Air Force Shuffles Leadership, Creates Post to Oversee Space Wars

Establishes Deputy Chief of Staff for Space Operations

With an eye toward fighting major future wars in space, the US Air Force today has announced a reshuffle of its senior leadership posts, including the establishment of the new Deputy Chief of Staff for Space Operations post.

There is no word yet on who will fill this new post, which will be a three-star general’s position, but Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson insists it was necessary to create the post “to integrate, normalize, and elevate space operations in the Air Force.”

The Pentagon has been keen to significantly increase spending on space warfare in recent months, and it was likely inevitable that a post would be created within the Air Force to formally oversee this increased focus on spending, even if no other nation is really investing the sort of money needed to make a war in space plausible.

Secretary Wilson insisted that “the United States is dependent on space, and our adversaries know it,” claiming that any future conflict could “extend into space,” but offering no examples of who this adversary might be, or how they might turn it into a war in space.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.