[skyfaller]

And who is going to make the Space Force clean up our orbitals after a battle or war?

The idea of combat in orbit is insanity, the Space Force will just ground itself if war ever breaks out in orbit at any scale. It's like building a navy that would be unable to leave port if you were to ever actually use it. It's like... well, nuclear weapons, except perhaps less likely to result in human extinction.

[michaelt]

Ironically, a navy that doesn't leaves port is a naval strategy of the 1690s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleet_in_being

[segfaultbuserr]

And the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine in nuclear warfare can be seen as nothing but a sequential development of this naval strategy. I was surprised when I first learned it.

[azernik]

Even later - it was the main German naval strategy of WWI.

[edgyquant]

Not sure if you're being humorous or not but that's because they lost immediately in the opening battle.

[azernik]

They kept their fleet in port for most of the war; Jutland was halfway through the war, when the Germans lost patience, ended indecisively, and led the Germans to return to a fleet-in-being policy.

[hoppla]

In chess, "The threat is stronger than the execution"-Aron Nimzowitsch

[tenpies]

The Space Force's first doctrinal cornerstone is literally "Preserve freedom of action" and one of their core competencies is space mobility and logistics.

It seems pretty obvious that they've identified the strategic importance of being able to reliably launch and move in space. Now does this mean picking up all the debris after all the Starlink satellites are hacked and turned into missiles by adversaries? Probably not. It's more likely to manifest as either exceptional detection capabilities (and there is an entire section to this in the Space Force), or some sort of shielding technology that brings the risk level to an acceptable tolerance.

In its current state it probably means a lot of people thinking about ways of dealing with Kessler syndrome in a variety of ways so that if it ever happens, there is a plan ready to go.

[sudosysgen]

Exceptional detection is not enough against Kessler syndrome. Shielding is a hope, but I wouldn't bank on it.

[pueblito]

I would more than bank on it.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/29232/navys-advanced-a...

[sudosysgen]

That would be useless against non-conductive debris, which is most of it. The only protections are kinetic.

[mr_toad]

> the Space Force will just ground itself

They’d have to have something to ground first. The so called Space Force is a navy without so much as a dinghy.

[Rebelgecko]

What do you mean? They're already operating dozens of birds, and even more if you count their manpower that's on loan to places like the NRO

[michaelt]

Elon Musk, who became a billionaire by launching a website that merged with a website that provided payment services to a website that provides auction services to vendors who sell things like second hand mobile phones: Has rockets and independent space launch capability. Has ability to perform manned missions.

US Space Force, government agency that's supposed to "Conduct space operations" and "Preserve freedom of action": No rockets, no capability to perform manned missions.

I know who I'd want on my team in a Moonraker-style space laser battle.

[Rebelgecko]

I don't think the space force's focus is really on winning Moonraker-style space laser battles

[L_226]

The purpose of Space Force is not to deploy a fleet of manned spacecraft, it is to initiate and manage the prescision deorbit manuevers of titanium rods into aircraft carriers and other ground assets. Why do you think the latest X37B launch was so massive? Edit: sarcasm

[adrianN]

If they ground themselves they also ground any enemies. Job accomplished I would say, no more threats from space.

[laksdjfkasljdf]

> And who is going to make the Space Force clean up our orbitals after a battle or war?

as if the rest of the military think that long for any conflict.

From past performance, they will probably install a terrorist organization and/or dictator in orbit.

[james_s_tayler]

The alien warlord Xenu!