The U.S. Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, established in December 2019. Its primary role is to organize, train, and equip space forces to protect U.S. and allied interests in space by ensuring space superiority. The USSF manages space launch operations, satellite operations, space environment surveillance, and satellite defense, and partners with organizations like NASA on space domain awareness and planetary defense. Key areas of focus include missile warning, satellite communications, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) services.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The draft legislative proposal aims to establish a United States Space Force as a 6th Armed Force within the Department of the Air Force.
The Pentagon is finalizing a proposal for the establishment of a United States Space Force as a sixth military branch.
Thomas Taverney, a retired Air Force major general, stated that a Space Force equivalent to the Marine Corps would meet the criteria for a sixth service.
The Space Force would be organized under the Department of the Air Force.
The Space Force would have a Chief of Staff who is a four-star officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Military personnel transferred to the Space Force would retain their grade and rank.
The Space Force Staff would include a Chief of Staff, a Vice Chief of Staff, and a Judge Advocate.
The Chief of Staff of the Space Force would be appointed by the President and require Senate confirmation.
The Space Force is proposed to be modeled after the Marine Corps.
Vice President Mike Pence is in charge of implementing President Trump’s directive to stand up a Space Force by fiscal year 2020.
The White House would support organizing a Space Force under a broad Department of the Air and Space Force, a concept similar to the Space Corps provision in the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018.
The legislative proposal to establish a Space Force would need to specify the service’s scope to determine how much money the Pentagon must request in the Fiscal Year 2020 budget.
The U.S. Air Force will continue developing capabilities to defeat adversaries in space regardless of how a reorganization to create a Space Force is resolved.
A 2018-11-19 version of the draft policy would direct the Pentagon to propose a Space Force as a separate military branch with its own civilian leadership.
President Trump proposed the creation of a new U.S. Space Force.
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan is overseeing the drafting of a legislative proposal on the Space Force that will be submitted to the White House in the coming weeks and, once approved, will be sent to Capitol Hill with the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2020.
The 2018-11-19 draft memo is subject to change and the Space Council is working with the departments and agencies responsible for establishing the U.S. Space Force as a sixth armed service.
The Department of Defense is evaluating the back-office and supporting efforts required to establish a Space Force.
Defense Secretary James Mattis concurs with budget analyst Todd Harrison’s assessment that a Space Force could be established with minimal overhead and funded from existing budget accounts.
Budget analyst Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies did not include the Space Development Agency in his cost estimates for a Space Force due to unclear agency functions.