terms for our surrender.

Sound far-fetched? Not to the Pentagon or those in our Government tracking China in space.

Civilisation destroyed

To them, the nightmare of a United States waking up to the collapse of our phone, television, radio, GPS, and banking networks – just to name a few – is all too real.

Within hours at the most, panic, chaos, and anarchy would rule much of the nation.

And if the PRC did target and destroy the military, communication, and financial satellites of the U.S., surely they would think nothing of taking out those of the United Kingdom or any other perceived adversaries.

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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.

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Japan Vows to Work Closely on Lunar Exploration With the US

September 4, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article from Kyodo News August 26, 2020 (english.kyodonews.net)

• In August 26th, US and Japanese officials met in Tokyo to further discuss Japan’s role in the NASA-led joint lunar exploration project culminating in a return to the Moon in 2024, actual exploration of the lunar surface beginning in 2028, and ultimately the international ‘Artemis’ lunar habitat project. This will be the first time that humans walk on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

• The meeting was attended by Scott Pace, executive secretary of the US National Space Council, Gen. John Raymond, chief of Space Force, and Japanese government officials from the Cabinet Office, Defense Ministry and other Japanese agencies.

• Pursuant to a lunar cooperation accord signed in July 2020, the US and NASA acknowledged opportunities for “Japanese crew activities” on the ‘Gateway’, a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, as well as participate in activities on the lunar surface.

• US officials also acknowledged Japan’s new ‘Space Operation Squadron’, an Air Self-Defense Force space unit monitoring threats to Japanese satellites in outer space. Japanese officials acknowledged the significance of the US Space Command and Space Force.

• Tokyo and Washington also touched on “growing concern for threats to the continuous, safe and stable use of outer space,” a veiled reference to the growing space capabilities of countries such as China and Russia.

Japan and the United States on Wednesday pledged to work closely on a lunar exploration project led by

the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration after Tokyo joined it last month.

In a joint statement issued after a meeting in Tokyo, the two governments said they “reaffirmed their commitment to Artemis,” the multilateral project intended to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and establish sustainable lunar surface exploration with NASA’s commercial and international partners by 2028.

The two sides “also acknowledged opportunities for Japanese crew activities” on the Gateway, a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, as well as on the lunar surface, as highlighted in a lunar cooperation accord they signed in July, the statement said.

The last humans to walk on the Moon were American astronauts from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

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Space Industry Report Extends Geopolitics Out to the Moon

September 1, 2020
ExoNews Editor

August 24, 2020 (larouchepub.com)

• Last May, the US Space Force and Air Force Research Laboratory held a ‘space industrial workshop’ with 120 experts in government, industry, and academia. This resulted in a report released in July entitled: “State of the Space Industrial Base”, an unofficial assessment of industrial base supporting the US military in space.

• The report confirms a previous determination made in the National Security Strategy of 2017 that identified Russia and China as “strategic adversaries” of the United States. According to the 2017 report, “China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity.” In this new report, Space Force chief, General John Raymond, writes in the forward that this viewpoint extends directly into space.

• The new report also cites a 2019 report from the Air Force Space Command entitled: “The Future of Space 2060 and Implications for U.S. Strategy” stating that “China is executing a long-term civil, commercial, and military strategy to explore and economically develop the cislunar domain with the explicit aim of displacing the US as the leading space power. Other nations are developing similar national strategies.”

• According to the report, China plans to “lure U.S. allies and partners away from U.S.-led space initiatives, through its Belt and Road Initiative and plans for an Earth Moon Economic Zone” worth $10 trillion. Through this initiative, China intends to become the leading, global/space super-power by 2049, displacing the US in that role.

• The report predicts that “the first nation to establish transportation infrastructure and logistics capabilities serving GEO and cislunar space will have superior ability to exercise control of cislunar space and in particular the Lagrange points and the resources of the Moon.” “The job of the US Space Force is to provide “security and a stabilizing military presence” for the U.S. economic presence in this zone.”

• The report goes on to suggest that the US Air Force “should consider the degree to which this role should emulate the US Navy role in assuring the maritime domain. Clarity on this issue will drive commercial confidence for a more rapid expansion of U.S. space entrepreneurial activity.” It urges the USAF to have “an increased role in America’s return to the Moon” and its planetary defense could ‘accelerate America’s edge in asteroid mining and in-space transportation.”

