Andrew Harnik/AP
President Donald Trump applauds after signing the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, at Andrews Air Force Base, in Maryland, December 20, 2019.
- US Space Force was officially created when President Donald Trump signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act on December 20.
- The US military now has a Space Force and a Space Command - the latter will oversee space operations using personnel and assets managed by the former.
- There's a lot to still be decided about what these units will do, but US commanders are already looking at ways space can support their operations on Earth.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump on December 20 signed into law the US Space Force, the sixth military branch and first devoted to organizing, training, and equipping personnel to use and defend military space assets.
Trump signed a directive organizing the Space Force as part of the Air Force in February. With the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that Trump signed Friday, US Air Force Space Command becomes Space Force but remains within the Air Force, much like the Marine Corps is a part of the Navy Department.
"Going to be a lot of things happening in space, because space is the world's newest warfighting domain," Trump said Friday. "Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital ... The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground."
US Air Force/Senior Airman Timothy Kirchner
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, September 7, 2017.
Space Force is separate from NASA, the civilian space agency. Other agencies that work on space-related issues, like the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, will continue operating as before.
But most of the Pentagon's space programs will eventually be housed under the Space Force. Staffing and training details for the new branch will be sorted out over the next 18 months, Air Force officials said Friday.
Space Force is not designed or intended to put combat troops into space; it will provide forces and assets to Space Command, which was set up in August and will lead military space operations.
The exact division of responsibilities and assets has not been fully worked out, but when the creation of Space Command was announced in December 2018, then-Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan compared the relationship to that of the other five military branches with the four functional combatant commands, such as Transportation Command, which manages transportation for the military, or Strategic Command, which oversees US nuclear arms.
There are "still a lot of things that we don't know," Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond, head of Air Force Space Command and US Space Command, told reporters Friday. Raymond can lead Space Force as chief of space operations for a year without going through Senate confirmation, which his successor will have to have.
"There's not a really good playbook on, how do you stand up a separate service?" Raymond said. "We haven't really done this since 1947," when the Air Force was created.
'We have to do that in space'
US Air Force
US Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle 4 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, May 7, 2017.
While much remains to be decided about Space Force and Space Command, conversations about how the latter will support operations on earth have already started, according to Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, head of US European Command, one of the six geographic combatant commands.
"I talk to Gen. Raymond on a very regular basis. I would say probably once a week," Wolters said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast on December 10, when about potential partnerships between Space Command, European Command, and European allies.
"From a US EUCOM perspective, we have space componency that Gen. Raymond extends to us to allow us to better defend and better deter, and with each passing day we're going to find ways to align the assets that exist in space to better deter and to better defend."
Wolters spoke after NATO officially recognized space as an operational domain, alongside air, land, sea, and cyber, on November 20.
That recognition allows NATO to make requests of members, "such as hours of satellite communications," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the time. NATO members own half of the 2,000 satellites estimated to be in orbit.
Wolters called that recognition "a huge step in the right direction."
"In our security campaign, from a US EUCOM perspective and from a NATO perspective, we always have to improve in indications and warnings. We always have to improve in command and control and feedback, and we always have to improve in mission command. And we have to do that in space," Wolters said.
'Information superiority'
US Air Force/United Launch Alliance
The Air Force launches a Wideband Global SATCOM satellite at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, March 18, 2017.
Supporters see a Space Force as a national security necessity in light of other countries' advancing space capabilities and because of potential threats in space, such as interference with systems like GPS.
Critics say it's not clear what capabilities a Space Force brings that Air Force Space Command doesn't already provide and that its creation will spur an arms race in space.
In recognizing space as a domain, NATO ministers agreed that space was "essential" to the alliance's ability to deter and defend against threats, providing a venue for things like tracking forces, navigation and communications, and detecting missile launches.
Stoltenberg declined to say how NATO's space-based capabilities could work with US Space Command, telling press on November 19 that he would "not go into the specifics of how we are going to communicate with national space commands and national space capabilities."
"What NATO will do will be defensive," he said, "and we will not deploy weapons in space."
Wolters didn't mention space-based weapons in his remarks this month but did tout capabilities offered by operations in space.
"Obviously there are things that take place in space at speeds and with a degree of precision that are very, very attractive for deterrence, and space-to-surface [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] is one of those key areas," Wolters said, adding that he and Raymond have discussed and will continue to discuss those "big issues."
"It all has to do with seeing the potential battle space, seeing the environment, and being able to have quick feedback on what is taking place in that environment," Wolters said. "If you can obviously utilize the resources that exist in space, you can probably do so at a speed that makes commanders happy because they have information superiority."