The US Space Force gets to work. So

The US Space Force is preparing to become the enabler for all other US Armed Forces. Head of Space Operations Jay Raymond revealed that the JStars used to detect the ground movements of adversaries will be replaced by a network of advanced satellites. Space is increasingly military

Space force comes into play. In a few years, all of the United States’ operational forces will have to go through the capabilities of the new armed force in order to obtain valuable information on the movements on the ground, in the theater, of the adversaries. This is the news the general announced yesterday John W. RaymondSaid Jay, the head of US space operations, who is accustomed to the American public (and not only) the gradual disclosure of the capabilities of the space force.

Ground observation

For years, we’ve been thinking about how to replace the JStars, short for “Joint Surveillance Targeted Attack Radar System,” and the E-8 built by Northrop Grumman for the US Air Force and US Army. It entered service in 1997 and is the spearhead for the capabilities of the Ground Moving Target Indicator (Gmti), that is, the ability to identify and track the movements of vehicles and people on the ground, and to collect and disseminate information to forces in theater. It is a modified Boeing 707 aircraft, command and control flying platform. Like JStars, the U2 spy plane (by Lockheed Martin) and the Global Hawk drone are also used on the Gmti. The capacity involved is increasingly important in modern operating scenarios, increasingly geared towards a “highly contested environment”.

The project

The big news that General Raymond announced is that the US Space Force will be responsible for determining the solution to replace the JStars. It wouldn’t be planes, but satellites. “You will see that it will be another area to actively work in to be able to offer GMTI capabilities,” the general said while attending the McAleese Defense Programs FY2022 conference yesterday. Eat it with care Give Defense One. For the newly formed armed force, it would be a big leap, accompanied by everything related to the program, from contracts to its subsequent management. This means that GMTI information about ground movements will be collected and disseminated not by the intelligence communities, but directly by the space force, which will become possible for all other armed forces.

Aspirations

“Our goal is to increase US military power, bearing in mind that space systems will play an increasingly increasing role in military missions,” Raymond himself explained in December, signing an editorial for Atlantic Ocean. He added that all other armed forces rely on space capabilities, especially communications and navigation. The goal is to be able to increase these capabilities, but also to anticipate the possibility of direct confrontation in space. This is the goal of the official birth of the US Space Force at the end of 2019, with a signature Donald Trump On the military budget for the following year. Today the number of “sentinels” (as they are called the Space Force Army) is about four thousand. The year 2020 was a prerequisite for the consolidation of the new armed force.

Stages

In March last year, it departed from the AEHF-6 secure communications satellite, its first out-of-orbit mission with the United States’ Sixth Armed Force Hat. In April, 86 new lieutenants arrived who graduated from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and are set to go down in history as the “Class of 2020”, the first team assigned to the Space Force. In May, from the Oval Office, the Armed Forces flag was unveiled (the United States has not introduced a new flag for 72 years): a black background, “US Space Force MMXIX” written at the bottom and in the middle, surrounded by stars, the logo has already been revealed In January (not without social fun due to the resemblance to Star Trek). In December, then, the first astronaut to wear the Colors of the Space Force, at Colonel Michael HopkinsThen on board the International Space Station, he swore an oath to move from Air Force to Space Force.