• “The U.S. should develop a guiding national vision for long-term space industrialization and national space development to catalyze whole-of-nation efforts and enable the United States to compete and win now and into the future,” says the report. This would include providing safety of navigation services, secure commerce, and protect civil infrastructure in the space domain in order to foster opportunities for partnerships with companies to develop prototypes and to procure operational product services.

• The report concludes that the US Space Force needs to continue the “space leadership created by recent policy and organizational advances …as space activities expand beyond geosynchronous orbit.”

• [Editor’s Note] What these studies and reports do not take into account is the fact that the United States military has had operational space fleets, using extraterrestrial propulsion technology, since the US Navy’s Solar Warden was deployed in the 1980s. Since then, the Air Force and NASA have both deployed their own secret space program fleets of advanced spacecraft and cislunar platforms. Other nations including China and Russia have done the same. So the real exopolitical space strategies go far beyond the alarmist geopolitical scare tactics found in these reports.

The report “State of the Space Industrial Base,” released last week by the Defense Innovation Unit, the U.S. Space Force, and the Air Force Research Laboratory, is, in effect, the space annex to the National Security Strategy of 2017. That document defines Russia and China as strategic adversaries of the United States. “China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity,” it claims on page 2. That outlook is extended directly into the space domain by this report, writes Gen. John Raymond, chief of the U.S. Space Force, in the foreword to the document.

The report itself flowed out of a space industrial base workshop that met in New Mexico in May and brought together 120 experts in government, industry, and academia; but the report that they produced is not an official policy document. Rather, it’s an assessment of the state of the industrial base along with a set of recommendations. Nonetheless, “it is important that we listen to these insights and evaluate the feasibility of implementing them in the advancement of national interests. America’s future in space is a partnership and, as with any partnership, communication is key,” Raymond writes.

In the introduction, the report cites an assessment produced by Air Force Space Command in 2019 entitled “The Future of Space 2060 and Implications for U.S. Strategy,” which itself was the product of yet another workshop. That report, among other things, complains that “China is executing a long-term civil, commercial, and military strategy to explore and economically develop the cislunar domain with the explicit aim of displacing the U.S. as the leading space power. Other nations are developing similar national strategies.”

“The U.S. is not alone in planning to return humans to the Moon or expanding the use of space,” the space industrial report says.

“China has announced its intention to do so by 2035. China 22 is committed and credible in its pledge to become the leading, global super-power, to include space, by 2049 marking the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic. A key component of China’s strategy is to displace the U.S. as the leading power in space and lure U.S. allies and partners away from U.S.-led space initiatives, through its Belt and Road Initiative and plans for an Earth Moon Economic Zone.”

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UK to Guard Against Threat From China and Russia in Space

August 10, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Alexander Zhang July 27, 2020 (theepochtimes.com)

• To counter threats from China and Russia, UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote in The Telegraph newspaper that the Ministry of Defense plans to pivot away from traditional defense and “operate much more in the newest domains of space, cyber, and sub-sea.”

• On July 15th, Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon in space using the same system that stalked a U.S. reconnaissance satellite earlier this year, according to the US Space Command. Said Wallace, “This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space.”

• “But Russia is not alone,” said Wallace. “China, too, is developing offensive space weapons and both nations are upgrading their capabilities.” China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been developing the power to blind, disorient, and even destroy the United States’ GPS system, U.S. experts told The Epoch Times news source

• “The weaponization of space is, unfortunately, well-advanced,” said US Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford. “Moscow and Beijing have already turned space into a war-fighting domain. Both are fielding new anti-satellite weapons in order to hold U.S. and allied space services at risk.”

• Wallace’s latest remarks appear to signal greater policy alignment between the two trans-Atlantic allies. “As traditional conflict shifts, and cyber and data become the battleground, we must outmaneuver our adversaries with a sharper technological edge and relentless focus on innovation,” said Wallace.

• In recent weeks, the UK government has targeted Russians with new sanctions, accusing Russian actors of cyber-attacks on vaccine research facilities and trying to meddle in last year’s election. Likewise, Britain has reversed its decision to allow the Chinese telecom firm Huawei to install Britain’s 5G network and reacted strongly to China’s imposition of a draconian national security law on Hong Kong, offering 3 million Hong Kong residents a path to British citizenship and suspending its extradition treaty with the former crown colony.

