Creating a sixth branch of the military is a step that White House officials are touting as a historic step. The Space Force is the Pentagon’s first branch of the military solely dedicated to organizing, training, and equipping personnel to operate and protect military space assets like GPS satellites.
President Trump made the announcement at an Air Force base near Washington. In his remarks, he described the Space Force as “the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” according to the BBC.
“Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital,” he said. “We’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, but very shortly we’ll be leading by a lot. The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground.”
What else they will eventually be involved in is still up in the air. However, with the service branch being so new, officials aren’t even sure how many personnel will be transferred over to the Space Force or what the new uniform will look like.
“The law states that Air Force Space Command will be re-designated the United States Space Force, that will happen immediately,” Gen. John Raymond, the commander of US Space Command and Air Force Space Command, told reporters at the Pentagon Friday.
Raymond said that the 16,000 active-duty airmen and civilians currently in the Air Force Space Command will be assigned to the new United States Space Force, however, they will still remain in the Air Force for the time being. A senior US Air Force official said that some 5,000 to 6,000 personnel out of the 16,000 will eventually be transferred to the Space Force, according to CNN News.
Right now, the idea is to transfer military personnel who focus on space, and space operations to the Space Force on a voluntary basis, Support personnel, such as security officers and civil engineers, will remain in the Air Force even though they are assigned to the Space Force.
“We want to build this service to be lean and agile, we’re going to rely very heavily on support functions from the Air Force,” Raymond said Friday. “There will be additional segments to come, so, for example, there might be other units that are outside of Air Force Space Command purview that would also come into this service as well.”
Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, who will oversee the new service, told reporters “The Space Force won’t be measured by the number of people unlike for instance the Marine Corps, which is really a labor-intensive service. Space Force is much more measured by the technology and the capabilities.”
