SORTING OUT SPACE FORCE: Judging by the careful comments of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis as he chatted with reporters on the steps of the Pentagon yesterday, President Trump’s dream of a separate military service to focus on space is still in limbo. Mattis was clear the Pentagon concurs with the urgent need to address space as a “developing warfighting domain,” but hedged on if that will result in a full-fledged Space Force, or whether the Pentagon’s interim step of creating a unified Space Operations Command might fill the bill. “We are in complete alignment with the president’s concern about protecting our assets in space that contribute to our security, to our economy,” Mattis said. “And we’re going to have to address it as other countries show a capability to attack those assets.”

A draft Pentagon proposal to create a new combatant command for space, with its own four-star commander was originally scheduled to be released last week, according to Defense One which broke the story. Mattis said he’s fully behind that idea, which can be implemented without the need for new legislation. “A combatant command is certainly one thing that we can establish. This is a process we’re in,” he told reporters.