With Donald Trump's ratification of the 2020 Military Funding Law, the United States now has a "space force" that will be responsible for assuring US domination of this new battlefield.
"Space is the new war front of the world", the President said at a promulgation ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington on Friday, December 20. "This is something incredible. It’s a big step. ”, he added.
Dear to the American president, who initially met with strong resistance within the Pentagon, the force of Space becomes the sixth branch of the American armed forces, after the Army, the US Air Force , the US Navy, the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard.
Defense Minister Mark Esper has outlined the mission of this new entity:
"Our dependence on space equipment has grown a lot and today space has become a full-blown war field. Maintaining American domination in this theater is now the mission of the United States Space Force. "
Multiple threats
The dominance of the United States in space is threatened by China and Russia, which have developed their technological capabilities. Threats range from jamming communications and GPS satellites to striking a surface-to-air missile against a satellite, which China successfully tested in 2007, according to the Pentagon.
In China and Russia, "We think that space is the Achilles heel (of the United States), which gives them an asymmetrical advantage over the United States", noted in August the assistant secretary of defense in charge of space policy, Steve Kitay.
As the Marine Corps is placed under the authority of the US Navy, the Space Force will be placed under the authority of the Secretary of the US Air Force and led by a Chief of Space Operations who will be placed under the direct authority of the Minister of Defense. The Pentagon chief compared the birth of this new American force to that of the US Air Force, which separated from the Army in 1947.
In August, the American president had already created a military command of space, baptized "Spacecom", which had become the 11th military command of the Pentagon, equivalent for example to Centcom, in charge of the American military operations in the Middle East, or the Southcom, in charge of Latin America.
The Pentagon’s administrative and operational activities are clearly separated into two categories: recruitment, training and management are the responsibility of the military, while military operations are the responsibility of military commands.
No uniform yet
The Space Force will initially consist of the 16,000 military and civilian personnel already in charge of space-related operations within the US Air Force, said US Air Force secretary Barbara Barrett. The force will be led by General Jay Raymond, who currently commands Spacecom. The goal is to gradually integrate the military and civilians in charge of space, who were previously attached to the Army and the US Navy, said Barbara Barrett during a conference of press at the Pentagon.
Its budget is currently limited: just under $ 40 million for the 2020 fiscal year, which began in October, is earmarked for the establishment of the Space Force. Congress has given the Pentagon eighteen months to complete this set-up.
"The United States is currently the best in the world in space. Today they are even better "said General Raymond. "In keeping with our national defense strategy, a US-based force will compete, deter and defeat through our position of strength, securing our way of life and our national security. "
The military being very attached to the signs of attachment to their branch, the question of the uniform of the soldiers of the Space force has not yet been decided. No more than their name, their insignia or their rallying song. “Here we touch on the culture of service. We don't want to rush and not do it right ”, noted General Raymond.