Britain is putting space at the heart of its defence in order to counter threats from China and Russia, according to UK Defence

Secretary Ben Wallace.

As part of a foreign, security, and defence policy review being conducted by the UK government, the Ministry of Defense is planning to pivot away from traditional defence and “operate much more in the newest domains of space, cyber, and sub-sea,” Wallace wrote in The Telegraph.

“This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space,” he said.

On July 15, Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon in space using the same system that stalked a U.S. reconnaissance satellite earlier this year, U.S. Space Command said on Thursday.

“But Russia is not alone,” said Wallace. “China, too, is developing offensive space weapons and both nations are upgrading their capabilities.”

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been developing the power to blind, disorient, and even destroy the United States’ GPS system, U.S. experts told The Epoch Times earlier this month.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation Christopher Ford said on Friday that “the weaponisation of space is unfortunately well-advanced.”

“Moscow and Beijing have already turned space into a war-fighting domain,” he said. “Both are fielding new anti-satellite weapons in order to hold U.S. and allied space services at risk.”

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The Perils and Promise of LEO Constellations

July 15, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Sandra Erwin July 4, 2020 (spacenews.com)

• Mike Griffin, the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, says that the Pentagon must reduce its dependence on large, billion-dollar satellites in geosynchronous orbit that are vulnerable to anti-satellite weapons. As an alternative, the DoD’s Space Development Agency plans to deploy satellites in ‘proliferated low Earth orbit’ constellations, or ‘PLEO’, to put up a communications transport layer and a surveillance and tracking layer of satellites for hypersonic missile defense.

• The smaller satellites comprising the PLEO constellations provide a resilient space infrastructure that is cheaper and easier to replace than geostationary systems, should they be destroyed by anti-satellite weapons. A key question is whether satellites and launch vehicles can be made cheap enough to make the cost of taking down a LEO system not worth it. “Changing the “cost equation” for an enemy will be a key challenge for DoD and the U.S. Space Force,” said Michael Martindale, the Director of Space Education for Space Force.

• ‘Low Earth orbit’ (LEO) satellites are easier to hit from ground-based anti-satellite weapons. Sophisticated in-space weaponry is not required for LEO satellites, as it would be to take down satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO).

• A recent study by Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies shows that China and Russia, despite their rhetoric about wanting to ban weapons in space, are building arsenals of ground-based anti-satellite weaponry. This sends a message to other countries that ground-based anti-satellite weapons are fair game. Says Harrison, “With its 2019 ASAT test, India made clear that it believes kinetic Earth-to-space ASAT weapons are a legitimate means of self-defense by deterrence.”

• In their respective space-arms control proposals, China and Russia do not prohibit ground-based weapons. “Their behavior says they’re only interested in banning the capabilities that they don’t already have,” says Martindale. With more LEO systems about to be deployed by the DoD, which are vulnerable to the ground-based anti-satellite missiles, American space superiority is now being contested.

• Space Force can’t possibly protect every satellite in Earth’s orbit, so it must figure out ways to deter countries from even attempting to take one down. The United States has more to lose than anyone else if satellites become targets in a war. The key is to make it too costly for an enemy to mount an attack. “You have to reduce the value of each individual target.” Says Martindale, “[I]f there are hundreds of targets, and the enemy knows that the U.S. can replenish those assets quickly, the cost equation changes and using missiles is not as effective.”

• Such a deterrent strategy would require a ready supply of replacement satellites and rapid access to launch services so constellations can be replenished quickly and inexpensively. Right now, it generally takes years to get a DoD satellite off the ground. Space Force needs to bring this equation down to days or weeks to launch and replace a LEO positioned satellite.

The Pentagon has already created an acronym — PLEO — for its plans to deploy satellites in proliferated low Earth orbit constellations.

DoD’s Space Development Agency is leading the way as it prepares to put up a communications transport layer and a surveillance and tracking layer for hypersonic missile defense.

The Pentagon’s staunchest proponent of PLEO, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering Mike Griffin, has argued that the Pentagon must reduce its dependence on large, billion-dollar satellites in geosynchronous orbit that are vulnerable to anti-satellite weapons.

The case for proliferated constellations in low Earth orbit is based on the idea that it provides a resilient space infrastructure. Smaller satellites would be cheaper and easier to replace than geostationary systems if they were destroyed by anti-satellite weapons. That approach should work in theory. A key question is whether satellites and launch vehicles can be made cheap enough to make the cost of taking down a LEO system not worth it.

