US aims to launch Space Force by 2020

News, US August 12, 2018 , by IRIA No Comments

‘Time has come’ for US Space Force, sixth military branch by 2020: Pence

US Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday (Aug 9) unveiled details of plans to build a US Space Force that would become the sixth branch of America’s massive military.

It would become the US military’s sixth branch, following the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps.

“The time has come to establish the United States Space Force” to prepare for “the next battlefield.”

The time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America’s best & bravest will be called to deter & defeat a new generation of threats to our nation. The time has come to establish the US #SpaceForce. pic.twitter.com/cKAdxnZzba

— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) August 9, 2018

“America will always seek peace in space, as on the Earth. But history proves that peace only comes through strength, and in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength in the years ahead,” Pence said in an address to the Pentagon.

Pence outlined these four precise actions the US administration sees as the primary steps in creating the Space Force:

A new U.S. Space Command, which “will establish unified command control for our Space Force operations; ensure integration across the military; and develop the space war fighting doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures of the future,” Pence said.
A military astronaut corps, which Pence called “an elite group of joint war fighters specializing in the domain of space.”
A Space Development Agency, which will research and develop new technologies and “ensure cutting-edge war-fighting capabilities.”
New bureaucratic structures that will define “clear lines of responsibility and accountability to manage the process of standing up and scaling up the United States Department of the Space Force.”

In June, US President Donald Trump ordered the creation of Space Force arguing the Pentagon needs it to tackle vulnerabilities in space and assert US dominance in orbit.

He expressed support for the plan on Twitter, writing: “Space Force all the way!”

However, Trump’s new ambitious plan will require congressional approval to be authorized.