The Space Force is stupid for a number of reasons. It’s nothing but a self-indulgent power fantasy meant to secure American hegemony when we have a bunch of international treaties that explicitly ban the militarization and arming of outer space. This isn’t Ender’s Game, we fought an entire Cold War over why maybe putting nukes in space is a bad idea. And it’s not like we’re ever gonna send troops up there; do you know how expensive it is to launch a single crewmember into orbit? In all of human history, less than 600 people have gone up. It is neither economically nor technologically viable to have permanent and fully staffed Space Bases. This was a dumb political stunt that only exists because Donald Trump thinks it sounds cool; he wants to be able to claim a major sci-fi achievement, it’s as simple as that. He hopes that maybe someday they’ll name a spaceship after him; Jimmy Carter has a nuclear submarine, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush have supercarriers, The most recent presidents without ships named after them are Nixon, Clinton, Bush Jr. and Obama, and Trump wants his name on something first! Something bigger and better than a smelly old aircraft carrier like he’s an unwashed peanut farmer or a one-term nobody.
Donald Trumps wants a Death Star. USS Donald Trump, NCC-1488, covered with stars and eagles and swastikas hull livery.
The only thing I find even remotely amusing about the Space Force is that the enlisted ranks will be called Spacemen! The Air Force has Airmen, so the Space Force will have Spacemen! Spaceman Basic (E1), Spaceman (E2), Spaceman First Class (E3), Senior Spaceman (E4)!
Under normal circumstances, I’d give the Space Force ten years before it’s folded back into the Air Force and quietly erased from existence, but of course no president of either party would DARE to try and shrink the military, so we’re probably gonna be stuck with this vestigial moneysink forever. Think practically; big countries don’t go to war with each other anymore, it’s all done through proxies and allies. Rich doesn’t fight rich, rich fights poor. Countries like Iraq and Syria are never gonna have Space Forces of their own, so ours will just be taking up space (no pun intended), training for wars that will never come on a frontier that need never be crossed.
Also, whenever I hear the term “Space Force,” I immediately think of Day Man from It’s Always Sunny.
Space Force! aaaAAAaaa! Fighter of the Ground Force! aaaAAAaaa!
