{"id":209087,"date":"2022-04-11T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=209087"},"modified":"2022-04-11T05:09:35","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T04:09:35","slug":"biden-administration-budgets-record-27-6-billion-for-militarization-of-outer-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/04\/biden-administration-budgets-record-27-6-billion-for-militarization-of-outer-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Administration Budgets Record $27.6 Billion for Militarization of Outer-Space"},"content":{"rendered":"

New cold war provides continued backdrop for misallocation of public resources into weaponry right out of science fiction films.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

he Space Test Program-3 Mission for the U.S. Space Force\u2019s Space Systems Command preparing for launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
[Source: spacenews.com]<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Apr 2022 – <\/em>As homeless rates skyrocket and public education flounders, the Biden administration has proposed a record $27.6 billion budget for the militarization of outer space in 2023\u2014a 25% increase from the 2022 budget.<\/p>\n

Adopted in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty that sets aside space \u201cfor peaceful purposes,\u201d<\/a> Biden\u2019s space program is designed to maintain strategic advantages over Russia and China, which are developing what U.S. intelligence agencies consider \u201cdestructive anti-satellite weapons,\u201d including ballistic missiles, that could be \u201cused against the U.S.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The
Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, the site of a Russian anti-satellite missile test in April 2020. [Source: space.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Wednesday, April 6, the House Armed Services Committee held hearings<\/a> that publicized the national security space activities of the Department of Defense, including within the U.S. Space Force (USSF), National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).<\/p>\n

Jim Cooper (D-TN), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces which oversees the U.S. space program, stated in introducing the panel from the space symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that he was encouraged by the new budget and fact that the Pentagon had finally recognized what his subcommittee had long suggested: Space was no longer a \u201cbenign domain.\u201d <\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"Strategic
Jim Cooper [Source: armedservices.house.gov<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

According to Cooper, we \u201cmust be prepared to defend our assets in orbit and maintain our ability to use space in support of global combatant commanders\u2026in the wake of an irresponsible satellite test by Russia [which left thousands of pieces of debris] and China\u2019s grappling with a U.S. satellite and pulling it out of orbit, we cannot be too bold or aggressive in demonstrating our intent in space.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. John Plumb, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, followed Cooper by reiterating that Russia and China had developed counter-space weapons to target U.S. space satellites which, he said, required major new investments to counteract.<\/p>\n

\"DoD
Dr. John Plumb [Source: spacenews.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Plumb specified that $4.7 billion out of the Biden budget would go toward development of a new missile-warning and missile-track architecture, $1.8 billion toward development of GPS satellites and integration of GPS user military equipment; $1.6 billion toward development of jam resistance satellite communication capabilities; and $1.6 billion toward national security space launches.<\/p>\n

L3 Harris and Jim Cooper<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the major winners of Biden\u2019s new budget\u2014and by implication the new Cold War\u2014is the Florida-based defense contractor L3 Harris.<\/p>\n

Last October, L3 Harris was awarded a $120.7 million contract to produce ground-based communications jammers used to block adversaries\u2019 satellite transmissions\u2014the \u201cfirst offensive weapon system in the United States Space Force.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"L3
[Source: airforcemag.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

L3 Harris is also the lead Pentagon contractor on the space-based missile-tracking system<\/a> that is being generously funded by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Space-based missile-tracking system developed by L3 Harris and Space X, two big winners from Biden\u2019s new budget and the new Cold War. [Source: breakingdefense.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to opensecrets.com, L3 Harris is listed as Jim Cooper\u2019s top contributor during the 2020 election cycle<\/a>: It provided him with $15,500<\/a> which helped Cooper win his 16th<\/sup> term<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No wonder then that Cooper was so pleased with Biden\u2019s new budget.<\/p>\n

Nazi Roots\u2014Seeking \u201cControl over the Earth\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The roots of the U.S. weaponization of space lie with the former Nazi rocket scientists and engineers brought to the U.S. from Germany after World War II under Operation Paperclip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1947, Major General Walter Dornberger, former head of the Nazi rocket program now working as an Air Force and Pentagon consultant, proposed a system\u2014subsequently implemented under the acronym NABS (Nuclear Armed Bombardment Satellites)\u2014<\/a>of hundreds of nuclear-armed satellites all orbiting at different altitudes and angles, each capable of re-entering the atmosphere on command from Earth to proceed to its target.<\/p>\n

\n
\"|
General Walter Dornberger [Source:\u00a0Spartacus-educational.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Historian Jack Manno, author of Arming the Heavens: The Hidden Military Agenda for Space, 1945-1995<\/em><\/a> (New York: Dodd Mead, 1984), told space expert Karl Grossman that \u201ccontrol over the Earth\u201d was what those who have wanted to weaponize space seek. \u201cThe aim is to \u2026 have the capacity to carry out global warfare [using] weapons systems that reside in space.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

