US Wants Space Force Ready for War on the Moon

Russia, China Plan a Joint Moon Base

Russia and China have a joint plan to build a Lunar research station, a base that they intend to have ready for crewed visits by 2036. This would be the the only manned presence on the Moon, at least as is currently planned.

The Pentagon has other ideas, however, envisioning the US Space Force needing to treat the Moon as a “militarized front,” and that they need to prepare to fight an entire war on the Moon. They don’t single out the Russo-China base, but nothing else is on the Moon to fight right now.

The US proposal is plainly self-serving, coming from the Space Vehicles Directorate, and boiling down to needing space vehicles, since the US has yet to actually manufacture any costly space vehicles for warfare.

These sort of initiatives are a big part of what is likely to result of the Space Force, a continued litany of excuses to spend vast sums of money gearing up for nonsensical sci-fi wars across the solar system.

Terrestrial weapons projects often reach into the many billions of dollars, and investing in speculative technology to fight on other celestial bodies seem bound to quickly find themselves over-budget, with the only reassurance being that these wars are so unlikely.

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.