Changing the “cost equation” for an enemy will be a key challenge for DoD and the U.S. Space Force, says Michael Martindale, a former U.S. Air Force space operator and currently the director of space education for the Space Force Association.

As much as DoD worries about GEO satellites becoming targets of China’s orbital weapons, LEO systems are much easier to hit — no sophisticated in-space weapons required. So-called direct-ascent weapon such as ordinary surface-to-air missiles and anti-ballistic missile interceptors are far more likely to be used against low-orbiting satellites than space-based weapons, Martindale says.

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Japan Aims to Put Man on the Moon, Collaborate With US

July 11, 2020
ExoNews Editor

July 2, 2020 (wionews.com)
• The Japanese government announced the country’s 10-year ‘Basic Plan on Space Policy’. Japan aims to double its space industry budget from $11 billion to $22 billion by the early 2030s, and work with the United States to track missiles and use intelligence-gathering satellites during natural disasters.

• One of the key components of the plan is to put a Japanese man on the Moon by 2024, while working with NASA. Japan plans to utilize its resources to strengthen its space policy through the ‘whole-of-government’ approach, while promoting public-private collaborations.

• Japan recently inaugurated the first ‘Space Operations Squadron’ at Fuchu Air Base in Tokyo as an “Air Self-Defense Force”, which will become fully operational by 2023. The squadron will work with the US Space Command to protect the country’s satellites from damage, including armed attacks according to the ‘Basic Space Law’.

• Japan already operates the ‘Quasi-Zenith Satellite System’ to enhance the US’s Global Positioning System in the Asia-Oceania regions. Japan plans to launch a new GPS navigation system of its own in 2023 with 7 satellites. It is concerned over China’s capability to jam or attack satellites with other neighboring countries North Korea and Russia capable of upsetting the regional balance in arms technology.

• In January 2019, China became the first nation to land a rover on the dark side of the lunar surface. This month, China plans to launch a mission to remote-controlled robot on the surface of Mars. The US has already sent four exploratory vehicles to Mars, and intends to launch a fifth this summer which should arrive around February 2021.

• China recently completed its own GPS-type geolocation system which it began in the early 1990s. 120 countries including Pakistan and Thailand are using the Chinese GPS system for port traffic monitoring, to guide rescue operations during disasters and other services, according to Chinese state media.

• When Donald Trump announced the creation of the new Space Force in December, Russia accused the US of seeing space as a place to wage war. In return, the US accused China and Russia of developing tools for jamming and cyberattacks that directly threaten US satellites.

• The Pentagon has stressed that it intends to maintain superiority in space to protect its GPS satellites. In the midst of an escalating space war, the US and Japan have strengthened their “space relations” to build their joint space network and strengthen their satellite force over the next 10 years.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese government for the first time in five years updated its Basic Plan on Space Policy while outlining the country’s 10-year basic space policy. It will work with the United States to not only track missiles but use intelligence-gathering satellites during natural disasters.

**Japan’s President, Shinzo Abe, and US President Donald Trump**

Japan aims to double its space industry by the early 2030s, which currently stands at $11 billion.

One of the key components of the plan is to put a Japanese man on the Moon by 2024 while working with NASA scientists.

Experts say Japan’s space policy is being led as a reaction to China’s 2013 Jade Rabbit lunar rover mission.

Public-private collaboration

“The Government of Japan, recognizing such huge potential of outer space and the severe situation that it is facing, hereby decides a basic plan on space policy for coming ten years with the view of the next two decades, and will secure sufficient budgetary allotments and other necessary resources, and effectively and efficiently utilize these resources to strengthen its space policy through the whole-of-government- approach, while promoting public-private collaborations,” the Japanse government said in a statement.

Air Self-Defense Force

Japan recently inaugurated the first Space Operations Squadron in Tokyo at Fuchu Air Base as an “Air Self-Defense Force” which will become fully operational by 2023.

It is meant to protect the country’s satellite from damage, including armed attacks while working with the US Space Command.

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New Pentagon Strategy to Defend U.S. Dominance in Space

June 26, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Sandra Erwin June 17, 2020 (spacenews.com)

• On June 17th at a Pentagon news conference, the DoD’s unveiled a ten-year Defense Space Strategy to replace an Obama-era 2011 space strategy based upon the Trump administration’s 2018 national defense strategy that calls for the U.S. military to prepare to compete with rising military powers such as China and Russia.

