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WORLD WAR SPACE: THE NEW ERA OF LEO WARFARE By Evan Anderson Why Read: Advances in space technology are rapidly coming to a head. As China modernizes its space forces, the US and its allies are attempting to maintain space assets in any future conflict. This week, we cover the dynamics, capabilities, and implications of a new era of low Earth orbit warfare. _________ The "FiRe Box:" Updates on the SNS Future in Review 2025 Conference To All SNS Members: Time to sign up, before it's too late! The FiRe 2025 Agenda is now available online. If you haven't signed up yet, check it out to see why you need to be there. New to the lineup: Sir Richard Dearlove, Chief, MI6 (fmr.); Ilkay Altintas, Chief Data Science Officer, UC San Diego; Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Filmmaker (The Gap); Nicoletta Giordani, Director, Investment & Economic Security, Office of the Secretary of Defense, US Department of Defense; Ed Mehr, CEO, Machina Labs; Gil Herrera, Director of Research, NSA; Jennifer Byrne, GP, Grit Capital Partners; Leroy Hood, CEO, Phenome Health; Travis DeMeester, Program Manager, Defense Innovation Unit; and more --- This is your personal invitation to join me for FiRe 2025 at the Qualcomm Institute in La Jolla, CA, June 8-11. If you've participated in past years, you know why The Economist calls Future in Review "the best technology conference in the world." This year, we've improved FiRe again. We understand that participants want focus and results, and our ongoing mission is for FiRe participants to acquire a business and/or a technology and finance-driven understanding of global markets for the next five years. And you'll meet the people who can help you and your company achieve your goals. In addition to a general view, selected FiRe themes this year include tariff effects on the global economy; the role embedded carbon in construction can play in climate issues; the newest discoveries in brain structure and function; the key role that "Beyond AI" machine learning can play in healthcare; the use of digital twins and VR in preserving global coral colonies; bringing AI and phenome-driven medicine into longevity and radical healthcare improvements; the future of US / China / CRINK vs. West relations, from economic to military issues; and more. As usual, all participants will have the chance to meet and plan at multiple receptions and events during our time together in San Diego. Register now at www.futureinreview.com, or email Emma for details at emma@stratnews.com. I hope you'll decide to join us for the best Future in Review yet.
Mark Anderson Chair, FiRe 2025
We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.-
Space: the final frontier. The opening lines of Star Trek sought to inspire a generation, portraying a unified, modern Earth with humans in a coalition with countless other species across the universe. In the magic of this fictional world, there was indeed conflict, but it was interplanetary. Earth was united, and itself an individual member of the United Federation of Planets. Snap back to the reality of our current era, and Earth is far from united. As our space capabilities have advanced, our on-planet conflicts have not faded. The course of modern space technology is, in fact, deeply intertwined with our "domestic" wars (and those that may lie ahead). Space, and particularly low Earth orbit (LEO), are critical to the warfighting capabilities of the world's most advanced militaries, and more so with each passing year. This is particularly the case for the United States. The US government has spent the last 20 years perfecting satellite capabilities in space to the extent that they now allow for constant surveillance of the battlefield, down to a remarkable level of resolution, measured in centimeters. Meanwhile, communications are increasingly dependent on satellites, as the era of small, affordable satellite technology has heralded an explosion in the number and speed of deployment of entire constellations. Here, the US remains dominant in the extreme, with more launches by far than the rest of the world combined, and climbing.
But as the rest of the world struggles to catch up, US dominance in the field of space is being threatened in new ways. Enter the US Space Force, designed to address these challenges. |
