The new US Space Force uniforms look like the Star Wars Empire meets the SS

The US military today confirmed for the first time that it's launched a space weapon into the Earth's orbit. The admission has swiftly provoked concerns about the possibility of a space arms race.

According to US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, the development of an "on orbit" weapon was a necessity to protect US forces against hostile enemy action. Meanwhile, the US Space Force has confirmed that its capabilities are both defensive and offensive. But the new Space Force uniform designs don't exactly help dispel fears that things won't swing be more towards the latter. They look more than a little Third Reichy.

If you're going to redesign the US Space Force uniforms, I'd say you have one main task: make sure they don't look like Star Wars, Star Trek or the SS. As noted by many people on social media, the new designs posted by US president Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform appear to fail that test spectacularly.

“Designing the Space Force uniforms to look like the evil bad guys from Star Wars, who are led by an elderly, power hungry tyrant, who lose, repeatedly, is a bit too on brand, no?” one person writes on X.

Worse still, it seems that the costume design fail was not accidental. The description on the document shared by Trump states in all earnestness that the service unform design was “inspired by the discipline and the functionality of the Starship Troopers uniform. Modernised for the guardians of the space domain."

For those who haven't seen Paul Verhoeven's 1997 sci-fi movie, it's a satire of fascism and authoritarian. The director intentionally used aesthetics inspired by Nazism to parody the Third Reich's propaganda movies. In the US, famous for allegedly not understanding irony, many critics didn't get that and condemned the film as a "fascist movie". Now, the current US administration appears to be embracing that.

It's not the first time that the regime has openly depicted itself as evil through sci-fi movie references. Previously, it's been Star Wars. Campaign manager Brad Parscale compared Trump's 2020 reelection campaign to the Death Star, the White House comms team has depicted the president with a red lightsaber, and the Department of Homeland Security posted an AI video depicting itself as Darth Vader and gang members and human smugglers as the good guys.

There has already been much mockery of the Space Force logo and the Star Force insignia designs for their resemblance to Star Trek.