• China and Russia have developed capabilities to challenge U.S. access to space and “present the most immediate and serious threats to U.S. space operations.” “Both countries consider space access and denial as critical components of their national and military strategies.” Threats from North Korea and Iran are also growing, the document states.

• “DoD has to confront the new reality that adversaries have more advanced weapons designed to target U.S. military satellites and deny the United States a key military advantage,” according to the new strategy paper. “Now we have to defend U.S. and allies to secure the domain.” The DoD will work with allies and with the private sector to ensure space superiority.

• Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Steve Kitay said that the DoD has taken significant actions to stay ahead of other powers, such as the establishment of a) the U.S. Space Force as a new military service; b) the U.S. Space Command as a unified combatant command; and c) the Space Development Agency to help accelerate the acquisition of new technologies. The DoD recognizes there’s a space technology race underway and the United States has to accelerate the pace of innovation. Part of the strategy will be to “leverage commercial technological advancements and acquisition processes.”

• The DoD will focus on these key priorities: a) to protect and defend U.S. and commercial space capabilities; b) to deter and defeat adversary hostile use of space; c) to deliver advanced operational space capabilities; d) to bolster the domestic civil and commercial space industry; and e) to uphold internationally accepted standards of responsible behavior.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has released an updated space strategy that replaces the 2011 document issued by the Obama

administration.

The Defense Space Strategy unveiled June 17 provides broad guidance to DoD for “achieving desired conditions in space over the next 10 years,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Steve Kitay said at a Pentagon news conference.

The space strategy builds on the Trump administration’s 2018 national defense strategy that calls for the U.S. military to prepare to compete with rising military powers such as China and Russia.

DoD will work to maintain space superiority, provide space capabilities to U.S. and allied forces, and ensure stability in space, the strategy says.

“DoD has to confront the new reality that adversaries have more advanced weapons designed to target U.S. military satellites and deny the United States a key military advantage,” says the strategy. “Now we have to defend U.S. and allies to secure the domain.”

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Coronavirus Not Slowing Russian or Chinese Space Activities, US General Says

May 26, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Marcus Weisgerber May 12, 2020 (defenseone.com)

• In an April 15th statement (see here), the US Space Command stated that “satellites, which behaved similar to previous Russian satellites… exhibited characteristics of a space weapon” and that its maneuvers “would be interpreted as irresponsible and potentially threatening.”

• At an event on May 12th, Space Force Vice Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson (pictured above) said that amid the coronavirus pandemic, “…the Russians’… penchant for unsafe and what I would consider unacceptable behavior in space has not slowed down.” Russia and China continue to launch military rockets and test space weapons, the Vice Commander warned. The US government has postponed several satellite launches due to the pandemic.

• Last month, Russia tested a satellite-killing missile capable of destroying low Earth orbit satellites. US Space Command also criticized Russia for operating two satellites close to American satellites. Earlier this week, a Russian rocket carrying a telescope disintegrated after launch, leaving behind a debris field that threatens satellites orbiting Earth. (see article here) Meanwhile in April, a Chinese rocket carrying an Indonesian satellite failed to reach orbit. (see article here)

Russia and China continue to launch military rockets and test space weapons amid the coronavirus pandemic, a top U.S. general said Tuesday.
“Unfortunately in the case of the Russians, their increasing penchant for unsafe and what I would consider unacceptable behavior in space has not slowed down,” Lt. Gen. David Thompson, the U.S. Space Force vice commander, said at a Mitchell Institute event. “I can’t tell you what they’re doing with their crews and their individuals, but based on their macro-level activities, their cadence has certainly not slowed down.”

Russia tested a satellite-killing missile last month, drawing scorn from U.S. military leaders who said the “missile system is capable of destroying satellites in low Earth orbit.” U.S. Space Command also criticized Russia for operating two satellites close to American satellites.

“These satellites, which behaved similar to previous Russian satellites that exhibited characteristics of a space weapon, conducted maneuvers near a U.S. government satellite that would be interpreted as irresponsible and potentially threatening in any other domain,” Space Command said in an April 15 statement.

