US continues to build Space Force strength with new base in Japan
- Analysts said the plan to open a third Indo-Pacific command post risked fuelling the space race with China
- The US military has already opened Space Force command posts in Hawaii and South Korea
The United States Space Force’s plan to set up a new command post in Japan could fuel the space race with China, analysts have warned.
According to the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, a small number of guardians – military personnel who work for Space Force – have already been stationed in Japan.
Space Force’s Korean deputy commander Major General Charles Taylor declined to specify where the new command will be based.
The disclosure came just a few months after the US Space Force and Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force held their first engagement talks at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in July.
Chinese defence experts warned that the new space command post in Japan would fuel the space race among China and the US.
“These two space command centres [in South Korea and Japan] that take care of US intelligence, communication and position satellites are not only aimed at China’s most powerful strategic weapons, such intercontinental ballistic missiles and anti-satellite systems, but also help interfere with the joint operations of the PLA’s missile force, navy, air force and strategic support force,” said Ni Lexiong, a professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law.
