Tag: Jim Cooper

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday announced the first steps in the Trump administration's bid to establish a standalone military Space Force by 2020, including creating an elite group of space troops in the same vein as current special operations forces. Pence said the administration is already working with leaders in Congress to include funding in next year's budget to stand up the new Space Force, but some advocacy groups are already calling the plan "a waste of money." "We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal," Trump said at the meeting. In his introduction of Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also backed the proposal, saying the Pentagon has "got to adapt to that reality" that space is a warfighting domain just like air, land and sea. Except we already have the Air Force Space Command, while the Navy and the Army also already have their own space-related operations. He echoed concerns aired by others, including a former secretary of the Air Force. Congress debated creating a Space Corps within the Air Force, like the Marine Corps is a component of the Navy, as part of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act H.R. "I strongly urge Congress to reconsider the proposal of a separate service Space Corps. 5515 (115), which the president is expected to sign next week, creates a space command under U.S. Strategic Command, but does not mention a standalone space service. Congress, which has the constitutional authority to "raise and support Armies," will have the final say on whether the Space Force as envisioned by Trump becomes reality.