"Due to competitor and adversary actions, the space domain is increasingly contested. Space has now joined land, sea, and air as a war-fighting domain. While we prefer the conflict not to extend to space, the United States will be prepared if it does," National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said.
In June, the US Air Force declared the creation of the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for Space Operations Directorate in order to assemble multiple functions and ensure the United States stays dominant in space.
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Exactly ten years ago, on February 21, 2008, the US military first blasted a satellite using the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) system, and the experimental strike brought modern warfare to a whole new level.
In December 2006, the US National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) launched spy satellite USA 193 from Vandenberg Air Force Base. It soon turned out that the spacecraft had problems maintaining orbit, and in 2007 the US Air Force informed that it could eventually fall to Earth.