Beltway Confidential

Space Force has a cool name but more bureaucracy isn’t going to keep America safe

By Erin Dunne

Published August 10, 2018 3:18pm ET

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Space Force has a cool name but more bureaucracy isn’t going to keep America safe — Jim Mattis, U.S. secretary of defense, smiles while introducing U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, during an event at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Aug. 9, 2018. President Donald Trump's administration will call on Congress to allocate $8 billion over the next five years to establish the U.S. Space Force as the sixth branch of the military, Pence said today. | (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence joined Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in a speech offering a first look at the plan to develop a U.S. Space Force. As the Trump administration envisions it, Space Force would be a sixth branch of the military. That would add a lot of bureaucracy and require congressional action.

While there are real threats to U.S. assets in space, the bureaucracy-heavy route might not be the best way to make us safer.

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China Donald Trump Jim Mattis Mike Pence Russia Space Force