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Pentagon’s UFO Videos Exposed in ‘The Basement Office’ Docu-Series

May 19, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Nick Pope May 6, 2020 (nypost.com)

• On April 27th, the US Department of Defense confirmed that the three UAP/UFO videos taken by Navy pilots are genuine. But the DoD maintains that they don’t know what they are. If the Pentagon was hoping that the revelations about the UFO videos might be overlooked by a world focused on the coronavirus pandemic, it was wrong. The story made headlines all around the world.

• With the spotlight on the Navy videos, competing theories have been bandied about. Some think that it was some kind of pilot misperception or a glitch in the infrared cameras. Others claim that it was “black project” drone technology being blind-tested against the Navy fleet to see how they’d react. Some commentators thought Russia or China might be the culprit.

• The theory that attracted the most attention was that the mystery objects were extraterrestrial spacecraft. This writer, Nick Pope, hopes that it is extraterrestrials. The New York Post’s docu-series “The Basement Office”, in which Nick Pope is featured, probes all of these theories and puts some other classic UFO cases under the microscope. (see below for Episode 7: “Pentagon Releases Footage of UFOs”)

• If the Pentagon’s re-release of the UFO videos seems odd, their flip-flopping over the true nature of the DoD’s ‘Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program’ is truly bizarre. Since the existence of the AATIP was first revealed in December 2017, the Pentagon has changed its position on the role of the program multiple times. The Pentagon’s current position is that the program was not UFO/UAP related. Rather, it studied next-generation terrestrial aerospace threats.

• The problem is that a Defense Intelligence Agency letter to Congress (see here) listed 38 technical reports produced under the program. None of them related to Russian or Chinese aircraft. One related to the Drake Equation, used to estimate the number of civilizations in the galaxy. When Pope pointed out the disconnect, he was told the Pentagon was revising its line on the AATIP yet again. A new statement is expected soon.

• In a year when our lives have changed in ways that would have been unimaginable a few months ago, could the conspiracy theorists be right and might there be even bigger revelations ahead? Whatever happens, UFOs are now center stage in a way we’ve never seen before, being discussed seriously at the highest levels.

On April 27, the Department of Defense issued a statement confirming the release of three videos showing US Navy jets chasing “unidentified aerial phenomena” — that’s the approved military term for what the public calls UFOs. The videos had been in the public domain for some time, but there was always a degree of doubt about them. The Pentagon statement made it official: Yes, the videos are genuine, and no, the DOD still doesn’t know what these things are — the official categorization is “unidentified”.

The timing of the Pentagon’s announcement drew a lot of comment. Why release these videos now, people asked, with the world’s attention focused on the coronavirus? Was this a classic example of “a good day to bury bad news”? If that was the Pentagon’s plan, it backfired badly. Perhaps because we’ve been so saturated with COVID-19 coverage, everyone was looking for something else. Far from being buried, the story made headlines all around the world.

UFOs generate controversy. The videos were debated furiously and in the resulting skeptic versus believer dogfight, competing theories were bandied about: Some people tried to explain everything in terms of pilot misperception and glitches or misreadings of the forward-looking infrared cameras on which the films were taken.

Others argued that it was “black project” technology being blind-tested against the Fleet, to see how they’d react. One hears a lot about hypersonic missiles and drone swarms these days. Given that such programs are highly classified and deeply compartmentalized, it’s possible that one part of the government wasn’t aware of what another part was doing. Other commentators thought Russia or China might be the culprit.

Inevitably though, the theory that attracted the most attention was the possibility that the mystery objects were extraterrestrial spacecraft. I’m undecided on all this, but I hope it’s extraterrestrials — martians would be much more fun than Russians. Season 2 of The Post’s docu-series “The Basement Office” will probe all of the theories, and put some other classic UFO cases under the microscope.

30:38 minute S2E7 of “The Basement Office” docu-series
entitled “Pentagon Releases Footage of UFOs” (“New York Post” YouTube)

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US to Agree to PACT on Space Mining, ‘Safety Zones’ on Moon, Sidelining Russia

May 18, 2020
ExoNews Editor

May 6, 2020 (rt.com)

• The Trump administration is ironing out details of a plan that would legitimize the regulation of mining on the Moon and establishing “safety zones” around off-planet bases. According to Reuters, Trump plans to ask allies such as Canada, Japan, the UAE, and European nations, to sign such an agreement, but not Russia.

• The agreement could pave the way for private companies to claim ownership over the resources they extract, some of which hope to mine the Moon for water, which can then be converted into rocket fuel. The proposed pact also provides for “safety zones” around bases which could soon be established on the Moon.

