Posted on 10/19/2018 1:58:08 PM PDT by ETL
WASHINGTON — The status of proposals to create a separate branch of the U.S. military devoted to space will be the subject of the next meeting of the National Space Council on Oct. 23.
Vice President Mike Pence, in an Oct. 12 tweet, said that the interagency group will discuss "progress made and next steps" on the formation of a Space Force, a plan formally announced by President Trump at the council's last meeting in June.
The president "has rightly called for the creation of a 6th branch of the Armed Forces to advance US dominance in space," Pence wrote. "#SpaceForce is an idea whose time has come. On 10/23, the National Space Council will meet [at National Defense University] to discuss progress made & next steps to implement POTUS' vision."
[What Is the U.S. Space Force Idea?]
In an interview after a panel discussion Oct. 15 at the ScienceWriters 2018 conference here, Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, confirmed that the status of planning for the Space Force will be the main focus of the meeting.
"It's mostly going to be about the Space Force," he said of the upcoming meeting. More details about the meeting will come soon, he added.
The meeting will be the fourth public meeting of the council since it was formally reestablished by President Trump in a June 2017 executive order. The council held its first public meeting in October 2017 at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington and the second in February at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
It was at the third public meeting, held June 18 at the White House, where President Trump announced his intent to create a Space Force. "We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force. Separate but equal. It is going to be something," he said in remarks at the beginning of the meeting. "I'm hereby directing the department of Defense and the Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces." That process would ultimately require congressional approval.
That announcement, while not necessarily a surprise — Trump had mused about creating a separate military branch for space in some previous speeches — nonetheless upended the military space community, forcing the Pentagon to respond with its proposals for establishing a Space Force. One such plan, in a memo last month by Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, estimated it would cost $13 billion over five years to stand up the Space Force as a separate branch.
That estimate, which Wilson described as "conservative," led to criticism that Wilson was revisiting the formation of a Space Force. A report earlier this month in Foreign Policy claimed that President Trump was considering firing Wilson, which a Pentagon spokesperson dismissed as "nonsense."
That report said that Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the strategic forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee and a staunch proponent of the Space Force proposal, was being considered as a potential replacement for Wilson. In a recent interview with an Alabama newspaper, the Opelika-Auburn News, Rogers appeared to allude to that report while stating that Wilson had become more supportive of the Space Force.
"The White House found out she was working against it. It was a shot across the bow, and my name was part of the signal to her," he said, adding he prefers to stay in Congress and seek to become chairman of the full committee, a path that depends on Republicans maintaining their currently majority in the House.
On a separate issue, Pace said that last week's Soyuz MS-10 launch failure, and the impact it has on operations of the International Space Station, had not yet risen to the level of the council. "We're getting informed pretty good," he said, with NASA providing updates. "They seem pretty on top of it."
This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Currently, one country has previously had an independent space force. The Russian Space Forces was an independent organization that existed from 1992 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2011; it was reestablished in 2015 as a branch of the Russian Aerospace Forces.[1]
A space force is almost always a part of the air force, which may function as an air and space force or as an aerospace force, as the United States Air Force does.[2][3][4]
In an announcement on June 18, 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed the establishment of the United States Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.[5]
On August 9, 2018, United States Vice President Mike Pence announced a plan to create the proposed service by 2020.[6]
From the campaign trail, 2008:
Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs
February 29, 2008 :: News
MissileThreat.com
A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.
The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:
Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.
First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[i.e. not win it]
Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending.
Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals.
You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much.
Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090412030633/http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp
"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
___________________________________________________
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
___________________________________________________
Also from 2008...
GOLDEN, Colorado - A just-released Pentagon report spotlights a growing U.S. military concern that China is developing a multi- dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.
Furthermore, last year's successful test by China of a direct-ascent, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to destroy its own defunct weather satellite, the report adds, underscores that country's expansion from the land, air, and sea dimensions of the traditional battlefield into the space and cyber-space domains.
Although China's commercial space program has utility for non- military research, that capability demonstrates space launch and control know-how that have direct military application. Even the Chang'e 1 - the Chinese lunar probe now circling the Moon - is flagged in the report as showcasing China's ability "to conduct complicated space maneuvers - a capability which has broad implications for military counterspace operations."
To read the entire publication [29.67MB/pdf], see U.S. Dept of Defense:
Don't forget to design a cool uniform and doors that go woosh.
We are already 25 Trillion in debt. What is a few trillions more? Spend, spend, spend.
Yeah, this is critical. It’s not like we don’t have columns of thousands of Central Americans headed towards our border, and wars going on all across the Middle East.
Martians... that’s the risk.
Ping!
Doesn’t she work for the Vietcong Space Program?
She must find that people’s memories are very long.
Doesn’t she work for the Vietcong Space Program?
Yes, she was their first Space Cadet!
Anyway, space smace, I want to know about the
Fifth Dimension Commandos like that purple haired
beauty in the above post. I think I met her on
one of my trips there.
Isn’t that Honor Harrington?
Won’t there be a new “Secretary of the Space Force” or will the Space Force exist under the Secretary of the Air Force like the Marine Corps and wartime Coast Guard are under the Secretary of the Navy?
Yep!!
At least an artistic rendering...
High cheekbones. She must be a Native American. A bow and arrow would be more effective in space, with an armor piercing arrowhead.
So Donald would establish a specialized fighting force for defense & control of military communications and assets. He directs establishment of an off earth force with expanded offensive and defensive capabilities. He would position a military service branch able to mount a response in a quarter hour—against Marvin the Martian???
Mine too.
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