It can be hard to wrap your head around exactly what the US Space Force does. Sitting in front of a satellite tracking screen does not have the same visceral impact as, say, flying a fighter jet. So in an effort to increase the personal connection that Space Force Rangers feel to the machinery in orbit they monitor, America’s newest military branch has unveiled a new naming system based on how air units have done it in the past. What is really new is the way revealed it: through a series of Magic: The Gathering style cards, with keywords and all. I don’t know how to exploit a satellite in space, but someone is definitely trying.
This is the result of an initiative started in October 2024, when Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman publicly asked the Guardsmen to help with the new naming system, as Air & Space Forces Magazine reports. The idea is to give boring satellite designations some fresh names instead, as much as the F-15 is called the Eagle or the F-22 is called the Raptor. Satellites have letters like this, for mission profiles like “A” for attack or locations like “L” for low Earth orbit. The idea here is to bring more identity to the proceedings, the way Army helicopters are called Apaches, Black Hawks, or Chinooks.
Notice the theme there? The helicopters are named after Native American tribes. Similarly, the Space Force announced seven themes: orbital war satellites will be named after the Norse pantheon, electromagnetic war satellites after the snake, cyber war after mythological creatures, navigation war after sharks, communications after constellations, missile warning after sentinels, and awareness of the space domain after a ghost. That’s great, but… those papers.
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Do the satellites come in paper packs?
Paper art for Space Force electromagnetic warfare names, multicolored cobra in space – DVIDS
You really have to see the cards to believe them. The orbital war is represented as a sexy space angel with keywords Bold, Dominant, and Non-stop. What is it, no Do you fly?Serra Angel will be disappointed. Meanwhile, electromagnetic warfare looks absolutely fabulous in its multi-colored scales. He Adaptable, agile, and Knowledge. To be clear, these are just graphic assets, not physical commodities that you can hold in your hands, put in a box for decades, and then sell for thousands of dollars.
The goal here, as Saltzman explained, is to start building a distinct culture for the branch that the Guardians themselves have a direct say in. Kind of inevitable that leads to something that looks less like the old school military and more like what a bunch of high school nerds who just graduated are used to. Regardless, the cards are just for show; the real effect will be when the Guardians start talking about, say, Valkyries and Anacondas and what they’re doing in orbit. Honestly, that sounds better than just referring to a mixmash of letter and number designations. Unless one of them gets banned in the Standard format, of course.
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