Pence outlines Trump's Space Force in Pentagon speech

The push to formalise the new branch of US forces is motivated by investment by Russia and China

Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an event on the creation of a US Space Force. AP

President Donald Trump wants Congress to allocate $8 billion (Dh29.4 billion) over the next five years for space security systems as it establishes a US Space Force as the sixth branch of the military, Vice President Mike Pence said.

“It’s not enough to have an American presence in space,” Mr Pence said on Thursday in a speech at the Pentagon. “We must have American dominance in space. And so we will.”

As Mr Pence spoke, the Defense Department released a report to Congress outlining a plan to build a new force with aggressive offensive capabilities, including systems that could “degrade, deny, disrupt, destroy, and manipulate adversary capabilities.” A four-star general will be in charge of the new command.

“Space Force all the way!” Mr Trump tweeted minutes after Mr Pence spoke.

Mr Trump first broached the idea in March, reviving a debate that began almost 20 years ago about whether the Pentagon’s space activities should be moved to a separate command. In June, Mr Trump called for the new branch to be created, despite resistance from the Air Force, which currently oversees military space programs. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the new force would be a component of the Air Force, as the Marine Corps is to the Navy.

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Secretary of defence James Mattis had also disapproved of the idea in the past, saying last year he opposed creating additional bureaucracy at the Pentagon.

On Thursday, Mr Mattis said “space is one of our vital national interests” and is “no longer a new domain”.

Congress would have to approve the new military service, and lawmakers have been divided over the idea. The new branch would need to compete for money with other big, politically protected Defense Department priorities that Congress already funds.

The plan envisions setting up a new Space Development Agency modelled after two organisations that specialise in rapidly developing highly classified systems such as the B-21 bomber, or crafting new uses for existing systems.

The agency is envisioned to take over the management of most unclassified and classified satellite, missile warning, Global Positioning System, sensors and ground station programs that are now under the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and National Reconnaissance Office.

It’s not clear how those agencies will be affected by today’s announcement and report. The Center now spends 85 percent of the Pentagon’s space system procurement budget.

The US already has a space-based military footprint. The sky is teeming with spy satellites and other platforms that support government surveillance, communications, weather forecasting and other activities. The Air Force also has a top-secret aircraft, the X-37B, built by Boeing Co, which orbits the earth for extended periods.

Much of the push to formalise the new branch of the US armed forces is motivated by space investment by Russia and China. In 2007, China fired a missile to destroy an aged weather satellite, demonstrating in a dramatic fashion its ability to deploy anti-satellite weapons.

Even before Trump’s comments, the Defense Department was under orders to formulate a “concept of operations” document for space-war fighting.