Semper Supra:
The U.S. Space Force

On December 20, 2019, the United States Space Force was born within the Department of the Air Force. Although historically a domain of the United States Air Force, the strategic conditions had reached a tipping point. With the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation demonstrating technologies and capabilities that threaten to supplant America's superiority in space, the United States Congress and the President of the United States signed legislation that formed a military service branch dedicated to guarding against hostile postures/actions from America's near peer threats—and to delivering second-to-none capabilities to each of the other service branches and the Joint Force.

Most Americans recognize the indispensability of American space technologies such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), but America's dependence on space systems for combat includes everything from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, to electronic warfare (EW), sensing, and command, control, and communication (C3) capabilities. Such systems are critical for everything from aiding the guidance of JDAM munitions dropped from fighter/bomber aircraft, to providing space-based sensors for the Missile Defense Agency to be able to detect and coordinate the defeat of missile attacks—against the homeland, its deployed forces, its allies, and its strategic assets.

In addition to forming its Guardians in basic military training (such as installation defense and basic marksmanship/safety), the U.S. Space Force is focused on developing both a highly-educated officer corps (with many possessing/seeking advanced/multiple degrees from America's leading institutions) and a highly-trained cadre of enlisted personnel who are incredibly tech-savvy yet ready to act at a moment's notice—to provide the Armed Forces with the information, technology, and combat capabilities that modern warfare demands.

For more on how America's Space Force came to be:

• Interactive Timeline—Integration of Space with America's Armed Forces

• "Space Force Primer"—Center for Strategic and International Studies

• "Some Origins of the Idea 'Whose Time Has Come'"—Air Force Historical Studies (By: Priscilla Dale Jones)