US Space Force establishes first foreign command in South Korea

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• Space Security – About, need
• Counter-space capabilities of India
• News Summary

Why in News?

• The US military formally launched a space force unit in South Korea, a move that will likely enable Washington to better monitor its rivals North Korea, China and Russia.

What is Space Security?

• Space security deals with the abilities of a country to protect its assets in space – such as the hundreds of satellites used for communication and surveillance.
• The space landscape is changing rapidly. Terrestrial politics is casting its shadow on outer space.
• Hence, relevance of space to national security and conventional military operations is increasing day by day.

What is the need for space security?

• Competition in outer space
  • Several recent trends are impacting the security and sustainability of outer space activities. These include:
    • the massive growth in the number and diversity of actors operating in outer space, including governments and the private sector;
    • the proliferation of hazardous space debris; and
    • increasing dependence on outer space in the civilian, government and military sectors.
• Protection of space assets
  • There exists a possibility of intentional tampering with such assets and the associated ground setup, either by state or non-state actors.
  • While there are no specifically deployed weapons in space yet, there are satellites that could be manoeuvred to act as weapons to disable or destroy the space assets of others.
  • The threat to space assets is directly proportional to degree of nation’s dependence on the assets.
    • Higher the dependence the greater will be threat and the vulnerability.
• Countries developing counter-space capabilities
  • The first successful Chinese anti-satellite (ASAT) test took place in January 2007.
  • China’s launch of a rocket from a ship is evidence of growing sophistication of the Chinese military space capabilities.
  • In December 2019, US president announced the creation of US Space force.

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What are counter-space capabilities of India?

• So far, India’s approach to outer space can be described as purely civilian. India has been developing its space capabilities for peaceful purposes.
  • It should be noted that, India does not have a declared Space Security Policy.
• However, due to changing landscape, in an effort to deny an adversary advantages, India also started to develop its counter-space capabilities.

What steps taken are by Indian Government for space security?

• India’s first dedicated military satellite was launched only in 2013.
• Under the Mission Shakti, in March 2019, India shot down a live Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite in space thereby showing its deterrence capability in space.
  • This was the first Indian demonstration of anti-satellite (ASAT) capability.
  • With this feat, India became the 4th country in the world to have this capability. The other three countries are U.S, Russia and China.
• The establishment of the new tri-service Defence Space Agency (DSA), based in Bangalore, is an important institutional initiative.
• To promote R&D in this field, government gave its approval for setting up of a new agency called the Defence Space Research Agency (DSRA).
• India conducted war game IndSpaceEx to gain a better understanding of the current and emerging challenges in the space security domain.

News Summary

• The US Space Force has launched its first foreign command in South Korea.
• The facility is the first of its kind outside American soil since the creation of the US Space Force in 2019.

Background:

• In December 2019, the then President Donald Trump officially created a force focused on warfare in space – the US Space Force.
• It was created to protect US assets in space – especially satellites used for civilian and military navigation, intelligence and communication.
  • A previous Pentagon report said China and Russia had embarked on major efforts to develop technologies that could allow them to disrupt or destroy American and allied satellites in a crisis or conflict.
• It was created to bring together diverse surveillance assets including space-based satellites in one organization to manage them effectively.

South Korea: the first foreign unit of US space force

• South Korea has been chosen as the first foreign unit due to following reasons:
  • There is a growing concern over North Korea, which has launched a record number of ballistic missiles in 2022.
  • The militaries of South Korea and the US already have strong ties through their Combined Forces Command.
• The unit will also help the US to monitor security threats from Russia and China.

Q1) What is space force?

A space force is a military branch of a nation’s armed forces that conducts military operations in outer space and space warfare.

Q2) Who conducted Mission Shakti?

Mission Shakti was under taken by DRDO in which a missile launched from ground had to hit and neutralize with pinpoint accuracy a fast-moving satellite in orbit hundreds of kilometres away.