US President Donald Trump has launched a new Pentagon command dedicated to warfare in space.
“This is a landmark day, one that recognises the centrality of space to America’s security and defence,” Trump said at a White House ceremony.
“SpaceCom will ensure that America’s dominance in space is never threatened.”
The new command will treat space as a focused theatre of combat, the equal of the US Central Command governing the Middle East and the Pacific Command, which manages defences in the Western Pacific and Asia.
“The dangers to our country constantly evolve and so must we. Our adversaries are weaponising earth’s orbits with new technology targeting American satellites that are critical to both battlefield operations and our way of life at home”, Trump said.
“Our freedom to operate in space is also essential to detecting and destroying any missile launched against the United States,” he added.
Air Force General John Raymond, who will lead the new command, said:
“We are at a strategic inflection point where there is nothing that we do as a joint coalition force that isn’t enabled by space. I’m convinced that space is a war-fighting domain. I’m convinced that our way of life and our way of war depend on space capabilities.”