• Washington has long eyed the vast resources that space has to offer. In 2015, Congress passed a law allowing American companies and individuals to tap into Moon and asteroid resources. Last month, Trump signed an executive order (see Executive Order, Public Law 114-90 here) declaring that the US does not view space as “a global commons” and arguing that “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space.”

• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans nations from staking territorial claims over any part of a celestial body beyond Earth. The Trump administration will argue that the agreement is aimed at boosting coordination between nations, and therefore only reinforces the 1967 treaty.

• The US will begin negotiating the pact with its allies “in the coming weeks.” However, early talks will not include Moscow, which has repeatedly blasted Washington for its continuous push to make space the legal equivalent of the Wild West, including plans to militarize the outer realms and seize territory on other planets.

• [Editor’s Note] The pact agreement could also pave the way for private companies to claim ownership over the resources they have already extracted through mining activities in the asteroid belt and other celestial bodies throughout the solar system, and ‘safety zones’ around existing off-planet bases.

The US has been working on a draft deal that would regulate mining on the Moon as well as establishing “safety zones” around would-be extraterrestrial bases. However, the proposal reportedly excludes Russia, a major space power.

The Trump administration is ironing out details of a plan that would give its potential mining activities on the Moon a semblance of legality – even if not all the space-faring nations, including major ones such as Russia, are on board – a source told Reuters on Tuesday.

Citing US officials, the outlet reported that Washington will ask some of its allies, such as Canada, Japan, the UAE, and European nations, to sign an agreement that would regulate mining on the lunar surface in preparation for greater human activity on the Moon.

The agreement could pave the way for private companies to claim ownership over the resources they extract, some of which hope to mine the Moon for water, which can be converted into rocket fuel.

The proposed pact also provides for the establishment of “safety zones” around bases which, according to Washington’s vision, could soon pop up on the Moon. The zones would vary in size depending on the “operation,” the source told Reuters.

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Newly Released Incident Reports Detail Navy’s ‘UFO’ Encounters

May 16, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Ryan Browne and Mike Conte May 14, 2020 (cnn.com)

• On May 13th, CNN newly released Navy Safety Center “hazard reports” (see here) detailing potentially hazardous encounters between Navy jets and UFOs, or “unidentified aerial phenomena” as the military has taken to calling them. Such concerns were reinforced when the Pentagon officially declassified videos of three encounters late last month. The newly released reports describe the UFOs as “Unmanned Aerial Systems,” or drones. The reports were obtained through a FOIA request filed by the website ‘the Drive’.

• Videos of UFOs recorded by Navy jet infrared cameras show rapidly moving objects and Navy aviators reacting in awe to them. One report describes an incident from March 26, 2014 states that an “unknown aircraft appeared to be small in size, approximately the size of a suitcase, and silver in color” passed within 1000 feet of a Navy F/A-18 jet. The US Navy pilot “attempted to regain visual contact with the aircraft, but was unable.”

• Another incident report describes an incident from November 2013 in which a Navy F/A-18 pilot “was able to visually acquire a small aircraft. The aircraft had an approximately 5 foot wingspan and was colored white with no other distinguishable features.” An indecent from June 27, 2013 described a Navy jet’s encounter with an aircraft that “was white in color and approximately the size and shape of a drone or missile.”

• But the military has been unable to identify who was operating the drones, presenting a major safety and security challenge to the Navy jets training in the restricted military training airspace off the east coast of Virginia. “I feel it may only be a matter of time before one of our F/A-18 aircraft has a mid-air collision with an unidentified UAS,” a report warned. “In many ways, (drones) pose a greater midair risk than manned aircraft. They are often less visually significant and less radar apparent than manned aircraft.”

• There is also the possibility that the drones could be operated by an adversary such as Russia or China seeking to collect information on US military operations. But the former head of a classified Pentagon UFO research program, Luis Elizondo, told CNN in 2017 that he personally believes “there is very compelling evidence that we may not be alone.” Elizondo says the UFOs display “characteristics that are not currently within the US inventory nor in any foreign inventory that we are aware of.”

• For his part, President Trump called the recently “officially” released Pentagon videos a “hell of a video”. “I just wonder if it’s real,” Trump said.

