Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla, said Tuesday that he is ready to listen to the Pentagon’s plan to create a new space command, and that it might be better than proposals for a whole new military service that have been opposed by Senate Armed Services members.
The Pentagon is set to deliver a plan to overhaul space operations to Congress Wednesday. It will include creating what is called a combatant command for space, similar to U.S. European Command or U.S. Central Command, by the end of the year, according to a report by Defense One.
“That’s a little better than a whole new bureaucracy, which is what one of the alternatives was,” said Inhofe, who is the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee in Sen. John McCain’s absence.
Inhofe and other members of the committee have questioned a proposal, first floated by the House last year and now pushed by President Trump, to create a whole new Space Force military service branch equal to the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps.
Congress’ annual National Defense Authorization Act already calls for the creation of a sub-unified space command, which would exist under U.S. Strategic Command. A final Senate vote on Thursday is expected to send the bill to Trump to be signed into law.
The Pentagon’s proposal for a new combatant command goes further than the NDAA provisions by creating a larger command but falls short of creating a new military service.
Inhofe said he still wants to see where Trump and other supporters of a Space Force military branch are “going to be on this” and whether it could accomplish the goals of overhauling space operations.
“We’re still listening on this,” he said.
