"Space War"?... US Establishes 'Special Forces' Against China and Russia Threats [Reading Science]

US Space Force Establishes New 'Space Delta 18' Unit
Main Mission: Detecting Enemy Threats in Space
China-Russia Focus on Enhancing Satellite Interception Weapons
US Responds with Heightened Vigilance and Countermeasures

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The 'space war' between the United States, China, and Russia is expected to intensify. As China and Russia have recently begun to strengthen their 'space combat capabilities,' including satellite interception abilities, the United States has established a new unit to counter hostile forces.

According to Space.com on the 30th (local time), the U.S. Space Force recently created a new unit named 'Space Delta 18' and has begun operations to respond to forces threatening the security of its satellites and other assets in space. The primary mission of this unit is to identify kinetic or non-kinetic threats to U.S. space assets such as satellites, probes, and space shuttles. Kinetic threats refer to direct physical destruction or performance degradation of U.S. space assets like satellites, while non-kinetic threats involve interference with satellite operations using means such as lasers, directed energy, or communication jamming.

This unit operates the National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC) located on the outskirts of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, with a total of 345 civilians and military personnel expected to be assigned. Although the U.S. Air Force has been operating the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base since 1993, the U.S. Space Force has been calling for the establishment of a new organization since 2020 that better understands the characteristics of the space domain. Accordingly, two intelligence squadrons previously under NASIC will be transferred to NSIC to enhance specialization.

Emblem of the U.S. Space Force's Space Delta 19 unit.

Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, stated at the recent inauguration ceremony of Space Delta 18, "Space Delta 18 and NSIC will play a key role in leading space development and innovation," adding, "NSIC will support decision-making for the U.S. and its allies at a critically important moment in the history of space development. The space environment will become more competitive in the coming years, and for us to advance, NSIC must produce technical intelligence and scientific analysis related to space." She emphasized, "We must not make mistakes," and stressed, "Space is now a combat domain, and competition is intensifying every day."

The establishment of this dedicated U.S. space combat unit is seen as marking the beginning of a full-scale 'space war' among major powers. In this context, China successfully conducted an experiment in February using the Shijian-21 satellite to capture its malfunctioning satellite (Beidou-2 navigation system) with a robotic arm and deorbit it into a satellite graveyard orbit under the pretext of 'space debris removal.' This capability could be weaponized against enemy satellites in emergencies. Russia, for its part, openly conducted an experiment in November last year destroying its own malfunctioning satellite with an anti-satellite missile. The U.S. has the highest global dependence on space for commercial uses such as satellite navigation (GPS), satellite internet, and Earth observation data, as well as military uses including missile early warning and intelligence gathering. If China and Russia deploy such anti-satellite destructive capabilities, the U.S. could suffer critical damage.

The U.S. is on high alert, with calls for countermeasures from bodies such as the Senate Armed Services Committee following China's successful 'space debris' removal experiment. Recently, it was also revealed that the secret U.S. space weapon, the small unmanned spaceplane X-37B, has been on an orbital mission for 773 days as of the 29th of last month, nearing the existing record of 780 days. The X-37B is known as a U.S. space weapon capable of satellite launches and scientific experiments, as well as surveillance, tracking, destruction, and disruption of adversary satellites if necessary.

Space.com explained in the article that "the development of interception capabilities by China and Russia in recent years has highlighted the need to establish a unit tasked with collecting intelligence on space threats."