Nebraska and Purdue (and K state and N Dakota) announcing an academic alliance to help lure Space Command HQ to Bellevue.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Space Command
- Thread starter Charlie Marlow_rivals363743
- Start date
I like it. Anything that might aid the local economy is good.
That being said, and unfortunately politics comes into play, the whole space force branch has been met with a lot of derision from the left since Trump announced it. I wonder if Harris and Biden keep it around or fold it into the USAF.
That being said, and unfortunately politics comes into play, the whole space force branch has been met with a lot of derision from the left since Trump announced it. I wonder if Harris and Biden keep it around or fold it into the USAF.
I haven't followed it all that closely but what is space force honestly going to do that we haven't already been doing? I'm sure we are already monitoring satellites and other orbital crafts. We are a looooong ways away from any kind of regular space travel. I guess I'm not seeing a need at this point for a new military branch.
Their nickname is The "Guardians"....as in "Of the Galaxy"...at least that is how I read it anyway.....and it isn't going anywhere.
It's probably down to CO Springs (Cheyenne Mountain) or Omaha (Offutt AFB Bunker) for command and control locations, though I thought it would wind up in Houston, Cape Canaveral or Huntsville due to their direct involvement in space flight.
well to be fair, the army air corps/ airforce were seen as a fad by many. Planes cant do anything after all. Then there was a minor event back in December of 41 and another in June of 42 that changed a lot of minds
The Space Force logo is laughable. They straight up poached the Star Trek logo.
The idea of involving the military in space endeavors isn't bad, after all the military so often leads innovation, but there should be serious concerns about militarizing space.
Maybe Bellevue will become the Space Force Academy and start a football program so somebody will play Army in a bowl.
Helmets are already designed.
Helmets are already designed.
I don't know about that. Warring countries saw the value of airplanes in WWI, rudimentary as they were at the time. The Luftwaffe was making major strides as early as 1933.
It may be inevitable. As shady as the Russians and Chinese are, you have to counter them wherever they go, whether it be space or Antarctica. I wish the Chinese were creating less space trash in orbit.
Space Force is a natural progression since all branches rely on something in space and so those assets need protected as well as building defense in space.
anything to help the Nebraska economy is a plus, let’s get rid of the inheritance tax.
anything to help the Nebraska economy is a plus, let’s get rid of the inheritance tax.
it's bureaucratic bloat, nothing more or less
'military so often leads innovation' lol
yea, that'll happen when you have boundless spending capability and nothing but time on your hands
more gov't check cashing- the only thing it does well
The last year has shown that the greatest threat to the nation is an infectious weapon that once introduced will cause self destruction via twitter and Facebook
terrorists or enemy states need not worry about dirty bombs or other more conventional weapons anyone - the blue print is now pretty obvious
perhaps the billions earmarked for space invaders could be re-tasked to address a more tangible threat
terrorists or enemy states need not worry about dirty bombs or other more conventional weapons anyone - the blue print is now pretty obvious
perhaps the billions earmarked for space invaders could be re-tasked to address a more tangible threat
Wrong, space is going to see orders of magnitude more activity and importance in this decade alone. Not only are space based assets going to be more important than ever before, but protecting them is going to be a vital issue as well. You should look up SpaceX's Starship program. Not only will it revolutionize commercial space activity, but it has serious military implications as well. With that type of platform, you can have a global bomber that can strike any point on Earth in less than an hour which is a long term goal the Air Force has been clamoring over for decades.
True. I was speaking more in terms of naval air power and carrier based planes.
We need a Death Star and a bunch of tie fighters.
It was going to be a thing eventually so I don't really have an issue with getting started now. It's going to take a decade or more for it to get on it's feet as was the issue when US Cyber Command was stood up and still is chained to the NSA because it's basically dysfunctional everywhere except on paper.
The function of the Space Force were already done elsewhere so this is basically a boondoggle as we call it.
Since I'm a Nebraska guy I do hope Nebraska has a good shot at it but the bunker is a non issue. Even Stratcom doesn't use the bunker anymore they just moved into a new close to a billion dollar building themselves and didn't build a new underground. The 20th partially moved out of building D and took over the old Stratcom building.
The function of the Space Force were already done elsewhere so this is basically a boondoggle as we call it.
