(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) The United States Space Force has developed a new military intelligence unit that will monitor “threat systems, foreign intentions, and activities in the space domain,” according to a press release from Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
1/3: Today, SpOC grew its intelligence capabilities with the activation of Space Delta 18. Welcome to the team! Lt Gen Stephen N. Whiting, commander of @ussfspoc, presided over the activation ceremony of the National Space Intelligence Center as Delta 18, @WrightPattAFB. pic.twitter.com/M9RTSOxztX
— ussfspoc (@ussfspoc) June 24, 2022
The formation of the new unit — called Space Delta 18 — confirms the prescience of President Donald Trump’s claim that “space is the world’s newest warfighting domain.”
Trump made the remarks as he established the Space Force during a ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Dec. 2019.
“Space is the world’s newest warfighting domain,” Trump said. “Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital.”
Space Delta 18 will operate the National Space Intelligence Center, which will be “tasked with helping the Space Force to identify and track threats in orbit, both kinetic and non-kinetic,” the Air Force Magazine reported.
At the Space Delta 18 launching ceremony on June 24 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines outlined the unit’s purpose.
“As the Service Intelligence Center for the U.S. Space Force, NSIC will be well positioned to support U.S. and allied space decision makers at an absolutely critical moment in the history of space development,” Haines said.
Echoing Trump, Haines warned that space was becoming more contested globally.
“In the years ahead, the environment will only become more contested,” she said.
“And as we move forward, NSIC will be relied upon to produce and analyze scientific and technical intelligence related to space for the entire nation.”
The unit will be commanded by Col. Marqus D. Randall, a career intelligence officer who graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1997, and who has been involved in Space Force since its inception.
