US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he wants the military to believe in a new space force that will join the Pentagon's air, naval and ground forces.
Trump told troops at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, near San Diego, that the new group could lessen the "tremendous amount" of the military and the government are doing in defense of space. "My new national strategy for space recognizes that it is a war domain, like land, air and sea," said Trump. "We have a space force ... We have air force, and we will have space force, we will have the army, the Navy (...) We may have to do it. It could happen, "he said.
Trump has frequently praised the US military since taking office as president and has placed high-ranking generals in positions of responsibility in the White House and the cabinet. Some legislators pushed a bill in Congress last year that included a provision for an army branch called Space Corps. But the military itself resists, they argue that they do not need to create another force and its subsequent bureaucracy.
"At a time when we are trying to integrate the joint combat functions of the department, we should not add a separate service that is not closer and even the provincial one of space operations," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to Congressman Michael Turner. in a letter last July. It would be "premature to add another organizational and administrative branch to the department at the moment in which to reduce expenses", added
The idea was finally removed from the Pentagon's funding bill late last year, but it still retains some support in Congress, where its supporters say the United States has significant strategic weaknesses in space warfare in the face of Russia's push and China.