Thursday, April 25, 2024
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said today President Trump's recent endorsement of a separate "Space Force" has not changed the scope or content of an ongoing, congressionally directed Pentagon study of options for changing the way the service organizes and manages its space capabilities and personnel.
Trump's comments came during a March 13 speech at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, CA, during which he stressed the importance of space as a warfighting domain and added, "We may even have a Space Force. . . . We have the Air Force, we'll have the Space Force."
House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Ranking Member Jim Cooper (D-TN) have led efforts in Congress to reform space management and acquisition within DOD. The Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act directed the department to develop a plan to move toward the creation of a Space Corps and to hire an independent research organization to conduct a similar study.
The department is moving forward with its plan, but officials, including Wilson, have said they don't support the creation of a separate space service or organization.
Wilson told lawmakers during a March 20 House Armed Services committee hearing the Pentagon is working with the White House to explore options for improving space acquisition and management. She confirmed to Inside Defense following the hearing that Trump's comments have not driven any changes to the scope or structure of the ongoing review.
Following a separate March 20 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Strategic Command chief Gen. John Hyten told reporters he thinks a separate space corps or force could be required "someday in the future," but today's space cadre is still too small to warrant an organizational split.
Hyten compared the size of the current space operator force to that of the Marine Corps, which is what some have pointed to as a possible model for reorganization. DOD has about 5,000 space operators compared to 184,000 active-duty Marines.
"Maybe if you add all the support infrastructure it's 10,000 or 15,000," he told reporters. "It's still so small. It looks more like the submarine force to me right now."