WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the Pentagon tocreate a new US “Space Force,” which would become the sixth branch of theAmerican military but which requires Congressional approval to take effect.
“I´m hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediatelybegin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branchof the armed forces,” Trump said.xlink#_>ADVERTISEMENT
“We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the SpaceForce, separate but equal,” he added.
Details about the role and timing of any new space force were notimmediately clear.
However, the creation of a new branch of the military cannot happen fromone day to the next, as Congress would have to pass a law authorizing itfirst.
Trump has previously supported the idea of creating a sixth branch of thearmed forces, adding to the US Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and CoastGuard.
Debate over the issue has raged in Congress for years, with some supportiveof the idea and others insisting space duties remain under the Air Force asthey are now.
“When it comes to defending America it is not enough to merely have anAmerican presence in space, we must have American dominance in space,”Trump said at the start of the third meeting of the National Space Council,an advisory body led by Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump also signed a directive on space traffic management, aimed atboosting public-private monitoring of objects in orbit so as to avoidcollisions and debris strikes.
A statement released by the White House said the move “seeks to reduce thegrowing threat of orbital debris to the common interest of all nations.”