America's Space Force

America's newest branch of the military is the Space Force, which will be separate from and equal to the other branches. There are some who do not yet take the Space Force seriously.

Satellites are vital yet can be vulnerable, and the initial primary mission of the Space Force will be to protect them. But I see the creation of the Space Force as coinciding with another development, the use of momentum rather than explosives in strategic munitions.

A projectile that is dropped from an aircraft by gravity is referred to as a "bomb", which implies that it explodes. But what if it doesn't have to explode, or we have advanced to the technology where it doesn't have to explode?

This new era could be the Space Force. "Bombs" could be dropped from space, rather than from the air, and the much-greater gravitational acceleration that would result would make it possible for the projectiles to do damage by momentum rather than by explosion.

This would make possible high-precision "surgical" strikes on targets, with minimal collateral damage. This would be in stark contrast to the messy explosions from traditional bombs.

The technology already exists. Imagine a rod, about the size of a telephone pole and made of a special alloy. Launched from orbit with great precision, the projectile would be moving at about seven times the speed of sound when it reached ground level. To strike it's target an explosion would not be necessary.

This principle, of dropped projectiles doing their damage by momentum rather than by explosion, is not new. During America's War in Vietnam, metal projectiles called "Lazy Dogs" were dropped by helicopter.

During the wars with Iraq the explosives were sometimes removed from bombs, and the bombs filled with concrete, in order for a precision strike to be made on a target without collateral damage.

The bomb that did the damage to the Tirpitz, during the Second World War, was an explosive bomb but it did it's damage only by momentum. It passed right through the ship and didn't explode until after it had exited through the bottom of the ship.

This could be the objective of the Space Force, aside from protecting and engaging satellites.