PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Why space?

During a visit to Brown University on Wednesday, Oct. 16, Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr., one of the highest-ranking officers in the United States Space Force, answered that question for a room full of ROTC cadets and Brown student veterans. Miller grounded his answer in the context of the Space Force’s mission and how that mission intersects with other branches of the U.S. military and government entities like NASA.

“Space has become part of our everyday life,” Miller said. “If you have international or secure banking… if you want to have real-time communication, if you want to watch anything approaching television and see sports from anywhere across the globe, that’s all enabled by satellite communications… If you are looking at the size and makeup of our military forces, they have been built assuming access to space.”

Miller’s key takeaway? Space is a tremendously valuable asset and one that needs to be secured. And that’s the current and future role of the Space Force, established in 2019 as the sixth branch of the U.S. military. It is responsible for organizing, training and equipping forces to protect U.S. and allied interests in space, including defending satellites and other space-based assets.

As the leader of Space Operations Command, Miller is responsible for ensuring the capability of the force’s space, cyberspace, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and support forces. He’s also responsible for sourcing, training, certifying and assessing the readiness of the nation’s space forces, which was one part of the reason for visits like the one to Brown.

In recent years, the University’s military-affiliated community has seen rapid growth thanks to a sweeping veterans initiative launched in 2019 and renewed ROTC ties to U.S. military branches. The number of undergraduate student veterans at Brown has nearly tripled to 58, and the cadre of ROTC participants has grown each year, especially in its Air Force and Space Force tracks —last May, Brown Class of 2024 graduate Hannah Long became the first Brown ROTC student commissioned with the Space Force, and she’s now a second lieutenant based at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado. 

During his discussion with Brown ROTC participants and student veterans, Miller offered a detailed explanation of the Space Force’s structure, personnel, decision-making processes and mission descriptions, including search-and-rescue capabilities to recover astronauts who land on Earth somewhere other than intended.

A surprise to most people given the novelty of the Space Force itself, Miller said, is that much of its core mission is a continuation of work the military has undertaken since the 1940s. Those ventures have included surveillance and reconnaissance missions in space, establishing and maintaining satellite communications, and implementing precision targeting and GPS systems with those satellites.

“Those are core missions,” Miller said. The difference now is all of that those structures are at risk from other space-faring nations and groups. “That's where you get electronic warfare, cyber warfare and orbital warfare systems, which were not in our service 15 years ago.”

Advice for future U.S. military leaders

As a Lt. Gen. in the Space Force, Miller holds the second-highest rank that can be obtained in the U.S. military. But as a one-time ROTC participant himself — who graduated from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and was commissioned into the Air Force in 1993 — he spoke to the Brown students from personal experience.