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Space The Military United States

President Trump Officially Adds a New Branch to the U.S. Military: Space Force (bbc.com) 249

The BBC reports: President Donald Trump has officially funded a Pentagon force focused on warfare in space -- the U.S. Space Force.

The new military service, the first in more than 70 years, falls under the U.S. Air Force.

The funding allocation was confirmed on Friday when the president signed the $738bn (£567bn) annual U.S. military budget. The launch of the Space Force will be funded by an initial $40m for its first year.

Those figures indicate that Space Force will now receive $1 out of every $18,450 in the U.S. military budget -- or .0054 percent. Here's what that looks like as a pie chart.

Newsweek's report includes the president's remarks at the signing ceremony: "That is something really incredible. It's a big moment. That's a big moment, and we're all here for it. Space. Going to be a lot of things happening in space."

The president added: "Because space is the world's newest warfighting domain. Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we're leading, but we're not leading by enough. But very shortly, we'll be leading by a lot."

As noted by the BBC, the department's mission is not intended to blast troops into space, but will focus on protecting American assets like satellites from hostile attacks. The creation of the Space Force comes as China and Russia are increasingly focusing on the skies above, it noted. The Space Force website says responsibilities include "developing military space professionals, acquiring military space systems, maturing the military doctrine for space power."

In response to the news, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted "Starfleet begins."
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President Trump Officially Adds a New Branch to the U.S. Military: Space Force

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 21, 2019 @10:42AM (#59544482)
    That is awesome! Now Trump can really stop illegal aliens from entering out country!
    • That is awesome! Now Trump can really stop illegal aliens from entering out country!

      Well, not for this story, but he just got all his requested Wall funding through congress without so much as a peep. Apparently that's not worthy of coverage in the media anymore....

      • by apparently ( 756613 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @12:20PM (#59544762)

        That is awesome! Now Trump can really stop illegal aliens from entering out country!

        Well, not for this story, but he just got all his requested Wall funding through congress without so much as a peep. Apparently that's not worthy of coverage in the media anymore....

        Wasn't Mexico supposed to pay for it?

        • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @12:34PM (#59544794)

          That is awesome! Now Trump can really stop illegal aliens from entering out country!

          Well, not for this story, but he just got all his requested Wall funding through congress without so much as a peep. Apparently that's not worthy of coverage in the media anymore....

          Wasn't Mexico supposed to pay for it?

          Shhhh! You'll upset the people in the red hats -- you know, the ones who haven't "read the transcript" [twitter.com] (The Daily Show: "Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse on Impeachment" Full Clip [youtube.com])

  • by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @10:43AM (#59544486)
    There are tech startups that raise more than $40m in their series B or C, which usually funds them for a year or two. How is it possible that $40m in funding can spin up a whole new high-tech branch of the military requiring all sorts of expensive tools, when it's barely enough to fund a 150 or so person startup for a year?
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That's just to by some furniture at the usual Pentagon discount.
    • This would be in addition to what the Air Force already spends on these kinds of projects. The Air Force is already extensively involved in space militarization, so a chunk of their existing budget goes towards it. That's what the X-37B is all about. This is just some kind of organizational change, probably to better spell out who has to answer to two, and better track how money flows for "space related" spending so it can be accounted for.

    • It's mostly a cover to bring authority over advanced space technology under Trump's jurisdiction as Commander in Chief but they do need to spend some time planning. China has a hundred year plan for military domination in space, and they are currently working on plans for military destroyers in orbit. This is all open source, but some of it is in Mandarin so you have to listen to the experts in American-China relations to get the benefits of material that's not in the mainstream press. The funding should c

    • Because it’s not exactly a brand new initiative with no equipment, etc. The responsibility for these objectives formerly fell under the Air Force. This separates the personnel and funding into a separate entity. Also this only covers the public objectives. It does not include black ops or intelligence assets which would fall under the CIA, NSA budgets.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      He's a fucking moron and this is just a token to make him feel like he accomplished something.

      • And after 4 years the Dems will be able to say "we were really tough on this guy. Yeah he's still in office, but we DID impeach him. All those other pressing issues? We can get to them now. "

        Token or not, Trump is going to have a long list of real and questionable accomplishments to point to. The other guys will have 4 years of outrage to brag about. Trump understands the Dems better than they understand themselves and they allow themselves to be played.

