The Case for the Space Force

Is there a need for the Space Force.


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Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars it's not just the Militarization of the Space but also Safe guarding the interets in the Space and create a well secured near space for much secure and regulated domain's.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiara the militarization already started as long as the 1940's. We now are seeing the formation of the Full fledged Space Forces.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars the civilian expiration of the space only started in the 1950's. But the Militarization of the space started as back as 1944. Only now after many countries have constant access to the space and the use of the space for the military use has started the Accessibility and the Denial play's. With every space faring nations is going to Militarize the space. And we also need to.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiara the Mlecchas already has a space force without calling its as a space force. But a full fledged PLASSF with space as their main domain and cyber just to make it sound less fearfull. :hehe:
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars what we need are more military satellites and only a full fledged Space Force can execute if fully not a poorly trained, poor equipped and poorly trained other services.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars Growing impatient with the other services, who will be more interested in jet fighters, Tanks and Ships rather than the space. And as a separate military service within the Department of the Air Force, with the commandant of the Space Force as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This proposal can be put forward to separate space professionals from the other services, give space a greater cultural focus, and help develop a leaner and faster space acquisitions system. This is the concern that the space mission had become subordinate to the other services as only a support preferred air dominance mission.
 

Haldilal

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Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars we can fast track the Over the horizon radars as a assets of the space force and develop the space tracking and surveillance systems.
 

Haldilal

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India needs its own space force.

India is setting up a military space agency called the Defence Space agency (DSA) that’s expected to command of all the space assets of India’s army, navy and air force.

For nearly the last decade, a debate has taken place in India highlighting the need to establish a Space Command to address military needs. For all these years, India has had a Military Space Cell, a tri-service organization under the aegis of the Integrated Defence Services, or IDS. Formation of this organization was announced on June 10 2008, by the then-defense minister. The idea of DSA was mooted a few years back, possibly with a view to make an incremental increase in the space-related defense infrastructure. Hence, instead of having a Space Command headed by a three-star general, it was thought suitable to create a DSA headed by a two-star general. All these structures had a relevance when India was not a military power with anti-satellite (ASAT) capability. However, now that India successfully conducted its March 27 ASAT, can DSA take India’s military space agenda further, or there is a need to establish a separate ecosystem for this?

For all these years, military space — or, more specifically, usage of space assets to enhance military functioning — was the requisite which policymakers in India were required to address. However, today that is not the case. Now, by demonstrating an ASAT, India has added one more dimension to its military policy and this is about space deterrence. Over the years, the idea of nuclear deterrence has established itself objectively in the security realm. That may not be the case with the space deterrence and some haziness could exist. To ascertain the notion of space deterrence, it is important to develop a context. Theoretical postulations based on theories of international relations may take time to evolve. However, India could quickly establish a practical context for itself to situate its ASAT capability in the strategic domain. For this purpose, India needs to leapfrog from a Defence Space Agency to an Indian Space Force.

On Jan. 11, 2007, China conducted its first anti-satellite missile test by destroying one of its own satellites at an altitude of 865 kilometers. This test was not a transparent act announced in advance by China’s government. The world came to know about via U.S. space surveillance capacity to track the space debris generated by such tests. This test has polluted the orbital commons, posing a debris-strike threat to various satellite systems. China got severely criticized for conducting this test. Since 2007, China has continued with its counter
space technology program, but has refrained from carrying out additional debris-creating tests. It appears China had very little conceptual clarity about what should be their next steps after the 2007ASAT test. Additionally, global criticism could have made it difficult for China to think of any follow-up. China has yet to institutionalize any transparent space security architecture.

Luckily, India is in a diametrically opposite situation: India’s test has created much less debris, most of which is in lower altitude and
likely to dissipate shortly. India has a transparent agenda for the conduct of activities in space and is totally against weaponization of outer space.

