Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday there is “complete agreement” between his agency, Vice President Mike Pence and the White House on creating a new Space Force for the military.
The Pentagon is working with Pence’s office daily, but the details of the military space plans and what the new organization would look like are not yet hashed out, Mattis told reporters.
President Trump has called for a brand new military service like the Air Force that would be dedicated to space, but a draft version of Pentagon space plans obtained last week by Defense One showed the military was instead contemplating a smaller combatant command similar to U.S. Cyber Command.
“We are working our way through all this. We are in complete agreement. The vice president is kind of the point man for the president on this, we are working daily with his office and with supporters on Capitol Hill and the relevant committees,” Mattis said.
The Pentagon delayed the release of its final Space Force report last week as discussions with the White House continued, and it is unclear when the report may be finalized.
[Related: Trump wants a Space Force, but Pentagon has different idea]
Mattis said he had no timeline on when it will be finished.
The report was requested by Congress, where lawmakers are also considering reorganizing the military to deal with space but some key senators are skeptical of Trump’s plan for an entirely new military service.
Mattis said he “absolutely” supports creating a new combatant command, which could be done without Congress and would be a middle-ground compromise to Trump’s new military service and policy included in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act creating a sub-unified military space command.
“We need to address space as a developing warfighting domain and a combatant command is certainly one that we can establish. This is a process we’re in,” Mattis said. “We are in complete alignment with the president’s concern about protecting our assets in space that contribute to our security, our economy, and we’re going to have to address it as other countries show a capability to attack those assets.”
[Also read: China warns Trump about dangers of new Space Force]