Since I'm a Nebraska guy I do hope Nebraska has a good shot at it but the bunker is a non issue. Even Stratcom doesn't use the bunker anymore they just moved into a new close to a billion dollar building themselves and didn't build a new underground. The 20th partially moved out of building D and took over the old Stratcom building.
As to the Alliance Purdue was a huge get. Nebraska and KSU are more regional schools but Purdue is a nationally recognized center of excellence for Aerospace engineering in particular.
I just did a quick look and it seems UNL still doesn't have an aerospace degree although when my friends were there what seems like forever ago they had a way of cobbling together some stuff to get an aerospace emphasis into their mechanical engineering degree.
Folks in places like NASA, NRO, and the DoD are very familiar with Purdue. It used to be the case that Purdue had generated the most astronauts of any college save Embry Riddle in Florida.
I just did a quick look and it seems UNL still doesn't have an aerospace degree although when my friends were there what seems like forever ago they had a way of cobbling together some stuff to get an aerospace emphasis into their mechanical engineering degree.
Folks in places like NASA, NRO, and the DoD are very familiar with Purdue. It used to be the case that Purdue had generated the most astronauts of any college save Embry Riddle in Florida.
55th Wing HQ is the primary tenant of Bldg 500. 20th IS had to get out of Bldg D just to clear their lungs of mold. Lordy, Bldg D is a trip, but so is 500.
You're correct about the attraction of Purdue, but there's a certain institution in Omaha that has a lot of people's attention.........
Would be Yuge addition for midwest if Offut could get it. Nice article in OWH recently about our chances and who competition is. Omaha has some very compelling benefits
To be honest I'm not quite sure how much real consideration the extra sites are going to receive. When the list was leaked last year I think it was only California, Colorado and Bama were on it. States with a heavy space presence.
Other states complain... namely Florida and Texas because they represent basically the rest of the US space brain trust. Nebraska and New Mexico seem to have been thrown on there to round out the contestants.
Offut at least generally is considered for stuff because it's been viewed as finding it's way since the Cold War ended and has room to host more function even if it's not a full four star command that gets dumped in there in addition to Strat.
Nebraska needed to piece something like this alliance together because it doesn't have the background in space that the other sites do nor does it have a bunch of shovel ready space jobs it can easily port over to this HQ. That said it's only worth so many brownie points...no one put SOCOM in North Carolina and Florida because Tampa and Fayetteville have top university.
My guess is one of the nicer weather more space history locales gets it but I really do hope Nebraska can pull off the come from behind win. If anyone hears any hubbub please share.
Other states complain... namely Florida and Texas because they represent basically the rest of the US space brain trust. Nebraska and New Mexico seem to have been thrown on there to round out the contestants.
Offut at least generally is considered for stuff because it's been viewed as finding it's way since the Cold War ended and has room to host more function even if it's not a full four star command that gets dumped in there in addition to Strat.
Nebraska needed to piece something like this alliance together because it doesn't have the background in space that the other sites do nor does it have a bunch of shovel ready space jobs it can easily port over to this HQ. That said it's only worth so many brownie points...no one put SOCOM in North Carolina and Florida because Tampa and Fayetteville have top university.
My guess is one of the nicer weather more space history locales gets it but I really do hope Nebraska can pull off the come from behind win. If anyone hears any hubbub please share.
Nebraska is going to benefit from the fact that a few reorganizations ago when Stratcom had the Joint Functional Component Command thing going on.....JFCC Space was one of those things that got shoehorned in as they dumped a bunch of random functions into the old SAC spaces.
Now most of that function was realistically carried out in Colorado even if there were leadership running around Offutt somewhere. But it does mean that most serious candidates for leadership within Space Force at the senior levels will have some amount of Staff time from earlier in their career at Offutt.
So some level of command will be familiar with the pros and cons of Nebraska specifically although you sort of run the risk of personal bias and what the officer cadre thinks of Offutt in relation to the other contenders. While a number of folks see Nebraska as a good place to raise a family "awful Offutt" is a thing for many.
This is really out on a limb but if two services combine their support behind one location, that might be a factor. There is a history of the USAF and Navy playing relatively nice (as these things go) at STRAT, so who knows if that goes into the decision matrix?
Like I said, REALLY out on a limb here.
On a completely different tangent, I was very discouraged to see UNO give up on the Nebraska Applied Research Institute (NARI). It had so much promise but the budget cuts hit it hard. NARI was trying to do some good things and just needed a little more time.