The Trump administration’s new national security strategy has rightly drawn criticism for presuming to tell our European allies how to arrange their domestic affairs. Equally as baffling is its near silence on a genuine United States national security concern — bolstering our offensive and defensive capabilities in space.
Amid much MAGA trollery that blames Europe rather than Russia for the continuing war in Ukraine, the new national security strategy makes only one reference to space in the 29 page document. That reference is in passing, mentioning space amongst a list of technology domains that deserve research investment to retain the nation’s technological edge. Whether we like it or not, space has increasingly become a warfighting domain. President Biden mentioned space 15 times in his last national security strategy. Trump treats it as an afterthought.
Top military brass from the head of U.S. Space Command to the principal space advisor at the Department of the Army has been calling for the development of offensive space capabilities.
Other nations, especially China, have been deploying space weapons and, while everyone would prefer that space remain a peaceful domain, the U.S. must ensure it is prepared to meet national security threats in whichever theater they arise in.
This is not a solely American perspective. NATO recognized space as an operational national security domain in 2019 and has been working to beef up its space capabilities.
