Pentagon touts Space Command as boon to Middle East role
The Donald Trump administration's launch of a Pentagon command to defend US space orbiting satellites could give Middle East commanders a boost in protecting their eyes and ears on the battlefield.
The Donald Trump administration officially rolled out the United States Space Command on Thursday, touting the new Pentagon organization as an opening to defend American satellites the military relies on to fight in the Middle East.
Defense Department officials said the newly formed command will give the Pentagon a greater capability to protect US intelligence satellites that the military relies on to target the Islamic State (IS) with precision-guided bombs and to spy on Iranian maneuvers in the Arabian Gulf.
“I really believe that we’re at a strategic inflection point, where there’s nothing that we do as a joint coalition force that isn’t enabled by space. Zero,” said Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond, who will head the new command. “At the same time, our adversaries have had a front-row seat in our many successes of integrating space, and they don’t like what they see, because it provides us such great advantage.”
Space Command will not be inaugurated as a service-level organization on par with the Army or Air Force after lawmakers pushed back on President Trump’s proposal for a Space Force as too burdensome to taxpayers. The new organization will comprise 287 staff at a cost of nearly $84 million, officials said.
