Our nation's defense effort high above the Earth would be reinforced with a National Guard of its own under legislation introduced in Congress this week by Colorado U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Doug Lamborn. The U.S. Space Force, the country's newest armed service branch established under the Trump administration in 2019, would get the backup of a new Space National Guard. Many of its personnel would be based at Colorado's Buckley, Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases in Aurora and Colorado Springs.

Any effort that enhances U.S. capabilities in fielding our critical fleet of military satellites, including support for the Global Positioning System, should be reassuring to all of us. It's good to see Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican in his seventh term in Congress, and Crow, a first-term Democrat from Aurora who has served in combat as an Army Ranger, working together to advance our national space defense and Colorado's pivotal role in it.

The Space Force was created with only full-time troops — no part-time National Guard — and it isn't designed to be nearly as big as other service branches. While it is still ramping up, at full strength it will only number about 13,000 service members. By comparison, that's roughly half of the number of soldiers serving at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.

And yet, the Space Force has the awe-inspiring mission of controlling and defending our sprawling network of high-flying satellites. That's all the more formidable a responsibility as the space race with potential U.S. rivals heats up.

Currently, backup for the Space Force's satellites comes from hundreds of part-time troops stationed with the Air Guard's 233rd Space Group and the Army Guard's 117th Space Battalion. Many of those troops work in the civilian aerospace industry in their full-time careers when they are not serving their stint with the Guard. They have been praised for their expertise.

Those personnel — nationwide, they comprise about 2,000 satellite troops, with more than a third of them based in Colorado — would be moved into the new Space Guard.

As reported in Monday's Gazette, Crow and Lamborn's proposal could gain traction as the House Armed Services Committee, on which both serve, wraps up work on the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual Pentagon policy bill. Lamborn and Crow are also co-chairs of the House Space Force Caucus, which they jointly started last year.

Both congressmen released press statements underscoring the need to extend Space Force control over those Guard units currently attached to its operations.

"For 25 years, our National Guard space units have provided operational and tactical assistance to protect our nation's vital interests in space and enhance our military lethality," Lamborn said. "Today, they work side-by-side with their active-duty counterparts, both in uniform and often as civilian contractors, bringing vital experience to the mission that enhances our national security space enterprise. ...Colorado has more Guardsmen conducting space missions than any state in the Union. I am happy to join Rep. Crow on this important issue."

Said Crow, "Expanding the force to include this National Guard component will ensure mission readiness as we continue U.S. dominance in space."

U.S. Space readiness — particularly the need to outflank potential enemies and shield our vital satellites from attack — is becoming an ever more pressing concern.

"A war in space would be as detrimental to society as a nuclear war and would impact the supply chain, communications, health care and many other areas," L3Harris Technologies CEO Christopher Kubasik told The Gazette at last week's Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

"We need to get the word out and the funding to make sure we deter and defend against our adversaries in space," Kubasik said. "It would be an invisible war. It is the biggest threat facing our nation and we need to take it seriously."

It should be noted the Space Force is a distinct entity from the Colorado Springs-based U.S. Space Command. The command's status is up in the air following a decision by the Trump administration to move the entity to Alabama; Colorado leaders are pressing for a reconsideration.

Colorado will remain, in any event, a cornerstone of America's defense in space. The Colorado Springs and Denver metro areas play a fundamental role in supporting that defense through numerous military installations as well as a flourishing private sector in space technology. The timely creation of a Space Guard, which would have an extensive presence in Colorado, underscores our state's role.

In light of the entire nation's widely varied experience with the pandemic for the past 18 months, it seems unlikely micromanaging mask rules in a given school district will have an appreciable effect on COVID's latest iteration as the delta variant.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE

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