Outsider Question of the Week, Feb. 14

Your questions answered, feel free to send in more! You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Outsider Club. [Click here]( to manage your e-mail preferences. [Outsider Club logo] By Outsider Club Written Feb. 14, 2019 Outsider Club's Weekly Reader Question "First President Trump announced the space branch of the military, now there's talk about new nuclear missiles? Is this all a replay of Reagan Era saber-rattling?" — Morris T. --------------------------------------------------------------- NICK HODGE | Founder People made fun of Trump's Space Force when it was announced. They called it a waste. Stephen Colbert made fun of it, calling it "to infinity and beyond stupid." Colbert is a partisan comedian, not a space and security expert. If you talk to anyone who is, they will tell you this new military branch is desperately needed. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson actually defended the Space Force on The Late Show, telling Colbert it was necessary for satellite protection, asteroid defense, and the clean-up of space debris. Or take it from Congressman Mike Rogers: “If people could fully understand the threat we have today from Russia and China, they would understand how serious this is and how important it is to protect our space assets.” Or Jim Bridenstine, head of NASA: “As a nation, we are so completely dependent on space to the point where our adversaries have called space the ‘American Achilles heel.’ And these adversaries are now developing capabilities to deny us access to space. If they succeed, they could bring this country to its knees. We need a separate force that can focus exclusively on space given how important it is to the American way of life and how it is becoming more contested every day.” I'm a libertarian, so I'm not seeking entanglements. But this is asset protection that could ultimately prevent human combat and loss of life. Plus, you don't want to drive anywhere without GPS, do you? --------------------------------------------------------------- [jason_simpkins_250x285]JASON SIMPKINS | Editor No, this isn't saber-rattling. It's the new frontier of warfare. In the 20th century space was explored, but in the 21st century it's being exploited. It's essentially become the "high-ground" that military powers are seeking to dominate. Cutting-edge hypersonic weapons, for instance, fly into space at supersonic speeds and then descend back down onto their target. So space is where any potential interception would take place. Russia and China have both leapfrogged the United States in hypersonic capability and the Pentagon is currently rushing to upgrade its defenses to match them. They're going to need more space assets to do that. And speaking of space assets, what about satellites? If you shoot down or disable your enemy's satellites you essentially blind them. You could interrupt or disable communications and navigation. Important institutional functions like banking, law enforcement, and the internet itself could also be compromised. In military parlance this is called "space denial." Again, China and Russia are already fielding military units armed with anti-satellite (ASAT) weaponry that's capable of destroying American satellites. And that's just what's happening right now. In the future, there are plans to set up permanent installations on the moon, and even Mars. Corporations want to start mining asteroids for valuable minerals. Space is a crucial new battleground. And that's why we're developing a Space Force. --------------------------------------------------------------- [adam_english_2018_250x285]ADAM ENGLISH | Editor This was a long time coming. Quite frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen decades ago. There is this unspoken perception that anything you toss into space is just way out there in the vastness of the void. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Space is generally considered to "start" just 62 miles from the surface. After that, anything out there, especially large metal objects constantly broadcasting signals, is incredibly easy to see and intercept. All it takes is a highly accurate radar system and a slightly customized missile lobbed through less than 100 miles of atmosphere on the right trajectory. Range isn't an issue, it doesn't matter if it is a low Earth orbit around 1,200 miles or a geosynchronous orbit (think GPS) out past 20,000 miles. And satellites can't evade. The U.S. and Russia have been able to do this for decades. China did it for the first time in 2007. What has rapidly changed is how many satellites are in use and how critical they are to military and civilian targets. You can spend months and billions launching a satellite just to have an adversary spend a couple million on a modified surface-to-air missile to counter it. The same mismatch applies to the biggest and most expensive methods we use to project force into other countries — aircraft carriers. The U.S. just dropped $14 billion each on two of the latest design. New missile tech being developed by Russia and China is designed to counter those threats at a tiny fraction of the cost. And that is the crux of the issue for the new Space Force. We have billions upon billions in military assets that are very vulnerable and potential adversaries that cannot afford to match us, so they're focusing on workarounds to maintain some clout and power. It's about time we start thinking more seriously about protecting what we've got, and thus ourselves. --------------------------------------------------------------- To [learn more about our editors](, visit our website. 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