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VP Pence Lays Out Trump's Vision For Establishing a US Space Force (nbcnews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday laid out details for President Donald Trump's proposed new branch of the U.S. military responsible for protecting national security in outer space. From a report: In a speech at the Pentagon, Pence said the new Space Force would be established by 2020. "As President Trump has said, in his words, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space -- we must have American dominance in space. And so we will," Pence said. "Space is, in his words, a war-fighting domain just like land and air and sea." He added, "History proves that peace only comes through strength, and in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength in the years ahead." The Space Force would ultimately become the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces and would be equal to the other five, Pence said. The Department of Defense has prepared a report laying out the phases of creating the new branch, which will ultimately have to be reviewed and approved by Congress.

19 of 528 comments (clear)

  1. You idiots. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Know what will happen because of this? Every other nation on the planet that has a space program will now be compelled to do the same. Likely won't be long before there are nuclear warheads in orbit from one country or another. So much for peaceful space exploration. More fucking Dominionist shit from Pence and the Trump administration. I hope Congress votes it down.

    1. Re: You idiots. by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Problem is that an arms race is hugely expensive, and orbiting nukes mean that one fuckup means a city gone or a large part of the country hit by EMP. Dominionist is the wrong term, more like apocalyptic.

    2. Re: You idiots. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This isn't a video game.

    3. Re: You idiots. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also who wants to live in a world that seems to be locked into a continual cycle of war or threat of war? Would be nice if we'd evolve past this bullshit.

    4. Re: You idiots. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is what we've evolved INTO. It's the optimal solution to survival of the fittest. Nature has spoken.

    5. Re: You idiots. by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Also who wants to live in a world that seems to be locked into a continual cycle of war or threat of war? Would be nice if we'd evolve past this bullshit.

      The trouble is....who (which nation) stops first and puts themselves into danger in the hopes that the other nations follow the example, vs continuing the race and eventually overcoming the weaker nations?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:You idiots. by vux984 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's worse than that. China has already demonstrated they can and will shoot down an orbiting satellite.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      And the only take aways anyone with half a brain would have are:

      a) a space based weapons platform would be a sitting duck.

      b) the orbital debris from any sustained orbital conflict will make earths orbit completely inhospitable for decades. A bit of scrap the size of a pencil eraser moving at 8 km/s is going to do a number on anything in its way.

      You can't "dominate" orbital space the way you can dominate air or land. All you can do is render it completely inhospitable for everyone.

    7. Re: You idiots. by sheph · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, says history. Every country on earth was acquired by conquest. It's lovely to think we could become civilized, and move beyond that. But human nature would suggest that it's not attainable. That being the case, I'd rather the country I live in be the dominant one rather than the dominated.

      --
      I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
    8. Re: You idiots. by jythie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This was only true when conquest was cheaper than trade. This pretty much ended with the late industrial revolution, which is why today you only really see war of conquest in the most impoverished regions.

    9. Re: You idiots. by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why the ACTUAL FUCK do you believe we have to "overcome weaker nations"? Are you also forgetting the tags around your comment?

      Not saying we (as in the US) have to overcome weaker nations, but if WE (as in the US) stop our build up first, we become one of the weaker nations that other stronger nations would be very tempted to overcome.

      Unless everyone verifiably puts down their weapons at the same time....the first one to put them down alone eventually becomes a loser to the others.

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Why not use the USAF? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not use the USAF instead of creating another parallel bureaucracy? Better yet, why not merge all of the branches (cut out the Coast Guard and put it back under DoT control) and share as much bureaucracy as possible?

    It's not like we don't have domestic issues (crumbling roads, health care, education, etc) to spend money on. Cut taxes, cut the debt, or start spending money on things that benefit people other than military contractors.

    1. Re:Why not use the USAF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What, then they couldn't ask for a 20% increase in defense spending. This is like Bush creating DHS. Creating new agencies or military branches are a great way to funnel cash to your buds, not the previous guy's buds. There is a good argument that there is already too much duplication among the existing branches.