Washington (CNN) Newly released “hazard reports” detailing encounters between US Navy aircraft and “unidentified aerial phenomena” reveal details about incidents that were thrust into the spotlight when the Pentagon officially declassified and released videos of three encounters late last month.
“The unknown aircraft appeared to be small in size, approximately the size of a suitcase, and silver in color,” one report describing an incident from March 26, 2014, said.

During that encounter one of the Navy F/A-18 jets “passed within 1000′ of the object, but was unable to positively determine the identity of the aircraft,” the report added, saying the US Navy pilot “attempted to regain visual contact with the aircraft, but was unable.”

CNN on Wednesday obtained the Navy Safety Center documents, which were previously labeled “For Official Use Only.” They follow the Pentagon’s official release late last month of three short videos showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” that had previously been made public by a private company.

The reports were first published by the Drive, a website covering auto news and military issues, which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The videos show what appear to be unidentified flying objects rapidly moving while recorded by infrared cameras. Two of the videos contain Naval aviators reacting in awe at how quickly the objects are moving. One voice speculates that it could be a drone.

Objects could be drones

The newly released reports appear to share this assessment, describing many of the unidentified aircraft as “Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS),” the Pentagon’s official name for drone aircraft.

According to another incident report from November 2013 a Navy F/A-18 pilot “was able to visually acquire a small aircraft. The aircraft had an approximately 5 foot wingspan and was colored white with no other distinguishable features.”

“Due to the small size, the aircraft was determined to be a UAS,” the report said.

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The Truth Behind Russia’s Mystery ASAT Launch – ‘Not Operational’

May 10, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Sebastian Kettley May 4, 2020 (express.co.uk)

• On April 15th, Russia risked the ire of America’s Space Force with the launch of a DA-ASAT Nudol interceptor – a direct-ascent anti-satellite mobile missile system designed to destroy satellites in low Earth orbit. Space Force Chief General John W Raymond branded the test another example of “Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms controls”.

• A 2018 Pentagon report suggested that China and Russia would have an arsenal of anti-satellite technology ready for deployment by 2020. “The United States is ready and committed to deterring aggression and defending the Nation, our allies and US interests from hostile acts in space,” said General Raymond.

• The Nudol test is not the first time Russia’s actions in space have caught the world’s attention. Earlier this year, a pair of Russian satellites were seen tailing a multi-billion dollar US spy satellite. General Raymond warned the actions could have the “potential to create a dangerous situation in space”.

• According to Space.com, last month’s Russian satellite interceptor test did not produce a swarm of debris in orbit, meaning it did not hit a target. During a webinar broadcast on April 24th, Brian Weeden, director of program planning for the Secure World Foundation, discussed the ASAT technology. Russia is has tested its Nudol system at least 10 times as of May 4. Weeden says, “As far as we can tell, it’s not operational.” Weeden believes Russia is still a long way from successfully deploying its ASAT technology against foreign targets.

• The Nudol interceptor can target satellites up to 1,240 miles in low earth orbit. Most US spy satellites are in geostationary orbits of about 22,200 miles above the earth. Pavel Podvig, director of the Russian Nuclear Forces Project and senior research fellow at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, said during the webinar that “Basically, with this kind of (anti-satellite weapon), or even with a more kind of advanced ASAT, it’s hard to imagine a military mission in which this capability would be useful.” “In that sense, I’m an optimist. I do believe these capabilities will not be used (militarily), just because I do believe that they don’t give you much in terms of military capability.”

On April 15, Russia risked the ire of America’s Space Force with the launch of a DA-ASAT Nudol interceptor – a direct-ascent anti-satellite mobile

missile system. The ASAT system is designed to destroy satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which the US considers a possible threat to its interests.General John W Raymond, Space Force Chief of Space Operations, branded the test another example of “Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms controls”.

He said: “The United States is ready and committed to deterring aggression and defending the Nation,

our allies and US interests from hostile acts in space.”

The test came after a Pentagon report published in 2018 suggested China and Russia would have an arsenal of anti-satellite technology ready for deployment by 2020.

Some security experts, however, are not convinced Russia’s April launch proves Moscow’s ability to shoot

down satellites just yet.

Unlike a similar test carried out by India in March 2019, the launch was not an impact test.

According to Space.com, the launch did not produce a swarm of debris in orbit, meaning it did not hit a target.

And Brian Weeden, director of programme planning for the Secure World Foundation, does not believe the system is fully operational.

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