US President Donald Trump wants a new military "space force", but Congress still does not agree.
The Senate and the House have met to authorize the defense to spend $ 716 billion, funding necessary to lay the foundations for a sixth armed force dedicated to space. It is the unified command for space under the US Strategic Command of Nebraska, whose primary mission now is to oversee the military nuclear arsenal.
Todd Harrison, Aerospace Security Project Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said "this is preparatory work: they are trying to get the Air Force to improve its space capabilities" and "what they are not doing. doing, instead, is to try to integrate the space forces through the military.
The only way to really do that would be to create a separate department, "Harrison said, adding that the Air Force space forces would be the synthesis of the space forces of other services.
The proposal to establish a new Air Force dedicated to space combat has been abandoned, possibly compromised by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where the idea of an autonomous armed force has never been widely accepted.
Fears about the militarization of space are prompting the Pentagon to develop a comprehensive space combat strategy (by April 2019) aimed at attributing attacks in space, resolving conflicts and deterring, defending and defeating aggressive behavior in space.
The enemies of the US and the public may someday need to know more about the army's covert activities in space. In this regard, the Pentagon should examine the feasibility of an information declassification strategy to ensure the necessary knowledge and give the business the right deterrence.
The conference report for the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act is expected to arrive for a vote in the House this week and in the Senate next week. The huge funding requested concerns the expenses for military hardware, personnel and various evaluation studies, in the space environment, on national security.
When Trump last month ordered the Pentagon to begin work on a new "Space Force," Congress did not expect to have to approve the measure immediately.
The Congress is waiting for a Pentagon report on the matter, scheduled for next month, which was assigned in the last NDAA and another by the Center for naval analysis by the end of the year on a possible roadmap for the establishment of a separate space service.
Supporters of a separate military dedicated to space argue that the US military is increasingly dependent on satellites for communications, intelligence and navigation, and that it must move quickly to counter Russia and China who are working, in secret and quickly to exploit this US vulnerability.
Under the 2019 NDAA proposal, the chief of the sub-unified command for space could, for three years, be a double-hat position for the commander of the Air Force Space Command. The flag officer would be responsible for space strategy, doctrine, tactics and budget proposals, as well as staffing and training requirements.
With the creation of the Air Force Space Command vice three-year-old commander earlier this year, the space service added the first uniform leader in the Pentagon dedicated exclusively to the promotion of military space operations.
The Department of Defense, under the NDAA, would be required to develop a plan, by the end of the year, to establish a separate and alternative process for space acquisitions, likely to address the current slow and bureaucratic acquisition process.
The newly established Space Rapid Capabilities Office, which reports to the Chief of Air Force Space Command, must simplify acquisition capabilities beyond the standard system of joint capability integration and development. In part it will develop the study on classified capabilities, as well as on “rapid reaction payloads, reaction speed, shuttle capability, launch and launch control capabilities in order to meet joint military operational requirements”. Initially, work will be carried out on the development of small, medium and large-sized shuttles, protected satellite communications, environmental monitoring of space and infrared systems in the space environment. The Secretary of the Air Force is also thinking of a plan to develop the career of military space personnel, likely an attempt to remedy concerns that space is a dead-end career path.