On Friday, Trump signed a defense spending bill that officially created Space Force.

The #OrangeManBad NPCs on social media have been venting their frustration about space force when there are other problems the Left has created that Trump isn’t throwing money at.

https://twitter.com/tea_shh/status/1208233456163053569

https://twitter.com/lanesbsean53/status/1208381592244301824

.@realDonaldTrump has lost his fucking mind! We DON'T need a damn #SpaceForce, #SpaceFarce! No little green men want to come and take you away even though millions of people wish they would!

How about money for homeless people, poor people, disabled people, elderly people?! https://t.co/SizzZ6BP5x

— Ann – #IStandWithUkraine #ProChoice (@AnnOster13) December 21, 2019

https://twitter.com/PaladinCornelia/status/1208292984602517505

Then there are people who live in the idyllic la-la-land where si vis pacem para bellum doesn’t apply.

Dear @realDonaldTrump, 'warfare in space' is not a thing! Space is a peaceful place for exploring and spaceships! NO SPACE FORCE! SPACEY FORCE INSTEAD! RT IF YOU AGREE! #SpaceForce #SpaceyForce #BeMoreAwesome pic.twitter.com/aqBm3w0Tkh

— Benny the Spaceman (@LEGOBenny) December 21, 2019

Here is an article from NPR on what Space Force is going to do.

Trump Created The Space Force. Here’s What It Will Actually Do

When President Trump signed a $738 billion defense spending bill on Friday, he officially created the Space Force. It’s the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Services, and the first new military service since the Air Force was created in 1947.

“Space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” President Trump said during the signing ceremony. “Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough. But very shortly we’ll be leading by a lot.”

The Space Force will fall within the Department of the Air Force, but after one year it will have its own representation on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the text of the law that created it. That makes it similar in structure to the Marine Corps, which is a part of the Department of the Navy but has its own seat on the Joint Chiefs.

The new service branch essentially repackages and elevates existing military missions in space from the Air Force, Army and Navy, said Todd Harrison, who directs the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

“It’s about, you know, all the different types of missions our military already does in space — just making sure that we’re doing them more effectively, more efficiently,” said Harrison.

“It will create a centralized, unified chain of command that is responsible for space, because ultimately when responsibility is fragmented, no one’s responsible,” he added.

Military systems in space provide crucial information to the troops. For example, GPS satellites help the military hit targets precisely. Satellites gather intelligence, detecting things like missile launches. They’re also used for communication and collect data on the weather.

These last points are what are most important.

Now, for a little bit of personal history.  Until I got sick and was rolled out, I was in ROTC.  I don’t talk about much for obvious reasons.

History was always a favorite subject of mine.  It comes from my dad who was a YUGE Civil War and Lincoln history buff.

Because I was ROTC, I majored in military history.  A subject I have continued to study to this day.

Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it.  For instance, we forgot what caused WWII from the end of WWI and we are seeing much of that repeat itself today in Europe and the United States.

Along with military history is strategy as a favorite subject of study.

To understand Space Force we need to look at WWII, the formation of the Air Force, and current military and civilian strategic weakness.

For more than a century, it was understood that the nation that “rules the waves rules the world.”

During WWII, we learned that the nation that rules the air rules the battlefield.  An army cannot hold the ground if it does not hold the air above it.

During that war, all military flight operations were under either the Navy or the Army Air Corps.

Much of the senior Army leadership came from the infantry.  Air combat was new and the old brass didn’t have a full strategic and tactical conceptualization of the importance of air combat superiority.

We’ve seen this many times before in the military.  Issuing single shot black powder rifles when the enemy had repeating bolt actions.  Refusing to issue the BAR during WWI.  Generals who wanted to engage in cavalry charges across no-mans-land during WWI.  Poor development of tanks and tank tactics going into WWII.

The air was too important to leave in the hands of generals and commanders who thought of war as soldiers who carried rifles into battle.  The creation of the Air Force was to form a military command with a sole focus on air combat and the use of resources.

From the National Security Act of 1947:

In general, the United States Air Force shall include aviation forces both combat and service not otherwise assigned. It shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The Air Force shall be responsible for the preparation of the air forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Air Force to meet the needs of war.

The same mission-specific directive that split the Air Force off from the Army Air Corps and later the Army Ari Forces.

If what we are in now is 4th generation warfare, space will be 5th generation warfare.

I have said, I would  like to be a member of Congress and get all the Joint Chiefs and four-star generals at a table and ask them this question:

 “Think about all the strategy you would employ in our next war.  It might be against Pakistan, or North Korea, or Iran, or some rogue non-state actor like ISIS.  Think about what you would do to win that war.  Now… what are you going to do because all of your satellites are dead?”

My concern has been a growing reliance, I believe over-reliance, on digital technology.  That is my personal bugaboo as a meat-space engineer.

But that is the question that Space Force will answer.

Yes, our military is (over) reliant on GPS for everything from troop movements to weapons guidance.  The same for satellite communications.

But it doesn’t end there.

GPS has made commercial transport, shipping, and travel possible.  The way goods go across the ocean, get put in a plane, and ultimately get delivered by truck to your door is made possible with GPS.

An attack on civilian GPS systems would do severe harm, if not cripple commercial shipping, not to mention commercial aviation.

Our economy is driven by digital communications.  More Americans are going cell phone only.  Think of the panic that occurs after a natural disaster and cellphone service gets jammed. Consider the effect on our economy if an enemy nation or state-sponsored terrorist organization was able to destroy one or more civilian telecommunications satellites.

It would be a terrorist attack of incredible proportion to simply create an “area denial weapon” for a portion of space, by launching a rocket with a warhead that fills an orbital altitude with satellite shredding shrapnel.

A single unified command that defends military and commercial satellites is vital for both strategic and economic defense.

That is way more important than Orange Man Bad.

The best part about Space Force is that Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama is the leading site to place SPACECOM.

I cannot wait to become a civilian with US Space Force.