Welcome to 2018 , where the prospect of war in place could be just a “ matter of years aside , " according to a top dog in the US Air Force . If the US wants to obligate on to their geopolitical dominance , he added , theyneed to promptly establish a military bearing in space . Eep .
David L Goldfein , a General in the US Air Force who presently function as the Air Force Chief of Staff , recently made these bold assertions at the Air Force Association ’s thirty-fourth annualAir Warfare Symposium and Technology Expositionin Orlando , Florida , as account byAir Force Magazine .
“ I believe we ’re going to be struggle from blank space in a matter of years , ” General Goldfein told the gang of participating servicemen . “ And we are the serve that must guide joint warfare struggle in this new contested domain . This is what the res publica demand . ”
“ It is time for us as a religious service , disregardless of specialty badge , to embrace quad superiority with the same passion and sense of ownership as we practice to air transcendence today , ” he added .
As startling as the claim sound , this is not just arm - swaggering military hot air .
The Air Force has request an 18 pct increase in funding for space engineering in its approaching budget , according toSpace News . This amounts to a five - twelvemonth investment funds of $ 44.3 billion on the development and deployment of space system .
In Summer last year , the US Armed Forces floatedthe idea of create a Space Corps , a newfangled branch of the Air Force task with establishing a military presence in blank space . While the initial plans were originally scrapped , experts say the idea is still not totally off the table .
“ This issue is not dead at all , ” Todd Harrison , defense budget psychoanalyst and director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies , toldThe Hillin 2017 . “ I remember [ Space Corps ] is inevitable , as in within my lifetime . ”
right smart back in 1967 , theUnited Nationsrecognized"The vulgar pastime of all human beings in the forward motion of the geographic expedition and consumption of outer space , ” append that other planets must be explored and used “ only for passive purposes ” .
Despite this , the militarization of spacebecame a recurring theme during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union . While these plans never properly come in to realisation , it looks like we could be on the verge of another resurgence of the estimation .