A lot of people snickered when the Space Force was first introduced - both officially and as a concept.
Even now, a lot of people still don't understand what it does or is intended to do.
They imagine it's something like Star Wars, with spacecraft shooting lasers at each other or conquering distant planets.
But that's not it at all.
In reality, space isn't the same kind of warfare domain that land, sea, and air are... not yet, anyway.
What space assets really do is provide logistical support.
Satellites overhead provide a glimpse into how enemy forces are positioned. They reveal the locations of supply depots, transportation networks, and bases. They guide troops, ships, and aircraft through hostile terrain. They even provide advance warning of incoming assaults and missile launches.
That's exactly what happened in January 2020.
You might remember the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, who was killed by a drone strike near the Baghdad airport.
Soleimani was notoriously elusive. He kept a low profile and tight security detail.
Yet U.S. drones were able to pin down his precise coordinates. And what's more, they were able to get an hour-and-a-half head start because that's how far away the closest drone base was - more than 350 miles away.
Now, U.S. officials never said where they got their intelligence from. They just said they relied on classified "informants, electronic intercepts, reconnaissance aircraft, and other surveillance."
Given the broad reach and high quality of the government's satellite intelligence, I think it's fair to to speculate that's what we're talking about here.
Nevertheless, we don't know that.
But here's something we do know...
In the days after Soleimani's killing, Iran plotted its retaliation. And on January 8, five days after the drone strike, Iran fired a barrage of 14 missiles at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq where American troops were stationed.
Hundreds of U.S. soldiers could have been killed, which is exactly what Iran was counting on.
But they weren't.
Those soldiers survived because, according to Air Force Magazine, "The 20th Theater Missile Warning Company, part of the Army's 1st Space Brigade, was in Qatar receiving direct downlink data from a Space Force constellation at the time of the launch."
Col. Donald K. Brooks, 1st Space Brigade commander, told the magazine:
We had a specialist that was an E-4, sitting on crew chief that night... Well before those theater ballistic missiles were warhead events on Al Asad base, we had soldiers sitting in bunkers. That's where we work at the tactical, operational level, [employing] strategic capabilities that the Space Force [provides].
Yes, in real time, an Army space specialist analyzed Space Force warning data and determined the attempted strike's target, point of origin, and even the type of missiles being deployed.