Trump orders creation of new military branch: ‘Space Force’
Add this to the list of things you never expected to be able to say in 2018: “Screw it, I’m joining Space Force.”
On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that seeks to establish Space Force as a “separate but equal” sixth branch of the military, a move he framed as a strategic, preemptive play in the inevitable militarization of space.
Space is “going to be important monetarily and militarily,” Trump said. “We don’t want China and Russia and other countries leading us. We’ve always led—we’ve gone way far afield for decades now.”
The Pentagon responded to the directive, which still needs congressional approval, with a statement:
“Our Policy Board will begin working on this issue, which has implications for intelligence operations for the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in the statement. “Working with Congress, this will be a deliberate process with a great deal of input from multiple stakeholders.”
Trump’s vision of a discrete, militarized space force isn’t entirely new. In June 2017, the House Armed Services Committee proposed the establishment of a new branch of the military calls space corps, which would have boosted the capabilities and operations of the Air Force Space Command, currently the chief organization of military operations in space.
But Secretary of Defense James Mattis shot the idea down with a suggestion to Congress that it was “premature.”
“I oppose the creation of a new military service and additional organizational layers at a time when we are focused on reducing overhead and integrating joint warfighting functions,” Mattis said in a memo to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
On Monday, Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, tweeted that now is not the time to create a new military branch.
The president told a US general to create a new Space Force as 6th branch of military today, which generals tell me they don’t want. Thankfully the president can’t do it without Congress because now is NOT the time to rip the Air Force apart. Too many important missions at stake. https://t.co/uYzqg1W8nE
— Senator Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) June 18, 2018
