Where Space Force Must Go

Article by Ret. Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast                         January 17, 2020                        (politico.com)

• Space is so powerful and so full of resources that it will change the way humanity consumes energy, information, goods and services, and will profoundly transform the way we travel. It is imperative that the newly established Space Force manage this journey into a trillion-dollar space economy, peacefully protect our people and values, and avoid war through dominance.

• In the 20th century, America delayed in utilizing new inventions that ultimately changed the world with the airplane, the tank, and nuclear weapons. It was only the intervention of the President and Congress that saved the day. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation with space. The speed of technological change promises to make the contest much more consequential to the future of American liberty and freedom.

• Space Force needs to be independent of the Air Force, which has an extremely limited mission. The Air Force isn’t interested in building spacecraft fueling stations in orbit to help commerce, or rescuing stranded Americans, or stopping space pirates. It isn’t interested in protecting the Moon, key “lines of communication”, or travel corridors in space to and from strategic resource locations. The Air Force doesn’t plan to deploy personnel in space at all.

• Recently developed propulsion technologies and inventions have created a new marketplace in space that offers raw materials worth trillions of dollars. Unless Space Force is independent and given a mission beyond Earth’s orbit in order to guard our private commercial economic interests, America will fall behind China’s progress and domination in space.

• Another problem is that the Air Force is dependent on a military-industrial complex that is only interested in building the current output of military hardware, employing Washington lobbyists to maintain this status quo. President Eisenhower warned America about the potential danger of the military-industrial complex.

• China is already building its guardian force. China is building a navy in space with battleships and destroyers. China will deploy nuclear propulsion and solar power stations in space within 10 years. China will have the capability of turning off the American power grid and paralyze our military anywhere on the planet. China is winning the space race with better space equipment and a superior strategy.

• If America wants peace in space, Congress must give an independent Space Force the mission to defend the American space economy and American values as a guardian force. And it must be done before we lose the strategic high ground.

• Lt. Gen. Steve Kwast, USAF retired, is CEO of Kwast Enterprise, a consulting company dedicated to building a future space economy.

• [Editor’s Note]  Former US Air Force Lieutenant General Steven Kwast was on the short list to be the Commander of Space Force before he abruptly retired last September. Rumor has it that he was shown the door for talking too much about building up the Space Force as a guardian for American economic interests. (see ExoArticle here) But is Kwast really worried about China surpassing the United States in its space technology and development? The United States shadow government has been at this secret space program game since the 1940’s. They have created a vast, nearly unimaginable presence in this solar system and beyond. China is desperately trying to catch up.

So the question is, is Kwast truly ignorant of the US secret space program? Is he unaware that for decades, the US Air Force Space Command has patroled a near Earth orbit, while the US Navy’s Solar Warden fleet patrols the galaxy? (Not to mention a Moon base, bases on Mars, and space-age technologies from anti-gravity propulsion and portal travel to food replicators and medical scanners.) Or is Kwast cleverly sending out a false alarm to the public to force the shadow government to disclose our true presence in space, without violating his non-disclosure agreement?

And is China also pushing for the disclosure of the US secret space program in its own way? The more that China creates the illusion of a space technology race, the more pressure is put on the US to disclose the truth. How long will the deep state shadow government get away with only giving drips of information disclosure, now and then, to stem American concerns that we are falling behind in modern technological development? How long can this ‘limited hangout’ continue?

And it should be noted that President Eisenhower’s concerns about the military industrial complex weren’t that they would procrastinate in developing advanced technology, allowing the Chinese to outpace us. It was the opposite. Eisenhower knew that a shadow government, which evolved into a massive “deep state”, had plans to ally with not-so-nice extraterrestrials to create a secret space program by plundering the wealth and resources of the United States and the world, while keeping it all hidden from the mind-controlled populace. And Eisenhower was 100% correct. But I suspect that Kwast knows this too.

Three times in the last century America found itself on the brink of disaster because it sat on the sidelines and delayed utilizing new inventions that ultimately changed world power. The development of the airplane, the tank, and nuclear weapons all caught the United States off guard. It was only through the intervention of president and Congress that saved the day. Today, we find ourselves in the same situation with space.

However, this time the speed of technological change promises to make the contest much more consequential to the future of America’s liberty and freedom. Space is so powerful and so full of resources that it will change the way humanity consumes energy, information, goods and services. It will also transform the way we travel more profoundly than the invention of the automobile and airplane combined. The newly established Space Force is imperative if we want to avoid war and manage this journey into the future of a new trillion-dollar space economy with the power to peacefully protect our people and values.

But it is not enough to simply build the Space Force. Unless the Space Force is independent of the Air Force and given the mission to defend the economy of space beyond earth’s orbit to the Moon and beyond, and achieve dominance over any other competitor, it will fail at its purpose to protect our values into the future. The problem is that the Air Force is proposing a Space Force that will not protect the marketplace of space beyond earth’s orbit. But China is.

This is happening for two reasons. First, the Air Force is trapped in an industrial-age mindset. It is projecting power through air, space, and cyber yet does not properly consider the space geography beyond earth’s orbit. The Air Force does not plan to accelerate the new space economy with dual-use technologies like spacecraft fueling stations in orbit to help commerce and the military rescue tourists and stop space pirates. It does not plan to protect the Moon or key “lines of communication” or travel corridors in space to and from resource locations and other strategic high ground. The Air Force does not plan to deploy Space Force personnel in space to see, build, and apply human creativity to the physical environment. Not does it plan to rescue Americans who may get stranded or lost in space. In short, the current Air Force plan for the Space Force will lose the race to dominant the strategic high ground.

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