We get trapped. Here in America, three times in the last 100 years we have failed to optimize the technologies that have come about to our own peril. In 1920, America turned to General Pershing and General MacArthur — that’s the father MacArthur, the two medal of honor recipients father and son — in 1920 they asked them the question ‘should the airplane and tank mechanization be developed independently’? They said absolutely not. They dictated that the airplane and the tank must be developed by the infantry because the infantry and signal corps are the main event.
And that fatal decision by the most respected and heralded heroes of the age cost thousands of lives in WWII. The development of the airplane and tank were insufficient. We lost more airmen in the European theater than all of the Marines in WWII.
And the number of young men we intentionally had to slaughter in the Sherman tank — its shell would bounce off the Panzer and Tiger tank — we had to knowingly sacrifice an entire frontal attack to get enough Sherman’s around the back which was the only way to kill a Panzer or a Tiger tank…
The biggest trap of culture is mindset…
That was from an excellent speech by Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast (ret.) at Hillsdale College. Watch the whole thing. It’s hard to excerpt, but right on the money. HT: the estimable Richard Wahidi.
The point was to advocate for a Space Force separate from legacy institutional structures, which can shift to a new paradigm.
The Space Force must defend economic development and commerce in space sort of like the Navy defended maritime activity in times past by bringing rule of law. That requires being able to maneuver more aggressively, communicate more ubiquitously, and at lower price points, than potential enemies.
Here’s a bit more on transformational aspects of space:
Here’s why space is so much more powerful, and why the Space Force is important. It’s because we have competition today. If space can transform the transportation economy, to deliver anybody anywhere on Earth in less than an hour; transform the energy market where anybody can trickle charge their batteries and capacitors anywhere on Earth without power lines or power plants; transform information where you can get information without being near a city or cell tower; and then manufacture in space in a vacuum and zero-g to not only do research but build facilitates and structures like we’ve never done before and deliver them as light as a feather anywhere on Earth for pennies on the dollar. Whenever humanity has a new marketplace like this, without a force that brings predictability to that economic market, violence ensues.
Here is what China is up to:
For 30 years they have met every single milestone of their space program. And over the next 10 years, they’ll have solar and nuclear power generation stations on orbit. They broadcast that it will be for peaceful purposes. Radio waves will bring energy for everyone on Earth without the need for power lines or power plants. But in a millisecond, that dominance of the electromagnetic spectrum can be used to paralyze any part of our power grid and freeze American military might.
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