Oct 2, 2024 03:43 PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlesbeam...than-ever/
EXCERPTS: . . . Three important factors drove Congress’ decision to construct the Space Force. First, the major system acquisitions which accounted for 80 percent of the space budget were hemorrhaging money with unending cost and schedule overruns. Second, space was no longer a benign sanctuary – our ability to operate in this domain was being contested by China and other space-faring adversaries. Third and most importantly, satellite systems were becoming increasingly vital to our country’s civil and military infrastructure, especially in modern warfare.
Quite a bit of administrative progress has been made since, but in the past five years, the nature of warfare has changed dramatically, and the original problems that called for the Forces’ construction continue to fester to this day amid bureaucratic inertia and resource constraints.
The ubiquitous and global reach of space, coupled with the interconnected nature of military and civilian systems, puts the space domain at the core of every aspect of modern life. At the same time, the speed of warfare continues to accelerate, and space systems have become the center of mass around which all aspects of the fighting forces must be communicated, informed, and directed.
There are many physical threats to these critical hybrid systems [...] Even today, we remain highly vulnerable to these types of attacks across all space missions. ... only by maintaining cyber superiority can we achieve space superiority.
The services are therefore choosing to address these changes by recapitalizing their infrastructure. The military of today prefers more resilient force structures, relying less on the “exquisite few” mindsets of the past and more on networked and commoditized swarms. In its role as a supporting force, the Space Force is deploying and operating the secured mesh networks and applications, and generating data, which are quickly becoming the cornerstone that its sister services will rely on in future military contests.
[...] Compared to other services, very little about the Space Force should be led or managed as it had been in the past with its sister services... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . Three important factors drove Congress’ decision to construct the Space Force. First, the major system acquisitions which accounted for 80 percent of the space budget were hemorrhaging money with unending cost and schedule overruns. Second, space was no longer a benign sanctuary – our ability to operate in this domain was being contested by China and other space-faring adversaries. Third and most importantly, satellite systems were becoming increasingly vital to our country’s civil and military infrastructure, especially in modern warfare.
Quite a bit of administrative progress has been made since, but in the past five years, the nature of warfare has changed dramatically, and the original problems that called for the Forces’ construction continue to fester to this day amid bureaucratic inertia and resource constraints.
The ubiquitous and global reach of space, coupled with the interconnected nature of military and civilian systems, puts the space domain at the core of every aspect of modern life. At the same time, the speed of warfare continues to accelerate, and space systems have become the center of mass around which all aspects of the fighting forces must be communicated, informed, and directed.
There are many physical threats to these critical hybrid systems [...] Even today, we remain highly vulnerable to these types of attacks across all space missions. ... only by maintaining cyber superiority can we achieve space superiority.
The services are therefore choosing to address these changes by recapitalizing their infrastructure. The military of today prefers more resilient force structures, relying less on the “exquisite few” mindsets of the past and more on networked and commoditized swarms. In its role as a supporting force, the Space Force is deploying and operating the secured mesh networks and applications, and generating data, which are quickly becoming the cornerstone that its sister services will rely on in future military contests.
[...] Compared to other services, very little about the Space Force should be led or managed as it had been in the past with its sister services... (MORE - missing details)
