Vice President Mike Pence speaks about the creation of a new branch of the military, Space Force, at the Pentagon. | Saul Loeb/Getty Images Pence unveils Space Force to counter Russia, China

Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday announced the first steps in the Trump administration's bid to establish a standalone military Space Force by 2020, including creating an elite group of space troops in the same vein as current special operations forces.

Pence, in an appearance at the Pentagon, cited threats posed by adversaries like Russia and China, which are both developing anti-satellite weapons, lasers and hypersonic missiles that could threaten American reliance on space systems.


“As their actions make clear, our adversaries have transformed space into a warfighting domain already and the United States will not shrink from this challenge," Pence said during a speech at the Pentagon. "America will always seek peace in space as on the earth, but history proves that peace only comes through strength and in the realm of outer space the United States Space Force will be that strength in the years ahead."

Pence said the administration is already working with leaders in Congress to include funding in next year's budget to stand up the new Space Force, but some advocacy groups are already calling the plan "a waste of money."

President Donald Trump first floated the idea of a Space Force in March, and ordered the Defense Department to establish a stand-alone space-focused branch of the armed forces in June at a National Space Council meeting.

"We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force, separate but equal," Trump said at the meeting.

A report released Thursday by the Pentagon also lays out four steps to turn the president's "vision into a reality," Pence said.

One step is creating a joint "space operations force" to provide "space expertise in times of crisis."

POLITICO Space POLITICO’s weekly must-read briefing on the second space age. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

"Just like special operations forces, a space operations force will draw men and women from across the military and will grow into their own unique and cohesive community," Pence said.

Other steps outlined in the report include establishing a civilian assistant secretary of defense for space that will eventually transition to a secretary of the Space Force, creating a new combat command for space and setting up a space development agency to focus on innovation and equipping space warfighters with the latest technology.

The announcement drew quick praise from supporters of a Space Force on Capitol Hill.

"We are glad that the Pentagon is finally taking these steps in enhancing our space strength," Reps. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said in a joint statement as the leaders of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces. "We particularly appreciate Deputy Secretary Shanahan’s leadership on these issues and look forward to the establishment of a much-needed independent Space Force, as called for by President Trump."

In his introduction of Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also backed the proposal, saying the Pentagon has "got to adapt to that reality" that space is a warfighting domain just like air, land and sea.

But the proposal to create a separate entity for space within the military is likely to draw some criticism, as previous efforts have met a lot of backlash for needlessly creating extra bureaucracy.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group, slammed the idea as creating waste and duplication in human resources and administrative functions.

"A Space Force will create costly bloat and do nothing to increase our dominance," Stephen Ellis, executive vice president of the group, said in a statement. "Think about it: If we create a whole new branch of the military, the Space Force Secretary would also have all attendant staff and overhead, plus dozens of generals, officers, and staff. Except we already have the Air Force Space Command, while the Navy and the Army also already have their own space-related operations.

"Even if a space force just gets cobbled together from all those other parts of services, the Pentagon's bureaucracy would still grow with a new service secretary," Ellis added. "To say nothing of recruiters, communications, HR, admin, and on and on."

He echoed concerns aired by others, including a former secretary of the Air Force. “I think there will be a ton of workforce issues," Deborah Lee James said last week. "You can organize and reorganize in any way you could think of, but the real question is, [is] the juice worth the squeeze? You will spend years ... I'll bet it's five to 10. ... Eventually, it'll settle out, but you will go through years of thrashing.”

She also said that the proposal is opposed by many inside the Air Force, which currently oversees most of the military's space mission.

Indeed, the idea of standing up a separate space branch has drawn criticism from within the Pentagon itself.

Congress debated creating a Space Corps within the Air Force, like the Marine Corps is a component of the Navy, as part of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act H.R. 2810 (115). But the Pentagon and Air Force vehemently opposed the idea.

"I strongly urge Congress to reconsider the proposal of a separate service Space Corps. At a time when we are trying to integrate the Department's joint warfighting functions, I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations," Mattis wrote in a July 2017 letter to Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who led the effort in Congress against a Space Corps.

A Space Corps ultimately didn't make it into the final bill, which instead ordered two reports on military space organization. The fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act H.R. 5515 (115), which the president is expected to sign next week, creates a space command under U.S. Strategic Command, but does not mention a standalone space service.

Congress, which has the constitutional authority to "raise and support Armies," will have the final say on whether the Space Force as envisioned by Trump becomes reality. And there remain many skeptics.

"Space Force is a silly but dangerous idea," Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat of Hawaii, tweeted after the announcement.

