United States Space Force


The United States Space Force is the space service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and was established on 20 December 2019. Part of the United States Department of Defense, it is one of the six armed forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the second independent space force to have been formed, after the Russian Space Forces; together with that of China, it is one of only two still extant.
The United States Space Force traces its origins to the Air Force, Army, and Navy's military space programs created during the beginning of the Cold War. US military space forces first participated in combat operations during the Vietnam War and have participated in every U.S. military operation since, most notably in the Gulf War, which has been referred to as the "first space war". The Strategic Defense Initiative and creation of Air Force Space Command in the 1980s marked a renaissance for military space operations.
Proposals for a U.S. Space Force were first seriously considered during the Reagan administration as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Congress began exploring establishing a Space Corps or Space Force in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The idea of establishing a Space Force was revived in the late 2010s in response to Russian and Chinese military space developments, resulting in the Space Force's establishment on 20 December 2019 during the first Trump Administration.
The Space Force is organized as part of the Department of the Air Force alongside the U.S. Air Force, a coequal service. The Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian secretary of the Air Force, while the U.S. Space Force is led by the chief of space operations. The U.S. Space Force's status as part of the Department of the Air Force is intended to be an interim measure towards a fully independent Department of the Space Force, led by a civilian secretary of the Space Force.

Mission

The Space Force's statutory responsibilities are outlined in and originally introduced in the United States Space Force Act, the Space Force is organized, trained, and equipped to:
  1. Provide freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space;
  2. Conduct space operations; and
  3. Protect the interests of the United States in space.
The Department of Defense further defines the specified functions of the Space Force to:
  1. Provide freedom of operation for the United States in, from, and to space.
  2. Provide prompt and sustained space operations.
  3. Protect the interests of the United States in space.
  4. Deter aggression in, from, and to space.
  5. Conduct space operations.
The Space Force further breaks down its mission into three core functions, which align directly to its mission statement to "secure our Nation's interests in, from, and to space:"
  1. Space Superiority
  2. Global Mission Operations
  3. Assured Space Access

    Space Superiority

Space superiority defends against space and counterspace threats by protecting spacecraft in space or protecting against attacks enabled by adversary spacecraft, requiring that the Space Force establish control of the domain. The Space Force describes that at a time and place of the United States' choosing it must be able to assure continued use of spacecraft and deny adversaries use of their spacecraft or space-enabled capabilities.
Missions that support space superiority include orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare, and space battle management.

Global Mission Operations

Global mission operations integrates joint functions across all domains on a global space. Through space, the U.S. military and its allies can see, communicate, and navigate. Global mission operations also protect U.S. forces on Earth through early warning of incoming missiles and other types of attack. The Space Force describes global mission operations as allowing the rest of the U.S. military to defend the air, land, and sea.
Missions that support global mission operations include missile warning, satellite communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing.

Assured Space Access

Assured space access ensures that the Space Force can deploy and sustain equipment in outer space. This includes space launches as well as controlling and steering spacecraft out of the way of oncoming space debris to avoid collisions. The Space Force describes assured access to space as being able to make sure it can continue launching and conducting space operations 24/7.
Missions supporting space access include launch, range control, cyber, and space domain awareness.

History

The Defense Department enters space

In the aftermath of World War II the Air Force started examining the potentials and risks of space. General Henry H. Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces, tasked General Bernard Schriever to identify and develop technologies, with the scientific community, that could be beneficial for the new U.S. Air Force in the next global conflict. Identifying the importance of space, the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force each started their own separate space and rocket programs. The U.S. Air Force created the first military space organization in the world, establishing the Western Development Division in 1954 and placing it under the command of General Schriever. The Army followed a year later, creating the Army Ballistic Missile Agency under the leadership of General John Bruce Medaris and Wernher von Braun.
The Army led the United States into space, launching the first American spacecraft, Explorer 1, on 31 January 1958. Space exploration continued to be a military responsibility until the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was created later that year. The military shifted from conducting their own space exploration programs to supporting NASA's, providing the agency with its astronauts and space launch vehicles, while also conducting astronaut recovery and supporting space launches from the Air Force's Eastern Range.
The Air Force was recognized as the lead military service for space by the early 1960s, with the Army and Navy operating in supporting roles. Early military space efforts were focused on developing and fielding spacecraft to accomplish national objectives, with a focus on weather, reconnaissance and surveillance, communications, and navigation. On 18 August 1961, the Air Force and National Reconnaissance Office launched the first CORONA reconnaissance mission, recovering of film from space and imaging of the Soviet Union's territory.
Concerned about the development of the Soviet Union's own space forces, the Air Force advocated for a military human spaceflight program. General Curtis LeMay described strong parallels between World War I aviation and 1960s space operations, noting how quickly flying evolved from chivalric and unarmed reconnaissance flights to combat efforts designed to destroy enemy air superiority. General LeMay believed that it was naive to believe that the same trends were not expected to be seen in space and must be prepared for. Although the Air Force made significant progress in developing the X-20 spaceplane, Manned Orbiting Laboratory, and Blue Gemini, opposition from the Department of Defense prevented operational fielding.
In November 1968, the Central Intelligence Agency reported a successful satellite destruction simulation performed by the Soviet Union as a part of its Istrebitel Sputnikov anti-satellite weapons research programme. Possibly as a response to the Soviet programme, the United States had earlier began Project SAINT, which was intended to provide anti-satellite capability to be used in the case of war with the Soviet Union. However the project was cancelled early on due to budget constraints and after details were leaked to The New York Times in 1962. Despite these setbacks, the Air Force did successfully field the Program 437 anti-satellite weapon system, which used nuclear Thor missiles to intercept and destroy enemy spacecraft.
Although most military space forces were organized under the Air Force, they were still fragmented within several different major commands. Recognizing rapid growth of space forces and the need to centralize them under one command, the Air Force established Air Force Space Command in 1982. This was followed by the establishment of the joint United States Space Command in 1985, aligning Air Force Space Command, Naval Space Command, and Army Space Command under a single operational commander. These two moves, along with the Strategic Defense Initiative's establishment by President Ronald Reagan, led to a renaissance of military space operations in the 1980s.
File:STS-44 DSP deployment.jpg|thumb|Air Force Defense Support Program deployment from the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-44 mission
Space forces were first used in combat operations during the Vietnam War, with Air Force weather and communications spacecraft supporting ground, sea, and air operations. During Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, satellite communications were used to conduct command and control for the first time, while Operation El Dorado Canyon and Operation Just Cause marked the first time that major U.S. forces incorporated information from space-based intelligence systems.
The Persian Gulf War marked the first time that military space forces were unleashed to their fullest extent. Over sixty spacecraft provided 90% of theater communications and command and control for a multinational army of 500,000 troops, weather support for commanders and mission planners, missile warning of Iraqi Scud missile launches, and satellite navigation for air and land forces moving across a featureless desert. The decisive role that space forces played directly enabled an overwhelming Coalition victory and led to the Persian Gulf War being coined "the first Space War."
While U.S. space forces supported all U.S. military operations in the 1990s, Operation Allied Force marked the first use of Global Positioning System-aided munitions in a conflict, ushering in a new era of precision bombing. Following the September 11 attacks, U.S. space forces mobilized to respond as part of the Global War on Terrorism, Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Inherent Resolve.