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 Space Force is part of a broader reorganization of U.S. military space capabilities that includes reestablishing U.S. Space Command and creating a Space Development Agency to handle space acquisition.
President Trump ordered the Department of Defense to establish a Space Force in June 2018.
President Trump ordered the Department of Defense in June 2018 to start organizing a Space Force.
The draft of Space Policy Directive-4 directs the Department of Defense to take actions under existing authority to marshal its space resources into a Space Force and to craft a legislative proposal to establish a Department of the Space Force.
A draft of Space Policy Directive-4 requires the Department of Defense to submit a legislative proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget by 2018-12-01 recommending establishment of a Space Force as a separate branch of the armed forces.
Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan seeks to minimize bureaucracy in a future Space Force, channel resources to technologies and capabilities, and establish a highly skilled workforce with closer ties to the private sector.
The draft SPD-4 directs the Department of Defense to submit a legislative proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget by 2018-12-01 recommending that a Space Force be formed as a separate branch of the armed forces.
The Department of Defense has begun work on the legislative proposal to establish a Space Force with a senior-level committee led by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
The draft SPD-4 directs the Department of Defense to submit a budget request for the new Space Force to be included in the president’s budget blueprint for fiscal year 2020.
The draft SPD-4 directs the Defense Department to take actions under existing authority to marshal its space resources into a Space Force and to craft a legislative proposal to establish a Department of the Space Force.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson proposed on 2018-09-14 a Space Force cost estimate of about $13,000,000,000 over five years to form a new military branch and a unified combatant command.
Once SPD-4 is signed, the Department of Defense would have 30 days to identify the resources to establish Space Force components and 45 days to develop an operating model and structure for the Space Development Agency.
President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on 2018-06-18 to set up a Space Force but has not yet signed Space Policy Directive-4 to lay out the steps ahead.
The draft SPD-4 directs the Pentagon to form a Space Development Agency in fiscal year 2019 and specifies that the SDA would be organized under the Department of Defense until the Department of the Space Force is formed.
President Trump announced his intent to create a Space Force at the council’s third public meeting on 2018-06-18 at the White House and directed the Department of Defense to begin the process to establish a Space Force as a sixth branch of the armed forces.
A legislative proposal on space force reorganization will be submitted to the White House in December to align with the directive to create a Space Force.
Wilson’s 2018-09-14 memo estimated the cost of organizing a Department of the Space Force at about $13,000,000,000 over five years.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson wrote a proposal to organize a Space Force and a U.S. Space Command with a price tag of $13,000,000,000 over five years.
Kaitlyn Johnson argued that standing up U.S. Space Command would address many agreed-upon issues such as the need to strengthen space warfighting skills and that establishing a Department of the Space Force by 2020 would be rushing into an end solution without proper consideration.
Todd Harrison estimated that adding a Space Force headquarters and a layer of overhead would cost about $2,500,000,000 to $3,000,000,000 over five years.