Orlando (Florida): The US Space Force hopes its new branch in Japan will spur fresh technology partnerships with the nation, particularly for domain awareness and deep-space observation.
The service on December 4 activated United States Space Forces Japan as its sixth service component. The organisation will provide personnel and space expertise to US Space Forces Indo-Pacific. Brig Gen Anthony Mastalir, who leads the Space Force’s command in the region, said the establishment of the new component comes as Japan’s Ministry of Defence is prioritising space in its national defence strategy — pledging to spend billions to improve on-orbit capabilities.
“To the extent that we’re able to shape and inform those investments in a way that makes working and fighting alongside allies more interoperable and more effective, I wanted to have an organisation that could contribute to that solution,” he told reporters at the Space Force Association Conference in Orlando.
The US and Japan have been forging closer ties over the last year, with the Defence Department announcing in July it would elevate its command in Japan to a three-star billet that allows its leader to plan large operations with the country. And last month, the US and Australia agreed to a more robust slate of exercises and trainings with Japan beginning with next year’s Talisman Sabre in Queensland.
Japan’s space endeavours include investments in space domain awareness — a top priority for the US Space Force. In 2020, Japan agreed to host US space domain awareness payloads on two satellites in the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System constellation, essentially its version of GPS. Those satellites will launch in 2025 and 2026.
Mastalir said the Space Force is also interested in Japan’s development of a deep-space radar and a standalone space domain awareness satellite slated to launch in the next few years.
“Having more space domain awareness capability, especially from a close ally like Japan, is only going to be helpful,” he said. Since 2019, the Space Force has established service components to US Space Command, US Indo-Pacific Command, US Central Command as well as US European and Africa commands. For the last two years, the service has been conducting mission analyses of its operations at those components to forge a plan for how it will flow forces to combatant commands.
Mastalir said the document, known as a programming plan, is complete and awaiting final approval from Space Force leadership. “Essentially this is a blueprint for how Space Force service components will contribute to combat and commands as we stand up other components around the globe,” he said.
Raksha Anirveda's editorial desk team brings in the collective experience of creative professionals - a fine mix of senior copy editors, writers, proofreaders and designers. Working as a team, they continuously create, manage, and curate content to sustain the magazine's profile and reputation in line with market trends and achieve magazine's goal.
