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Hello all, I'm recovering from surgery (all is well) and unable to sleep. In my boredom, I've been reading some old news to catch up since I've been pretty out of it. I'm sure you've all heard of the Space Force proposal that President Trump is floating, and it really got me thinking. What sort of branches could the military have now, or in the future? The military is very resistant to change at a Command level, let alone a Branch level. Adding a new branch means competition for funding and so on, but often it is for the best that new branches be spun off (remember, it took all of WW2 plus the start of the Cold War to get the Air Force created out of the Army Air Forces) To avoid dumb politics, I don't want to talk about the political efficacy of these potential branches, simply the military/geopolitical side of things. I just kind of want to have fun and stir a little discussion. Jokes are fine too, but I'd love to see some serious responses. Curious to see if anyone else every thinks about this too. For my idea, I'd like to combine "Space Force" with another major emerging field that the US has fallen behind in: cyber warfare. Currently, each branch fields cyber warfare forces and (if anyone's interested, I'll link sources) are mostly underfunded and not a priority. As we saw with electoral breaches by the Russians in 2016, and following breaches to power grid and seaport systems, cyber threats aren't on the horizon - they're here. In my eyes, a weapon that could potentially disable the entire infrastructure of the civilian US, and probably much of the government/military as well, shouldn't be left to small groups within the branches and parts of law enforcement/homeland security beaureas, it should have it's own branch. I also think space is a good place to invest military power, but not enough to warrant its own branch (for now - the future may look very different). Potentially, I could see Cyber, Space and maybe Nuclear/other strategic weapons all fall under a new branch: US Strategic Forces. With a focus on defense against potentially world ending weapons (cyber, space based, WMDs and so on), it could let the other branches focus on their specific realms of warfare. Strategic Forces could also assist Homeland Security in protection of critical infrastructure. To take my little fantasy even further, I'm gonna say they'll have a grey theme to their dress uniforms, with blue trim. BDUs could simply be theater appropriate ACUs, and something less useful and more "we're different!" for non-theater use. I'm thinking all grey BDU with grey/black equipment, sort of like Belgian DSU. They'll be protecting Missile Fields and other US based installations, so a "police vibe" like all grey actually makes ton of sense to me.

Yo General Kelly call your boy Tommy Cole I gots ideas

As far as a Space Force goes, I believe its the stepping stone in the right direction for further expansion into that frontier. As for cyberspace, I agree that there needs to be a condensed oversight. Do you know how many organizations in the IC that deal with cyber security? I can name 5 off the top of my head, mostly because I'm trying to get an internship (DIA pls hire me). Theres also this weird ven diagram of who ensures the safety of US Nuclear facilities. Is it the Air Force? The DOE? The FPS? All of them?

I declare exterminatus! Very interesting stuff Cole. Completely agree on the Cyber Warfare Front. It needs to be it's own branch, with elements that would support the other branches. Although I'm also very sceptical (and afraid) of all the stuff they could come up with. We're already able to turn off iranian nuclear power plants from a distance. So proper oversight is needed or it's going to be the NSA surveillance scandal all over again, just worse because AIs will probably be involved. We're technically still only at the very beginning of AI with deep/machine learning, but a few years is all it takes. Especially with the proper funding, so really a Cyber Command is more a matter of when, than if. Personally I'd like to see nuclear banned from the face of the earth, but that's very unlikely at this point. And as far as Space Forces go: definetly not needed right now. Haven't gone to Mars and don't have a Lunar Base/Colony yet either. We've not even begun to scratch the surface of space exploration. Also pretty sure weapons like spaceborne WMDs are outlawed by a UN resolution. Not that the russians would care, some believe they already have WMD-capable spacecraft. So yeah I'd rather see that money going towards space exploration. Especially with climate change and limited ressources (and in the end time) on earth in mind. Also I wish you a fast and steady recovery!

Fuck Aliens, we own the universe.

US Cyber Command already exists, yes. But it's not a military branch, it's a command grouping similar to SOCOM, PACOM, etc. Also, never count on a government agency to get you anywhere, let alone back in space. SpaceX is doing the heavy lifting (pun intended) there.

The idea behind the Space Force, for most countries (China, Russia), is to maintain and destroy high and low orbit satellites that are used for intelligence gathering, surveillance and communication. Pic related is a picture of an F-15 firing an ASM-135. We won't be fighting insurgencies on Mars any time soon (sadly). I don't know if that justifies the creation of a whole branch since their role would be pretty limited in a regard. The Strategic Force concept that Cole brought up makes more sense. There were several treaties that were brought up and shot down in the UN that would assure a complete de-armament of space. Right now there is the Outer Space Treaty which de-nuclearizes it and assures no WMDs are placed in space. Somewhat nonsensical, since technically every ICBM is a spacecraft that is, at one point, in outer space (the apoapsis of the craft upon target designation is in outer space), yet countries seem to not care for that. Additionally, we have the SPT and PPWT which haven't been adopted fully due to China and Russia presenting them before the UN and polarization politics playing their part.

Just as a note: we've already actually had CYFOR in Norway for quite some time; Their uniforms are not far from what Cole imagined, either. I think any serious military should consider having this branch. They specialise in using technical equipment, portable UAVs/drones and the likes, as well as "digital border defence," which is integral to the protection of any country nowadays.

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