The average American thinks of war as something that happens thousands of miles away. He thinks of weapons as things we use to zap enemy targets far, far away.
The average American thinks of our armed services as made up of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. He thinks those three branches are made up of men, ships, and planes that can be sent overseas to fight an enemy somewhere far, far away.
If you ask Europeans to define those same words, the answers would be very different. To them, war is something that can burn out your home, your cities, and your means of livelihood. Weapons are things you can use to protect yourselves and your loved ones from the devastation and atrocities of war.
American history and geography have combined to give our people an incomplete understanding of the word “defense,” as that word is used in “national defense” and in “Department of Defense.” It just never occurs to Americans that “defense” should include defending our homeland from attack, because that hasn’t been necessary in the lifetime of anyone living today.
Congress and the armed services seem to be checkmated by this defective understanding of the word “defense.” Practically all the strategy, weaponry, and personnel of our Army, Navy, and Air Force are directed at hitting the enemy far away, while practically none of it is designed to protect our people in our homes and cities.
The Soviet ICBMs of the nuclear-space age pose the first threat that a foreign aggressor can burn our cities since the British redcoats burned our Capitol in 1814. The current threat from Soviet ICBMs is real, but Congress and our armed services have refused to recognize present reality. They are still living in the past and pretending that war can happen only thousands of miles away.
Senator Malcolm Wallop (R-WY) thinks we need a fourth branch of the armed services to cope with the portion of defense not addressed by our Army, Navy, or Air Force. The mission of this fourth service should be “actively to defend the United States from all aerial threats, including but not limited to enemy ballistic missiles, bombers, and cruise missiles, and to provide access to, intelligence from, and control of space for U.S. military forces in the event of war.”
In order to carry out this mission, Wallop has introduced into Congress a bill called the U.S. Defense Force Act of 1987. It would amend the National Security Act of 1947 by creating a new service called the Department of the Defense Force, with its own civilian Secretary of the Defense Force and appropriate subordinate civilian and military officers parallel to the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
This new branch of the armed services would be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for the prompt and sustained defense of the United States against any threats from the air or space. This new branch would be responsible for securing, developing, and maintaining logistical access to and control of space during warfare.
This new branch of the armed services would, to the maximum extent possible, design weapons and procedures for use against enemy threats from air or space. This mission would be based on the best evidence gathered by U.S. intelligence.
Wallop’s bill contains a provision to assure its effectiveness. The bill states that the Defense Force “shall be exempt from all regulations of the Department of Defense governing research, development, test, evaluation, procurement, and contracting for a period of ten years.”
Most important to the mission of defending America against aerial and space threats, this bill would impose the obligation on the new U.S. Defense Force to produce prototypes of defensive weapons systems and report to the President that they are ready to begin initial deployment of defenses as soon as they are available.
These new systems, and the time allotted within which testing should begin, are: space-based rockets for intercepting ballistic missiles as they rise from their bases (within 18 months), space-based laser weapons for intercepting ballistic missiles as they rise from their bases (within four years), ground-based anti-missile system for interception of ballistic re-entry vehicles just outside the earth’s atmosphere (within three years), and a mobile, ground-based anti-missile system for interception of ballistic re-entry vehicles in the upper atmosphere (within two years).
Wallop’s bill gives his fellow Senators and Congressmen a chance to answer yes or no to a vital question. Are you for or against a real defense for the American people?