Today, with an ASAT test under its belt, India has clearly identified space as a strategic domain in its overall security architecture. Obviously, using satellite technology for military purposes becomes only one of the aspects of its overall space security architecture. For India, the time has come to make a clear distinction between its military and civil space programs.
For the foreseeable future, there is no need for India to conduct any debris-creating ASAT tests to further establish its space agenda in the strategic realm. However, from a space security perspective, it is important for India to evolve a mechanism for the generation of space situational awareness (SSA). Owing to the expense of such system, it is important for India to take initiative for the creation of a multilateral SSA mechanism.

For establishing a strategic space program, India needs to develop various counter-space capabilities like electromagnetic pulse systems, lasers, jamming techniques and cyber options. In addition, satellite-hardening technologies and space debris removal techniques are required to be mastered, too. Spaceplanes, satellite swarms and launch-on-demand services are required for network-centric warfare. India should also develop the ability for the human spacecraft to move from one orbit to another. New quantum-based communications systems and cells for studying space weather forecasting are the requirements of the present and the future.

Lastly, if India is ‘dreaming big’ with ASAT, then it has to also ‘think big’ to make its space security agenda more inclusive and an important constituent to this could be an establishment of Indian Space Force.

 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars

Hamare upar Nazar rakhe za rahe hai.

The U.S. Space Force can now collect critical weather data from a repurposed government satellite, the armed service announced Sept. 8, ensuring that war fighters have an accurate picture of what’s happening over the Indian Ocean.

The Space Force declared initial operational capability of the Electro-optical Infrared Weather System Geostationary satellite, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite known as GOES-13.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars

Use of ‘outer space’ (also referred as ‘space’) to fight wars is not a new idea. Rockets reaching high into the atmosphere was talked about since World War II. The investments made by the Nazi’s towards development of such rockets are well known. In the 1960s, the erstwhile USSR had an orbital weapon called a “killer satellite”. However, this weapon had some problems with its guidance system which led to failure of the entire project.

The Soviets also had an orbital weapon known as the FOBS (Fractional Orbit Bombardment System). The concept was to place a hydrogen bomb in low earth orbit (LEO) for quick launch against a ground target if need arose. The system was secretly tested from 1966 to 1970, and the Soviet government revealed that it had 18 FOBS launchers in their inventory at Tyaratam.

Space was used for nuclear testing during the 1950s and early 1960s. Subsequently, atomic testing in space was banned by the Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963). However, underground testing continued till 1980 with France and China being the last to carry out such tests. Space was important for Ronald Regan’s Strategic Defence Initiative (which subsequently became famous as “Star Wars”) during the eighties. Today, space is an inseparable part of the US missile shield plan.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars there is this person Wing Commander Ajay Lele. Who is actively making the case for the Space Force.
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Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars

Mission ‘Shakti’ executed on March 27, 2019, successfully shooting down a low-earth satellite, demonstrated India’s anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities. This enabled India to join the elite club of countries having similar capabilities; the US, Russia and China. India’s draft ‘Spacecom Policy 2020’ is expected to bring a transformational change, making the entire space ecosystem accessible including satellite communications capacity and private launch vehicle companies using ISRO’s launch facilities. This will surely help probe space more. India’s Defence Space Agency (DSA) headquartered at Bengaluru is a tri-service agency that is in formative stage. It is tasked with operating the space-warfare and satellite intelligence assets of the Armed Forces. But the government and the military need to speedily build its Space Power, ASAT capability being only one part of Space Power.

General David H. Berger, Director of the US Marine Corps has recently directed activation of Marine Corps Forces Space Command (MARFORSPACE) subordinate to the US Space Command effective October 1, 2020. Major General Matthew G. Glavy of Marine Corps will command MARFORSPACE, while he also commands the Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command (MARFORCYBER). MARFORSPACE will focus on providing space operational support to the Fleet Marine Force while building a convergence capability to increase war fighter lethality. Glavy said, “We have an incredible opportunity to create a synergy across the information environment based on our unique position within the naval and joint force. Space and cyber are critical capabilities in the information environment that, when brought together, can provide a competitive advantage. Convergence requires flexible and interconnected teams focused on solving hard problems with speed. We cannot be successful in these technology-heavy domains without prioritising people, ideas and things... in that order.” Glavy will command both MARFORSPACE reporting to USSPACECOM and MARFORCYBER reporting to US Cyber Command.

