To strategically monitor its arch-rivals-the PRC, Russian Federation, and North Korea, the United States Space Force formally launched a military space unit at Osan Airbase in Seoul, South Korea on Wednesday. The Unit belongs to the US Space Force, launched in December 2019 under President Donald Trump.
The US Space Force in South Korea is a subordinate of a bigger Space Force Unit established within the Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii last month. The main role of the Space Force Unit in Seoul will be more of a field unit. The unit will be receiving, processing and analyzation of tremendous amount of data and information transmitted by US Satellites. Additionally, it will maintain, operate and asses related equipment.
At the activation ceremony, the Chief of the New Space Unit Joshua McCallion referred to North Korea as an existential threat that exists forty-eight miles north of South Korea. The heavily fortified border of North Korea is just an hour’s drive from Seoul.
According to General Paul La Camera, the commander of the 28,500 troops in South Korea said that “the U.S. military is faster, better connected, more informed, precise and lethal because of space.”
According to Jung Chang Wook, the head of the Korea Defense Study Think tank, US Space Force was created to bring together diverse surveillance assets including space-based satellites to develop them in an effective, systemic manner.
The Space Force was seen soberly as an affirmation of the need to more effectively organize for the defense of American interests in space. They include military and civilian navigation, intelligence and communication satellites. According to reports from Pentagon, China and Russia embarked on major weapons to develop technologies that can allow them to disrupt and destroy American Satellites.
China in particular is a leading state in development of the anti-satellite kinetic space weapons. America and South Korea have expanded their drills and pushed to further bolster their combined defense capabilities in the face of North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.
North Korea has threatened to use nuclear nations pre-emptively in potential conflicts with the United States. America has warned the DPRK that the use of nuclear weapons will result in the end of that regime forever.
