Among the most recent "strategic" shoes to drop were delivered at Thursday’s confirmation hearing for General Mark Miley to become President Trump’s next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — after serving as Army Chief of Staff.
Reportedly, General Miley stated full support behind modernizing our atrophying nuclear strategic forces, creating a Space Force and confronting the growing threat from China with new capabilities.
I could not agree more with all three promises — especially creating a viable Space Force that can play a critically important role in accomplishing the other two.
Indeed, we should move with dispatch to enable superior U.S. capabilities to confront and handle the reality that space is a domain now being contested by threatening systems being built and operated by Russia, China and others.
Moreover, as reported in my June 21, 2019 Newsmax article, the Air Force is at last being led by a Secretary who wants to create a U.S. Space Force — Matt Donovan’s outspoken support for positions opposed by his predecessor are most welcome and consistent with those advocated in an open letter from over 40 former Defense officials, including yours truly.
I would prefer that the Space Force be a separate service immediately, rather than have it follow the pattern of the U.S. Army Air Corps morphing into today’s separate U.S. Air Force, which took decades. But it appears that is the course now enforced by Congress —and I would argue that we should take care to make that transition as quickly as possible.
The next shoe to drop may be at next week’s Confirmation Hearing for Mark Esper to become the next Secretary of Defense.
Based on Esper’s past record as Secretary of the Army, there are reasons to be hopeful.
For example, Acting Air Force Secretary Donovan told Military Space reporters in an informative interview at the recent Paris Air Show that he expects Esper to support the planned reorganization and continuing administration efforts.
Perhaps these recent leaders of the U.S. Army will transfer with them their previously stated support for the Space Force, and hopefully accelerate its development.
In completing this message, I again reference my previous Newsmax articles emphasizing technology now being developed in the private sector set the stage rapidly to build space-based interceptors that could intercept threatening ballistic missiles in their boost-phase, while they are still rising from their launch pads — a near-term counter to the much heralded hypersonic threat being deployed by Russia.
And the "stars" seem to be aligning to enable former US Army leaders for accelerating progress toward President Trump’s Space Force — and the realization of these important developments.
Stay tuned!
Ambassador Henry F. (Hank) Cooper, Chairman of High Frontier and an acknowledged expert on strategic and space national security issues, was President Ronald Reagan's Chief Negotiator at the Geneva Defense and Space Talks with the Soviet Union and Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Director during the George H.W. Bush administration. Previously, he served as the Assistant Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Deputy Assistant USAF Secretary and Science Advisor to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. In the private sector he was Chairman of Applied Research Associates, a high technology company; member of the technical staff of Jaycor, R&D Associates and Bell Telephone Laboratories; a Senior Associate of the National Institute for Public Policy; and Visiting Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Clemson and a PhD from New York University, all in Mechanical Engineering. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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