In September, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced that the United States has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.” The comments sparked a rash of questions: What kind of weapons? What adversaries are we competing against? Could we soon see those weapons deployed?
Shortly after the announcement, Senior Editor Will Kaback spoke with Clayton Swope, the deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS. Swope’s career includes an extended stint at the CIA, time spent advising lawmakers on national security and space in Washington, D.C., and a lead role in Amazon’s efforts to establish a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit.
The conversation explores lingering questions about the state of the U.S. space-weapons program, what technology we might now have in orbit, how the space arms race could factor into ongoing geopolitical conflicts, and why the U.S. wants these weapons in the first place.
You can check out more of Swope’s work here: https://www.csis.org/people/clayton-swope
In yesterday's edition of Press Pass, I wrote about going back to my roots (more writing, more brevity, more personality). As part of that goal, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re launching a dedicated YouTube channel for some video essays about the current happenings in politics. This will be a place for me to get into some stuff we don’t cover in Tangle, and deliver “My take” essays in video form. The channel launched today with a deep dive on the plans for a border wall in the Big Bend region of West Texas, with some personal stories about my connections to the area and why I think it’s a historically bad policy idea. You can watch it here.
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Our Executive Editor and Founder is Isaac Saul. Our Executive Producer is Jon Lall.
This podcast hosted by: Will Kaback and audio engineered and edited by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Jon Lall.
Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Senior Editor Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Audrey Moorehead, and Carina Pacheco.
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