      There is also the issue that most of the modern problems in international relations cannot be solved by killing people better. Imagine a world where schools, hospitals, and economic development were the lead in American influence in the world instead of bullets and bombs.

  3. Yeah, that's one smart move by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Start an arms race in the ONLY fucking military area you're NOT superior than the rest of the planet combined. You could simply lean back and be Number 1. On water, land and sea, nobody can hold a candle to your military power and in space there's the Outer Space Treaty that everyone who could even remotely matter signed and heeds.

    The US doesn't even have the rockets to launch anything like a nuke. Russia has man rated rockets to launch them. China has man rated rockets to launch them. The EU... doesn't need man rated rockets to launch them 'cause where they launch, nobody gives a crap when the nuke comes back down prematurely.

    Pence, we all know the worth of your brain is that of your name, but did you have to prove so blatantly that you're basically only an assassination insurance for Trump? I.e. "think twice before shooting me, 'cause then this bozo is prez!"

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Re:What about the deep see force. by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah sure let's militarize every gods-be-damned thing, as if we aren't already living on the War World. Endless cycles of war, what a great way to live!

  5. money to burn by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We got people who can't afford to go to the doctor, but these jackoffs want to play outer space.

    Deficits exploding, but they're acting like we got money to burn. Wages going down for working people, and these geniuses think they're going to put jackbooted space troopers on Mars. Probably have a big Trump parade up there, too.

    I mean, Pence is a guy who thinks the Earth is 6,000 years old and there's no evolution, but he's spearheading a Space Force that's going to be paid for with money borrowed from China, with whom we just started a trade war. Oh, we are so fucked.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  6. Re:What about the deep see force. by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Navy? Submarines can go pretty deep if they need to. There is no critical infrastructure on the moon or mars. But there is in space and the deep sea! Full-spectrum dominance is a real thing.

    I am not sure what your comment is on about.

    Modern Submarines have a maximum depth of somewhere between 2400-3000 feet. Any further, and the pressure will crush the hull. Compare that with an average ocean depth of 12,000 feet.

  7. Because this is how we do socialism by rsilvergun · · Score: 1, Insightful

    one of the hardest challenges in America is prying money out of the hands of our ruling class. But you need to do it because as history has shown the aristocracy will, given the chance, plunge the world into a global dark age of extreme conservatism by monopolizing wealth so they can leverage it as power.

    Eisenhower saw this coming. He couldn't figure out how to stop it peacefully, so he allowed the creation of the Military Industrial Complex. The rich pay taxes to fund a bloated military that employees excess laborers.

    Eisenhower talked about regretting it in his memoirs. Still, I'm not sure there's another way. People really, really hate to just give stuff away. There's this thing were when a person suffers they want others to suffer exactly as they do. Misery loves company. I've seen this in all walks of life. I know LGBTQ folks who are upset the kids today don't have to go through the same shit they did. They acknowledge that's still a good thing, but it bothers them. They can't help it. Its a knee-jerk, emotional reaction.

    I don't know how to counter that so that we can have a society that doesn't abandon 99% of it's people to poverty out of spite. You can't reason with it because it's completely emotional.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  8. Re:"History proves that peace only comes through s by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Germany was quite peaceful in 1939, thanks to its strong military and authoritarian government.

    Yet Germany lost the subsequent war.

    The biggest "winner" of both world wars was the country that had done the least to prepare for them: The United States of America.

    After WW2, America switched to much higher military spending, and higher levels of preparation. Results: Korea - tie, Vietnam - lost, Afghanistan - lost, Iraq - lost.

    The problem with high military spending, is that it makes it easy to initiate stupid wars.

  9. Re:What about the deep see force. by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Unfortunately, MAJOR WAR IS COMING! With the Earth approaching 8 billion people, and resources already stressed, it is inevitable. There will soon be a tipping point. It will be catastrophic. It will result in war. It will be bad. You win wars by controlling the "High Ground". Space is the ultimate high ground. These are just facts. We may not want this to be the outcome, but, it will be. All the "hope" in the world won't change that.