U.S. Space Command will become the 11th combatant command and be led by a four-star general or admiral who will require Senate confirmation. | NASA via Getty Images Defense Trump re-establishes U.S. Space Command

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered the Pentagon to establish a new U.S. Space Command as another step toward his goal of establishing a separate military Space Force.

Vice President Mike Pence said the new command, like other major warfighting headquarters, will include troops from all the branches of the military. It will be tasked with confronting the growing threats to American space assets from Russia and China, he announced at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where the command is set to be based.


“For years, foreign nations have been developing electronic weapons to jam, blind, and disable satellites,” Pence said. “China and Russia are working to station new weapons directly in space and frankly these new challenges demand new and innovative responses, and that’s precisely what we’ve been providing.”

Pence added that the president will sign a new presidential directive in the coming days laying out the administration’s plan to stand up a Space Force.

But Tuesday's move may suggest the administration fears it lacks the support in Congress to establish a standalone Space Force and is taking additional unilateral steps, said Jerry Hendrix, a vice president of the Telemus Group, a defense consulting firm.

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“We are seeing an interim step that suggests that the administration recognizes that it does not have support on Capitol Hill at present to reorganize the Department of Defense,” Hendrix said. “However, I do not believe that the administration has given up on its own internal goal of establishing an independent Space Force.”

U.S. Space Command will become the 11th combatant command and be led by a four-star general or admiral who will require Senate confirmation.

The fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act ordered the Pentagon to establish U.S. Space Command under U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon, however, opted for a fully independent Space Command on par with other warfighting commands when reviewing how space is organized within the Defense Department.

The Pentagon had an independent Space Command from 1985 until 2002, when it was folded into the U.S. Strategic Command in a reorganization.

The move is already setting off a parochial fight over where it should be located. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, hailed the announcement Tuesday but argued it should be headquartered in his home state.

"Establishing U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs is the only serious option for providing the desired capability on the shortest, most cost-effective timeline, and is a natural long-term home for this exciting new organization," Lamborn said in a statement. "Colorado is the epicenter of the national security space enterprise and was home to the original Space Command for 17 years."

The Pentagon review earlier this year also called for a dedicated Space Force on par with other military branches, which will need approval from Congress, where there is fierce skepticism, especially among Democrats who will control the House.

Rep. Adam Smith, who is likely to be the next chair of the House Armed Services Committee, has repeatedly said he is against the idea of a separate service.

Others in Congress are concerned about the cost to cover the additional overhead required for a new branch, which estimates say could range between single-digit billions and about $13 billion.

But Trump appears to still be moving forward with the plan to establish an independent space branch, rather than a lesser approach such as creating a Space Corps within the Air Force.

A Nov. 19 draft of the directive previously reported by POLITICO proposed a Department of the Space Force led by a civilian secretary and a four-star general or admiral, just like the Army, Navy and Air Force.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story suggested that U.S. Space Command headquarters had already been determined.