President Trump ordered the creation of an American "Space Force" on live television to keep opponents "in the Pentagon and the White House" from trying to stop it, a key advocate from Alabama says.

The Space Force will become a reality now, U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Alabama) believes, but it probably won't be headquartered at Huntsville's Redstone Arsenal, as some lawmakers have called for.

"That's premature and it's not going to happen," Rogers said Wednesday. "Missile defense is in my wheelhouse, and Huntsville is the shining star on missile defense, but this is about trying to make the space mission more prominent, better funded, more organized and more efficient. We already have the space command in Colorado Springs, and that is more likely where it will be located."

"Down the road, I'm sure there are going to be some things that grow in the Space Force that will end up landing in Huntsville," Rogers said. "I think this is going to be big down the road but a small service at first."

Others are already speculating that the Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command will be heavily involved. That command, which is headquartered in at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, is the Army's voice on space issues.

"We are the biggest users of space," Brig. Gen. Tim Lawson, deputy commanding general for operations at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, told Space News recently.

How Trump went public

Rogers chuckled as he told how Trump went public with the order to create the Space Force at a June 18 televised meeting of the National Space Council.

"It was right before they went on the air" when Rogers said Trump approached Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Rogers said Trump asked Dunford, "'If I order you to stand up a Space Force, can you do it?' Gen. Dunford said, 'I think it may be a little premature, Mr. President.'"

Trump said, "I didn't ask you that," Rogers said. "If I ask you to stand up a space force, can you do it?"

Dunford said, "Sir, if you give me an order, I'll make it happen."

Trump walked away. Rogers said, "Dunford didn't know what he was going to do. Nobody else did."

After entering the meeting room, Trump ignored the Teleprompter and announced his decision to create a Space Force, Rogers said. Viewers then saw the president ask, "Where's Gen. Dunford?"

Trump found Dunford in the crowd and said, "Gen. Dunford, you got it?" Dunford replied, "I got it, sir."

'He wants it done'

"He wants it done, and he knows this town, particularly the Pentagon, will do anything they can to slow things down" until Trump is out of office, Rogers said. "That's because the Air Force doesn't want the new force and has ignored the need and fought a new force for years."

Both China and Russia "have weaponized space," said Rogers, who chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. China has already shot down one of its old satellites to demonstrate it can shoot down a satellite.

"We have become heavily dependent on space to fight and win wars," Rogers said. "Just like in our personal lives. People don't realize it, but they use satellites every day, whether it's that smart phone in their hand or the banking transactions they do with their business or watching TV or using a credit card at the gas pump."

The military has the same dependence, he said, but the mission of defending American satellites has "languished" in the Air Force. The Armed Services Committee's position is "that if the Air Force could have fixed it, they would have already done it. Culturally, they're not geared that way. They're going to always be an air dominance entity."

Legislation authorizing a "Space Corps" passed the House last year but died in the Senate. Rogers says the idea is for a service within a service like the Marine Corps within the Navy. Trump calls it a "force," not a corps, and that's fine with Rogers.

Keeping the cost down

"We prohibited them from buying any new bases, opening any new bases, from moving anything as far as a headquarters," he said of the legislation, "because we are trying to keep the expense down so people can't argue it's prohibitively expensive, so we can't do it."

Opponents managed to stop the measure in the Senate pending two studies, the first due Aug. 1 to answer the question, "Do (we) need it? A separate space service?"

"We now know what that report's gonna say," Rogers said, "since the Commander in Chief has told them what it's gonna say."

The second report on what a Space Force would look like and cost is due Dec. 1, Rogers said.

Trump found out about the ongoing debate, Rogers said, and "likes the idea of a space force." When the president "got the full details about how the Air Force has tried to kill this" a month ago, Rogers said Trump began planning his surprise announcement.

The president's support "changes everything," Rogers said.