Air Force and Sister Service Component

AIR FORCE AND SISTER SERVICE COMPONENTS
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As one of the eight uniformed services to the American citizens, the United States Air Force (USAF) can execute a swift, flexible, and lethal air and space capability to deploy forces at any time anywhere in the world in hours. The other seven components within the uniformed services include the Army (USA), the Marine Corps (USMC), the Navy (USN), the Space Force (USSF), the Coast Guard (USCG), and the National Guard (USNG). The USSF is a sister component of the USAF, both belonging to the Department of the Air Force (DAF). However, both USAF and USSF are independent and serve the nation in different capacities. USAF has five key missions in ensuring the security of the Americans: rapid global mobility; superiority in the air space; global strike; command and control; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) (Air Force, n.d). The USSF serves to organize, train, and equip the space forces with the fundamental aim of protecting the United States. Among other allied interests in space, the USSF also offers space capabilities to the joint force as well as military options to decision-makers in achieving national objectives. The USSF also serves as a distinct and separate branch of armed services within the DAF, similar to the ways the USMC and USN are organized under the Department of the Navy (DON) (US Space Force, n.d). This paper argues that while some of the duplicated capabilities existing in both USAF and the recently formed USSF should be retained in enhancing joint operations and preserving service competencies, long-range strikes should be a reserve of the USAF with its clear mission to conduct global strikes, but not the USA.
The decisions to establish the USSF as an independent sister component of the USAF on December 20, 2019, and the passage of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, have been welcomed among many Americans (Spirtas et al., 2020). The USSF provides some of the services that are similar to those offered by the USAF because it was established within the Department of the USAF under the DAF. This implies that the Secretary of the USAF oversees all the USSF services under the command of the Secretary of Defense. To support the mission of USAF, the duplication of space operations of USSF is necessary to further strengthen the incredible works that have historically been done by the Air Force. For instance, the establishment of the Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) under USAF before the conclusion of the Cold War was to enhance missile warning systems, satellite control, launch satellites, and perform space surveillance. The same AFSPC also provided space-based support in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack in areas such as navigation and timing, communication, positioning, warning, and meteorology. In 2018, the USAF cyber mission moved to Air Combat Command to give it the capabilities for integrated information warfare within USAF. The move allowed AFSPC to concentrate on gaining and mai...