The US Space Force has deployed airmen to Al Udeid air base in Qatar, as Washington braces for new military challenges that could extend beyond the atmosphere.
Some of those challenges, experts says, stem from space-bound activities pursued by countries such as Iran.
In its first foreign deployment, the newly created Space Force, which forms the US's sixth military division, has sent some 20 airmen to Qatar’s Al Udeid to defend American interests from foreign adversaries also developing space-bound technology.
“We’re starting to see other nations that are extremely aggressive in preparing to extend conflict into space,” Colonel Todd Benson, director of Space Force troops at Al-Udeid, told The Associated Press. “We have to be able to compete and defend and protect all of our national interests.”
He added that the missions conducted and personnel involved are not necessarily new and would build on past projects. The initial deployment is expected to be joined by a unit of “core space operations” that will run satellites, track enemy maneuvers and try to avert conflicts in space. The entire Space Force division will have a projected 16,000 troops, with a $15.4 billion in 2021.
Some experts see the US space programme as connected to Tehran's activities. The deployment comes as tensions boil between the US and Iran, whose own space force has been subject to US sanctions over allegations it is acting as a cover for ballistic missile development.
In April, Iran sent its first military satellite into orbit after months of failure, raising concern that the Islamic Republic would develop enhanced intelligence and navigation capabilities that could constitute a source of new threats.
The US Space force will monitor Tehran’s missile developments and potential efforts to jack, hack and blind satellites from space, as well as counter potential threats from Russian and China, whose space programmes are far more advanced.
Last month, Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned that Moscow and Beijing were working on technology that could undermine US satellites, potentially scattering dangerous debris across space and paralysing cell phones and weather forecasts, as well as American drones, fighter jets, aircraft carriers and even nuclear weapon controllers.
“The military is very reliant on satellite communications, navigation and global missile warning,” said Captain Ryan Vickers, a newly inducted Space Force member at Al-Udeid.
American troops, he added, use GPS coordinates to track ships passing through strategic Gulf passageways “to make sure they’re not running into international waters of other nations.”
This is especially critical for the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway in the Arabian Gulf used by oil exporters where Iran has been accused of antagonising passing tankers.
Iran has also repeatedly been accused of jamming satellite and radio signals to block foreign-based Farsi media outlets from broadcasting into the country to eliminate expressions of dissent.
While the military looks to control more operations on a remote basis, the US’s Space Force’s move to Al Udeid puts Qatar in the middle of US war plans even as Doha seeks to maintains close ties to Iran. It also heralds a new era of military escalation beyond this planet that the world’s leading powers are forced to come to grips with.
“The U.S. military would like to see a peaceful space,” Benson, the director of Space Force troops stationed in Qatar, said. “Other folks’ behavior is kind of driving us to this point.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
