How would a conflict in space actually play out?

For large swaths of America, the concept of a space-based branch of the military was relegated to science fiction until President Trump made the announcement that he was directing the Pentagon to establish a “Space Force,” but for those attuned to the defense industry, it was merely another bullet point in a long standing debate about how best to counter orbital threats to America’s national security.

That confusion was exacerbated by much of the national media coverage devoted to the Space Force — much of which focused on the President’s politics or exaggerated extrapolations of what a space branch may actually do, very little of which gave the subject at hand the due diligence it deserved. Establishing a Space Force, as SOFREP has covered in the past, would not militarize space, it would ensure the United States is keeping up in a theater that has already been militarized for years.