Why we’d all be screwed without the Space Force
“It’s not space for the sake of space. It’s space for the sake of airmen, soldiers, sailors and Marines who are in harm's way."
BY DAVID ROZA | PUBLISHED JUN 10, 2022 1:28 PM
Space Marines may sound like a far-off concept, but in some ways, they are already here. That’s because your average Marine infantry grunts would have a hard time doing their job these days without a constellation of satellites more than 1,000 miles overhead. Intelligence satellites provide aerial photos of their objective, communications satellites connect them with command and control, and GPS satellites allow them to call in airstrikes with pinpoint accuracy.
“Fundamentally, integrated air-land operations are completely space-enabled,” said Aaron Bateman, an assistant professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University who studies space policy. “That’s what’s at stake.”
Despite being mostly invisible to the naked eye, space assets have become so ingrained in everyday military life that it’s hard to imagine what it would be like to operate without them.
“When I look at my own experience as an Air Force intelligence officer in the Global War On Terror, people took space for granted,” Bateman said. “You could get sophisticated imagery intelligence or get missile warnings in Iraq whenever you needed. Nobody thought of the infrastructure supporting that. Military personnel are very much aware of products of space capabilities, but not the mechanisms that give them those products.”
https://taskandpurpose.com/analysis/what-does-the-space-force-do/
