The commander of the US Space Forces, General John Raymond, singled out China and Russia as the country's main rivals in space
NEW YORK, December 4. /tass/. Rivalry in the space sphere is growing rapidly, the commander of the US Space Forces, General John Raymond, said on Saturday, speaking at a forum organized by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
"The incentive to create [Space Forces] is the rivalry that you can observe the last couple of years <...>. The space for competition is developing rapidly," he said and singled out China and Russia as the main rivals of the United States in space.
The general also noted that the number of active satellites in Earth orbit has doubled since the creation of the US Space Force in 2019 and reached almost 5 thousand. At the same time, the devices themselves are becoming smaller and more efficient at the same time.
The US Space Force was officially established on December 20, 2019. They became the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces and the first created after the formation of their modern structure in 1947.