The new Chief of Space Operations (CSO) Planning Guidance document issued in the US, states, "While we will extend and defend America’s competitive advantage in peacetime, the ultimate measure of our readiness is the ability to prevail should war initiate in, or extend to space." It covers all aspects of the US Space Force, talks of “Orbital Warfare” and aims at rapidly building the space force capability to handle “shift from space as a benign domain to a war fighting domain” in line with the National Defence Strategy. The document acknowledges that military space capabilities legacy systems are not consistent with war that initiates in or extends to space. Because of speed and scale of space warfare, requirement is of default command style of ‘command by negation’ where subordinate echelons are expected to default to action except where a higher echelon has specifically reserved authority. India has still not defined a national security strategy and a concept like the US Space Force ‘command by negation’ may be considered anathema given the highly centralised national set up in India. But we need to modify with times.

COMMUNICATION SATELLITES​

India must acknowledge realities of the new age and the changes and developments happening around the world including in our immediate neighborhood, especially China, and draw lessons from it. In the deliberate and well thought out modernisation of the PLA, China has created the Strategic Support Force, which combines the functions of intelligence, technical reconnaissance, electronic warfare, cyber warfare and space warfare. It can be seen from the above that the US Marine Corps too is focusing on synergising space warfare with cyber warfare. Why then are we going along with the archaic thinking of establishing separate tri-service commands in these domains, moreover, when we are burdened with handicaps like: the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has only administrative functions – no operational role; even if CDS is given operational control of tri-service commands, the ground reality is that the Defence Secretary (a bureaucrat) has more powers than the CDS being responsible for defence policy in peace and war; India will never have a NSA with military background given the subservience of politicians to bureaucracy and distrust of military, and; India keeps the military away from security and strategic policy formulation.

When the Armed Forces Special Operations Division (AFSOD) was to be raised, the US offered help in its establishment. In fact, a senior US Marine Corps officer visited India for the purpose. But our bureaucracy, political hierarchy dependent on them and the national security advisor-cum-national security set up declined the offer. The result was that the AFSOD was raised in a slip shod manner and not an organisation which is not inclusive and not commensurate to the increasing threats to India at the sub-conventional level. This does not really matter to the national hierarchy because we have never acknowledged that the primary task of Special Forces is on enemy soil at the strategic level including employment on politico-military missions. Resultantly, India remains at adverse disadvantage in the sub-conventional level vis-à-vis China and Pakistan is increasing.

Not with standing the above, we should use the expertise of our strategic partners, especially from the US in expanding our Defence Space Agency into a full-fledged effective organisation, as also establishment of India’s Space Force that is fully geared for ‘orbital warfare’. but China will remain the common threat. India’s ‘deep state’ would endeavor that rise of India’s space power to combat future conflicts advances at slow pace. But doing so will not be in our national interests.

 

Vamsi

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Muriccans and Mlecchas already have co-orbital ASAT weapons ,we too need them ASAP and Yes, we need a space force as a separate branch of military and it should have its own chief of space staff. I also read some where that mlecchas already have a SATELLITE with ROBOTIC ARM in Geo Stationary orbit to grab enemy satellites.
 

Haldilal

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Muriccans and Mlecchas already have co-orbital ASAT weapons ,we too need them ASAP and Yes, we need a space force as a separate branch of military and it should have its own chief of space staff. I also read some where that mlecchas already have a SATELLITE with ROBOTIC ARM in Geo Stationary orbit to grab enemy satellites.
Ya'll Nibbiars yeah there are currently three space Forces and France, Canada, Japan are already making plans for the space force. We need to make the DSA in to full fledged arm for better full time space operations training, better chain of command, better, full fledged Space defence policy, space assets development's, funding's.
 

Haldilal

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Ya'll Nibbiars Waiting for the first Sky Marshal to head the Indian Space Force.
 

Vamsi

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We need a Space Force to protect our assets from enemy co-orbital ASATs and other type of ASATs and to destroy or grab enemy assets.
 

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