Trump Signs Space Force Directive-4
US President Donald Trump signed the fourth Space Policy Directive (SPD-4) yesterday, ordering the creation of a new military branch. The Space Force, announced by Trump last summer, will eventually become the sixth branch of the US military, along with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. For now, the Trump administration is calling the directive a first step, housing the new force under the Department of the Air Force.
Trump and other White House officials have said that the main purpose behind the creation of the force is to assert American dominance in space. “We are going to have the Air Force and we’re going to have the Space Force, separate but equal,” Trump said in June 2018. “It is going to be something so important.” The notion has been met with opposition, both domestic and international.
“President Trump has called space a new warfighting domain,” said Laura Grego, a senior scientist in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security program. “Space is important to militaries, that’s true, but it is only a small piece of what happens up there.”
She added that 80% of the almost 2,000 satellites in space are civilian, not military, and are currently serving economic and communications needs. “We need to take care of space. If concentrating authority in a space force creates an incentive for nations to build space weapons that increase the likelihood of conflict, it would be a profoundly bad idea.”
According to the directive, the Space Force would initially be housed under the Department of Air Force. The administration plans to eventually make it a separate branch of the military, for which Congress would have to pass legislation.
“If enacted, it will be our responsibility to deter and defeat threats in space through the US Space Force, which will organize, train, and equip military space forces,” Air Force officials said in a statement. “It will be our obligation to ensure unfettered access to, and freedom to operate in space, and to provide vital capabilities to joint and coalition forces.”
SPD-4 is the latest space directive under President Trump. The first directive called for NASA to engage in missions to the moon and eventually to Mars; the second focused on regulating the commercial space sector, and the third looked at managing space traffic. However, many logistical details regarding SPD-4 remain unclear — for one, how much it will cost, as well as how it will be structured. The administration is likely to release more details with its annual budget in mid-March. Ultimately, however, it is up to Congress to approve the creation of a new military branch.
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