New Space Force unit launched to target enemy satellites

During the activation ceremony for the 75th ISRS, the unit's patch was also revealed, showing a cartoony Grim Reaper figure with a glint in its eye and a delta shape for its nose, alongside the number 75.

The Space Force statement explains that the delta represents "historic ties to the earliest days of the U.S. Air Force space community" as well as "all variations of space vehicles".

"Today is a monumental time in the history of our service," Lt. Col. Travis Anderson, leader of the squadron, said in the statement. "The idea of this unit began four years ago on paper and has probably been in the minds of several U.S. Air Force intelligence officers even longer."

Master Sgt. Desiree Cabrera, 75th ISRS operations superintendent, added: "Not only are we standing up the sole targeting squadron in the US Space Force, we are changing the way targeting is done across the joint community when it comes to space and electromagnetic warfare."

Military escalation in Earth's orbit

The 75th ISRS will also analyze "counterspace force threats," meaning it will essentially investigate its equivalent in other nations in a bid to counter any attack on US satellites.

In 2020, the US Space Force published its 'Spacepower' military doctrine. In that document, it stated that the actions of adversaries had "significantly increased the likelihood of warfare in the space domain."

With that doctrine, the US turned its back on a decades-long global effort to maintain space as an un-militarized domain, as outlined by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

In June, the US Space Force also announced it will launch a constellation of countersurveillance satellites with the codename "Silent Barker". These are designed to track Chinese and Russian space vehicles in order to defend US assets in space.