AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Australia’s government in March 2022 launched Space Command, a new defense agency tasked with securing the country’s place in an “already contested” cosmos.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the command would be modest in its early stages. He gave no detailed staffing or budget figures. In a speech to the Australian Air Force, he said space “will undoubtedly become a domain that takes on greater military significance in this century.”
“Space is becoming more congested and is already contested, particularly as the boundaries between competition and conflict become increasingly blurred through grey-zone activities,” the minister said.
Dutton positioned Space Command as a counter to the military ambitions of the People’s Republic of China and Russia, namechecking both nations in his speech along with all “countries that see space as a territory for their taking, rather than one to be shared.”
Space Command will be led by Air Vice Marshal Cath Roberts — a “self-professed science fiction buff” — who will oversee a team drawn from across Australia’s Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as private contractors. (Pictured: Personnel in the Royal Australian Air Force’s Woomera Range Complex in December 2020 monitor the movements of a Japanese space probe that collected material from an asteroid about 300 million kilometers from Earth.)
Dutton also said Australia will need a Space Force in the future – a nod to the service launched by the United States in 2019.
Space Command makes way for close collaboration between the U.S. and Australia in yet another theater, coming just months after the countries signed a new military partnership, AUKUS, along with the United Kingdom.
Australia’s conservative government has been squarely focused on the military as an election looms, having just committed to increasing the country’s defense force to 80,000 troops by 2040.
IMAGE CREDIT: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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