Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force.

- The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

Trump Authorizes a Space

Command. Next, He Wants a
Space Force.
By Katie Rogers and Helene Cooper

Aug. 29, 2019

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Thursday authorized the creation of

the United States Space Command, citing the need for a centralized unit to
protect American interests in what he called “the next war-fighting domain.”
He described the command as a precursor to the Space Force, a sixth branch
of the military that he has promised to supporters at his rallies and that he
wants Congress to create.

“The Space Force will organize, train and equip warriors to support
Spacecom’s mission,” Mr. Trump said during a Rose Garden ceremony
authorizing the command, which he said would assert American dominance
in space “because we know the best way to prevent conflict is to prepare for
victory.”

The idea of establishing a unified command to coordinate the military’s role

in space is not new — President Ronald Reagan created something similar,
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but it was disbanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when fighting terrorism
became the Pentagon’s priority.

But 17 years later, there is little doubt at the Pentagon about the need to
protect American interests against global competitors like Russia and China
in the event they target space-based American technology, especially the
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Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force. - The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

satellites that help guide aircraft carriers in the North Arabian Sea and
fighter jets over the Persian Gulf and that enable intelligence officers to
gather information on adversaries.

“Space will be a part of future conflicts on Earth, with space-based

technology playing a critical role and space capabilities increasingly
becoming military targets,” said Brian Weeden, a former Air Force nuclear
and space operations officer who is now the director of program planning at
the Secure World Foundation in Washington.

While there is widespread agreement that threats exist, how to confront them
is a matter of debate.

In the past, responsibility for space has largely rested on the Air Force, and
the president named Gen. John Raymond, who has led the unit, as the head
of the new combatant command, praising him as a “warrior” with “integrated
space capabilities to make our military even stronger and to pave the way for
a new era.”

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Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force. - The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

Mr. Trump and his eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, speaking to NASA astronauts
aboard the International Space Station in 2017. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

But Mr. Trump’s determination to create a separate service branch has

drawn criticism from experts who have said it would drain resources and
create needless red tape. And there are additional disagreements, including
how to define “war fighting” in space and partisan bickering over what Mr.
Trump wants to call it.

The creation of a Space Force, which hinges on congressional approval,

would further centralize and elevate the responsibility to recruit, train and
equip military personnel to protect American satellites from Russia and
China, which are developing antisatellite weapons. A United States
intelligence threat assessment warned last year that both nations would be
able to shoot down American satellites in two to three years.

In the meantime, there is a fight over its name.

“The Democrats want ‘Corps’ and the G.O.P. wants ‘Force,’ said Todd
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Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force. - The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

Harrison, the director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies. “They should just call it the Space
Defense Force. That would reassure allies that it’s not about offensive
military power or destroying other people’s stuff in space, it’s about
defending our national assets from space.”

But some of the president’s allies would like the Trump administration to
move quickly to establish a military presence in space. Newt Gingrich, the
former House speaker, and a small but vocal group believe that the Space
Force should move aggressively to protect American interests, building
military bases on the moon before global competitors can do so.

Proponents of a more aggressive approach lobbied for the Space Force

commander to be Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast, an Air Force general who has
argued in interviews that the United States is trailing China by 30 years in
settling a colony on the moon and has publicly supported the Space Force
when his superiors at the Pentagon opposed it.

Mr. Gingrich, for his part, has written a proposal to quickly deliver resources
to the moon to establish a lunar base. This week, a White House official
called Mr. Gingrich “a friend of the White House,” but said he is not officially
advising the White House on space exploration.

Critics are concerned about the consequences of an overly aggressive

response. “We can build a force that can go into space and fight,” Laurie R.
Blank, a space law expert at Emory University, said in an interview. “But, in
fact, we already have the capabilities — and we can continue to develop them
— to do what we need to do and counter what our adversaries are doing.”

She added that there was concern among analysts about how the United
States’ adversaries may conduct themselves in an uncharted environment,
particularly if they refine their abilities to disrupt technologies pertaining to
satellites, communications and precision-guided munitions.
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Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force. - The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

SpaceX’s StarHopper during a test launch this month in Brownsville, Tex.

Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald, via Associated Press

“Two of our main adversaries on the world stage, Russia and China, often
have very different views about what international law means,” Ms. Blank
said. “What its value is and when you have to follow it. And, of course, they’re
the two biggest players with the United States in outer space.”

While expressing enthusiasm for the Space Force, Mr. Trump has recently
defined his own goals more in terms of pushing the United States to reach
Mars, just the way President John F. Kennedy paved the way to go to the
moon. He has generally spoken less about the need for a more robust
military defense of space in favor of publicly pondering what explorers might
find if Americans had the ability to travel to another planet.

“Space, to me, is very important for defense,” Mr. Trump said in July at a
gathering in the Oval Office to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
Apollo 11 moon landing, before he extensively pondered the benefits of
humans bypassing the moon and flying directly to the red planet. On
Independence Day, Mr. Trump told Americans gathered on the National Mall
that “someday soon we will plant the American flag on Mars.”

Mr. Gingrich said that the president likes the idea of, as he put it, “occupying
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Trump Authorizes a Space Command. Next, He Wants a Space Force. - The New York Times 4/9/19 9&02

the moon, developing the moon and continuing to Mars,” perhaps beginning
with partnerships with Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s Space X
projects — projects run by two billionaires whom Mr. Trump recently
referred to as “rich guys sending up rockets.”

“I think his interest starts with, if he’s the president who gets us to the moon
and Mars, he’ll be historic for as long as people write histories,” Mr. Gingrich
said. “To be the president to be the one who got human beings permanently
off the planet would for several thousand years be a very big deal.”

During his first public appearance before reporters since returning Monday
from the Group of 7 summit in France, Mr. Trump on Thursday seemed
focused on the task at hand, even though he had spent the day on Twitter
assailing the news media and James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director
who was criticized in an inspector general report released earlier in the day
for setting “a dangerous example” for officials with access to government
secrets.

In the Rose Garden, Mr. Trump stood and smiled as a Space Command flag
was unfurled and planted on the lawn.

“I think that’s obvious to everybody,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s all about space.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 18 of the New York edition with the headline: Space Force Must
Wait, But Trump Authorizes Initial Command Unit

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