This capacity was enhanced considerably with Ronald Reagan\u2019s Star Wars program in the 1980s\u2014which created space battle stations from which laser weapons refracted through mirrors could intercept incoming ballistic missiles or nuclear bombs[1]<\/a><\/sup>\u2014and then with the establishment by Donald Trump in 2019 of the Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"|
Donald Trump inspects the Space Force flag. [Source:\u00a0japantimes.co<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Chinese and Russian government leaders have publicly stated their desire for a binding treaty to ban the deployment of \u201cany types of weapons\u201d in space<\/a>, which the U.S. has rejected.\u00a0The profits to military industry are just too high, and Americans have long considered super-weapons the key to defeating evil empires and securing a world of peace and prosperity dominated by the U.S.[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Aces Up the American Sleeve<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Tonya P. Wilkerson, deputy director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, testified at the House hearing last Wednesday that U.S. space-based satellites have proven valuable in the Ukraine war in providing the public images of the devastation caused by the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

\n
\"GEOINT
Tonya P. Wilkerson [Source: usgif.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The U.S. today is developing some truly fantastical weapons systems that it is believed will help win future wars.<\/p>\n

One, \u201cRod from God,\u201d<\/a> is a $230 million tungsten projectile rod measuring 20 feet long and 1 foot in diameter that can be dropped directly from orbit in outer space and achieve the force of impact from a nuclear strike but with none of the radioactive fallout.<\/p>\n

\"Rods
Rod from God. [Source: youtube.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. military has hinted that it will publicly unveil another secret space-based super weapon that is designed to wreak havoc on enemy satellites<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speculation ranges from the weapon being a land-based mobile laser to blind enemy satellites, radio-frequency jammers, or high-powered microwave systems to throw other satellites\u2019 electronics into disarray.<\/p>\n

\"ASAT\"
[Source: eurasiantimes.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Heavens are for Wonder, not Warfare<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A dedicated core of activists showed up at the space symposium in Colorado Springs that Jim Cooper was attending with signs stating \u201cthe heavens are for WONDER, not warfare,\u201d \u201cThe USA is Suffering from a Military-Industrial Complex,\u201d and \u201cWhere is the Morality in Military-Funded Technology.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Esther
Esther Kisamoore protesting outside annual space symposium in Denver in August 2021. Kisamoore is part of the group Citizens for Peace in Space. [Source: denverpost.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At least 60% of the symposium\u2019s exhibits, panels and speeches were from military contractors. According to Loring Wirbel, author of Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy<\/em><\/a> (London: Pluto Press, 2004), <\/em>even companies intent on working solely in the civilian realm \u201coften get prodded into taking contracts with the Air Force, Space Force or intelligence community.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Evelyn Baher-Murphy, a freshman at Colorado College who is part of a student peace group, told the local newspaper that \u201cadding space as a landscape for future battles furthers the proliferation of war and violence. Enough damage and suffering have already been caused in the air, on land and on water. It makes it illogical to place our investments to make the war machine larger than it already is. Our tax dollars too often fund militarism instead of things like education.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Another freshman, Tim Smith of Minneapolis, said that \u201cwe are at the most unequal moment in history\u2014folks can work a full-time job and still not be able to get by. Our government is concerned with spending millions, billions of dollars on putting random stuff in space<\/a>. How is this just? How does this demonstrate a government whose priority is the well-being of its citizens? It doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. See Frances FitzGerald, Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War <\/em>(New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001). \u2191<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. See H. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon in the American Imagination<\/em> (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000). \u2191<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    ______________________________________________<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a> Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of <\/em>CovertAction Magazine and author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including <\/em>Obama\u2019s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and T<\/em>he Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: jkuzmarov2@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Go to Original \u2013 covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    10 Apr 2022 – As homeless rates skyrocket and public education flounders, the Biden administration has proposed a record $27.6 billion budget for the militarization of outer space in 2023\u2014a 25% increase from the 2022 budget. New cold war provides continued backdrop for misallocation of public resources into weaponry right out of science fiction films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":166761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[867,1161,1188,120,267,1126,260,1050,504,1105,769,91,112,109,287,2648,2649,1709,95,70,126,118],"class_list":["post-209087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","tag-anglo-america","tag-arms-industry","tag-arms-race","tag-conflict","tag-geopolitics","tag-hegemony","tag-history","tag-imperialism","tag-international-relations","tag-military-industrial-complex","tag-military-supremacy","tag-nato","tag-pentagon","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-space-command","tag-space-digital-military-branch","tag-space-weapons","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}