title: STAR WARS 2.0: Washington’s Battle to Fund Space Warfare
text: 21st Century Wire says In 1983, US President Ronald Reagan launched the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a space-based anti-missile system which came to be known as  Star Wars.  At the time, SDI was meant to give the US a nuclear first-strike against advantage against its geopolitical rival the Soviet Union by using various weaponized technologies including lasers, to intercept Soviet ICBM missiles in space. In the end, the program proved to be too costly, too complicated for a practical role out, and ineffective against non-space faring weapons like cruise missiles, submarine based missile batteries and long range bombers.  Now in 2017, as the Cold War is being re-heated again, the West is potentially looking at the complete militarization of outer space. This time the US nemesis is both Russia and China. But what really driving this new  space race  agenda?Consortium News Exclusive: As a backdrop to the Russia-gate hysteria and the heightened fear of China is a budget war over how much U.S. taxpayer money to pour into space warfare, explains Jonathan Marshall By Jonathan MarshallThere s a civil war being fought on our nation s soil, right in our capital. It pits the Secretary of Defense and senior generals against a bipartisan band of militant legislators who accuse the Pentagon of standing pat while Russian and China work to achieve military superiority over the United States in space.No doubt these bureaucratic warriors will eventually call a truce. But in the meantime, the American people will almost certainly become less secure and more indebted (in budget terms) as a result of both sides  macho posturing for new warfighting capabilities in space (differing mostly on how far and how fast to go).Eager congressional advocates of space warfare have attached an amendment to the House defense authorization bill requiring the Pentagon to create a new U.S. Space Corps to join the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard by 2019. Currently, the Air Force oversees most space warfare projects.The amendment has sent senior Pentagon leadership into a tizzy. Secretary of Defense James Mattis  strongly  urged Congress to rescind the requirement, stating in a letter that  it is premature to add additional organization and administrative tail to the department at a time I am trying to reduce overhead. Similarly, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson protested that the proposal will simply  add more boxes to the organization chart.  Meanwhile, Gen. John W. Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command, insisted that his service has space matters well in hand. (He should be happy   the Pentagon recently raised his position to a 4-star rank.)Upping the AnteIn response, Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican and chairman of the Strategic Forces subcommittee, announced that he was  pissed  and  outraged  at the Air Force for fighting the new Space Command, saying its obstructionism would  set back efforts to respond to adversaries and space threats  and allow Russia and China  to surpass us soon. The Air Force leadership would have us trust them: I don t think so,  Rogers sneered, as if speaking about the Russians.  They just need a few more years to rearrange the deck chairs: I don t think so. This is the same Air Force that got us into the situation where the Russians and the Chinese are near-peers to us in space.  He vowed,  We will not allow the status quo to continue. Behind all the fiery argumentation lies a bipartisan consensus that the United States must sharply increase its spending on the militarization of space to maintain global supremacy. Gen. Raymond applauded Congress for recognizing the  national imperative  of his mission to  normalize, elevate, and integrate space as a war-fighting domain. Secretary Wilson published an op-ed column last month on her new initiatives to  develop space airmen who have the tools, training, and resources to fight when   not if   war extends into space.  She fully expects Congress to follow through on her request for a 20 percent increase in Air Force space funding. (Total military spending on space, including non-Air Force programs like the National Reconnaissance Office, came to about $22 billion last year.)What s driving all this activity   aside from baser motives of bureaucratic advantage and financial gain  are  intelligence assessments  that  China and Russia have aggressive programs to both demonstrate and produce eventual operational capability to . . . attack our space assets across the spectrum,  in the words of David Hardy, acting deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for Space. While we re not at war in space, I don t think we can say we re exactly at peace, either, said Navy Vice Adm. Charles A. Richard, deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, in March. Gen. John Hyten, head of the Pentagon s Strategic Command, recently declared that the United States needs not only a good defense, but  an offensive capability to challenge  space threats from Russia and China.The High Stakes in SpaceThe stakes are potentially huge because the United States uses space for all manner of command, control, and intelligence missions, not to mention civilian applications. Orbiting satellites provide near-real-time images of conflict zones, sense missile launches and nuclear tests, provide precise positioning coordinates to guide weapons systems, and route secure communications to remote regions of the globe Continue this story at Consortium NewsREAD MORE SPACE NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Space FilesSUPPORT 21WIRE  SUBSCRIBE & BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV