In the beginning, even President Trump thought the idea of a Space Force was a joke.
“I said maybe we need a new force. We’ll call it Space Force. And I was not really serious,” Trump said in remarks to troops at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., in March. “Then, I said what a great idea. Maybe we’ll have to do that.”
As the Pentagon worked to zap the idea before it got off the ground, Trump continued to warm to the notion, until over the objections of his defense secretary and the Air Force he publicly ordered Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford to begin the countdown to launch a new sixth branch of the armed services.
“We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal,” Trump said, at a meeting of his National Space Council in June.
Since then, the idea of a Space Force has captured the imagination of Internet memesters and Trump supporters alike.
At campaign-style events around the country, the mere mention of Space Force is a surefire crowd-pleaser.
“We’re going to win at space,” Trump said to thunderous applause at a recent rally. “Space Force. People love that.”
And they do.
In South Carolina, the crowd chanted back, “Space Force, Space Force, Space Force,” while Trump beamed from the stage.
The idea of “Space Force” conjures up in the public mind images of X-wing fighters battling death stars, Starship troopers, and a Starfleet Academy where future space cadets might train to battle ISIS in space.
It’s spawned a comedic Space Force anthem on YouTube, and has been mocked by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” which dispatched a faux reporter to talk to attendees at the South Carolina rally who, like a lot of folks, had only a fuzzy notion a real Space Force might do.
One admittedly confused man eventually confessed on camera, “Space Force. It’s just a cool name.”
It’s not like Trump has explained his vision for the Space Force, except to say it’s aimed at “American dominance” and because “we are doing a tremendous amount of work in space, and it’s the new frontier.”
Here’s how he explained it to the crowd in South Carolina: “Defense is now largely based with the satellites and everything else in space. And the problem is when you have the Air Force, I don’t think they’re going to really sort of, you know, they want those planes flying. They want it, but I don’t think they’re going to be focusing on space maybe like they should.”
Despite Trump’s apparent belief the idea of a Space Force originated with him, the notion of a creating a separate organization for operations in space had been kicking around for more a year, pushed by a pair of congressmen: Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Jim Cooper. They wanted to create a Space Corps under the Air Force, much like the Marine Corps is separate but under the Navy.
It’s not that the Pentagon doesn’t recognize that space has become a warfighting domain, as China and Russia rush to develop exotic new weapons that could cripple U.S. satellites used for communication, navigation, and surveillance.
It’s that in increasing the focus on space, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis didn’t want to add bureaucracy and more institutional overhead as he tries to streamline the military and make it more nimble and lethal, a concern he outlined in a letter to Congress last year.
But in typical Trumpian fashion, the president has not only ignored the unwelcome advice from the Pentagon, but he super-sized the original idea of a Space Corps, directing the Pentagon to draw up plans for what he called a “separate but equal service.”
Dunford has directed his staff to draw up plans that could be turned into a legislative proposal the White House could submit to Congress, because it turns out the president can’t simply create a whole new branch of the armed forces by executive decree.
Congress would have to approve it, and more importantly, fund it.
The Pentagon would prefer to see something less ambitious than a whole new service, perhaps elevating or restructuring the current Air Force Space Command.
If the Space Force were to become its own service, it would likely be the smallest, considering an estimated 25,000 U.S. service members now work in space-related missions.
By comparison, the Marines have about 180,000 active-duty troops, with another 30,000 in the reserve. Even the Coast Guard is bigger with more than 40,000 active personnel and 6,000 reservists.
The Pentagon had hoped to await guidance from a study being prepared by Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan, who was directed by last year’s National Defense Authorization Act to look at alternatives.
Now, the Air Force is saluting and carrying on.
“The [p]resident’s statement to the National Space Council adds emphasis to the Air Force position — space is a warfighting domain and the entire national security space enterprise must continue to enhance lethality, resilience and agility to meet the challenge posed by potential adversaries,” Air Force leaders wrote, according to Military.com. “We look forward to working with Department of Defense leaders, Congress, and our national security partners to move forward on this planning effort.”
