Donald Trump trumped the Space Force as a development for the ages during the last moments of his presidency. And while President Joe Biden has easily reverse other Trump programmes, the space transport operation continues to thrive even though it is lower on the list of defence priorities under the current administration.
Quite certainly, Space Powers would not be abolished because removal will entail a Legislative act, in which a two-party majority argues that the increased dependence of America on space is a worrisome weakness that a military branch focusing specifically on this issue ideally tackles.
The new service is also related to a growing US warmth for China, which in the minds of others is becoming the singular challenge of national defence, emerging ability to endanger U.S. satellites in space. Russia, too, is accused of attempting to threaten US supremacy of space by Washington.
“They build space against us. “They build capacity. We need to be prepared to respond,” said the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, John Hyten, last week, with a nod to Russia and China, National Security Space Alliance, a lobbying organisation.
Hyten says he is frequently asked what will become of the Biden space force as a career space officer. He strongly claims that although he did not give a forecast Space Force ought to stay.
Biden did not elaborate publicly about his Space Force plans. His defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, was uncompromising when highlighting space’s strategic value. A invitation to comment on Biden’s view was not obtained from the White House.
While some see it as a project of Trump ego, the Room is not the farce of popular imagination. It is soberly regarded in the military as an affirmation of the need to coordinate in space more efficiently to defend U.S. interests — especially satellites used for civilian and military navigation, information and communication.
Although much smaller than any other military division, the Space Force acquires the traditional flag, badge, seal and philosophy of a service. It has released advertising for recruitment. Following a long argument, it was determined last month, while they have not had an official dress uniform, that space forces members be called guardians. At the end of this year, the force expects to increase its ranks from 2 400 participating members to 6 400.
Kaitlyn Johnson, a space-related specialist at the Centre, says two-part legislative assistance to the space force makes Biden impossible to press for its dissolution.
“The Space Force had only a year to set itself up and to work, I think this is a good thing,” she said. “The odds are close to zero,” adds her thought-tank counterpart Todd Harrison.
In December 2019, the Space Force was established as the first new military operation since the Air Force was formed in 1947 as an autonomous agency. Their chief, General John W. “Jay” Raymond, like the other Joint Chiefs at the table, acts as part of the Air Force Ministry, while the Space Force, like the Marine Corps, is a different agency that is managed by the Navy Ministry.
Space has moved past Space Force to concentrate more. In August 2019, the US was restored to a separate but related transfer Space Command; it is not a military service, it is a central space operations command. In 2005, the Space Command was disbanded and replaced by the United States. Strategic command, a bid to free domestic military capital after 11/11.
Trump has re-established the NSC, which oversees civil, trade and national spatial security policies. It was asleep after President Bill Clinton’s presidency.
Before Trump reached the White House, he continued to advocate for a military space service. But his stubborn support dulled the resistance within the Pentagon, where some leaders — especially the Air Force — felt a separate service was unjustified and duplicated. Gen Charles Q. Brown, who became the chief of staff of the Air Force following the birth of the space force, said it’s time to end the argument and focus more on the appropriate use of the space force.
Biden spoke nothing about the role of the military in space, but he took a token of his participation in space travel to the Oval Office — Apollo 17 brought home a moon rock about half a century ago.
Austin, the current Secretary of Defense, was not committed to sustaining the Space Fleet. Austin denounced, when asked by the Committee of Senate Armed Forces before his confirmed hearing, whether he felt it justified the formation of the new service. He dryly pointed out that after years of Congress research and other organisations the Space Force came into being. It was not enthusiastic.
Austin didn’t propose that he recommend it to be removed. He said he was going to research it, adding that space is a critical consideration.
“The space company DOD is still not fully integrated with other services and terrestrial commands and a number of other challenges will have to be addressed, as is expected in setting up a brand new military service,” Austin said.
Biden was called upon to draw on Trump’s decisions in space policy and the space army, by the non-partisan Safe Planet Foundation, which promotes peaceful and sustainable use of outer space.
“Key national space efforts are consistent… Having avoided an ongoing reset and the lack of strategic direction that has happened in the past during presidential transitions, helps move forward the USA and demonstrate stability to international partners,” the report stated last month.