        The preceding is

  • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday December 21, 2019 @10:47AM (#59544494) Homepage Journal

    It's still going to be attached to the chair force, and the people who are in it are just the people who have been doing the same jobs over there.

  • Meanwhile... (Score:2, Informative)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

    Trump's chubby best buddy with the "beautiful letter" is testing ICBMs that can reach the US.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/1... [nytimes.com]

    Everything this impeached degenerate touches turns to shit.

  • by Brownstar ( 139242 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @10:59AM (#59544520)

    Will service guarantee citizenship?

    • This is for all you new people. I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself! - Jean Rasczak

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Gravis Zero ( 934156 )

      I’m doing my part!

      Will service guarantee citizenship?

      It's funny because that movie was actually about a brutal fascist world which is exactly what the current president is pushing us toward.

      • It's like some countries are using either Idiocracy and/or Starship Troopers as templates on how to run things. Scary stuff.

      • by Z80a ( 971949 )

        Can you explain how it is fascist?
        It is very a militar themed government, after all you have to serve to be able to vote or run for government, but i don't remember any instance of any particular group of people getting hunted down or being oppressed.

        • [In a particular work of fiction,] you have to serve to be able to vote or run for government, but i don't remember any instance of any particular group of people getting hunted down or being oppressed.

          Disenfranchisement of those unfit for military service (classification 4-F) [wikipedia.org] would discriminate against people with disabilities. In particular, it would appear to disqualify previous well-respected Presidents of the United States who may have been 4-F, such as Franklin Roosevelt for polio complications or Thomas Jefferson for what some now believe to have been mild autism. Or would a more militaristic society manage to find roles for people with disabilities in the armed forces?

          • Disenfranchisement of those unfit for military service (classification 4-F) would discriminate against people with disabilities.

            The movie and the book are only somewhat related, but if you take the book as canon, no, it would not.

            I asked one of the doctors what percentage of the victims flunked the physical. He looked startled. âoeWhy, we never fail anyone. The law doesnâ(TM)t permit us to.â

            âoeHuh? I mean, Excuse me, Doctor? Then whatâ(TM)s the point of this goose-flesh parade?â

            âoeWhy, the purpose is,â he answered, hauling off and hitting me in the knee with a hammer (I kicked him, but not har

        • Can you explain how it is fascist?

          The director of it explained it in the DVD commentary.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

          In his DVD commentary, Verhoeven stated his intentions clearly: the film's message is that "War makes fascists of us all". He evoked Nazi Germany's fashion, iconography, and propaganda because he saw it as a natural evolution of the United States after World War II, and especially after the Korean War. "I've heard this film nicknamed All Quiet on the Final Frontier", he said, "which is actually not far from the truth." Edward Neumeier broadly concurs, although he sees a satire on human history rather than solely the United States.[6] Verhoeven says his satirical use of irony and hyperbole is "playing with fascism or fascist imagery to point out certain aspects of American society... of course, the movie is about 'Let's all go to war and let's all die.'"[14]

  • Sure it's only $40 million now, but does anyone want to predict how quickly this spirals into another multi-billion dollar money pit?

    Even if a Democrat unseats Trump in the 2020 election, I doubt they'd undo this even as much as they dislike Trump. We saw the same thing with the ACA where despite all of the pissing and moaning from Republicans during the Obama years, they didn't remove it when they had every ability to do so. I'd like a moratorium on starting new government agencies. If you want a new on
    • by fermion ( 181285 )
      Like a more revealing example is Homeland Security. The initial budget in 2003 was around 30 billion. Inflation adjusted that 40 billion now, but the budget has escalated to over 60 billion.

      Space is expensive. There is no real practice method of protecting assets. We also have treaties that limit what anyone can do in space.

      This is a mistake because, for the time being, diplomacy is what will keep us safe and productive.

      • Diplomacy is what happens when two forces/sides are in rough parity and conflict would be too risky or costly. War is what happens when one side has overwhelming force. If we're not capable and someone else is, what diplomacy will save you?
  • "The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea. They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by small robots." - The Simpsons, 2014

  • by The Real Dr John ( 716876 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @11:17AM (#59544564) Homepage

    After militarizing the entire face of the Earth, where else is the US war machine to go but up?

  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @11:22AM (#59544584)
    and not because it's ridiculous. Space was not supposed to be militarized. I'd like to think it's self evident as to why, but if anyone's wondering weapons deployed from Space would be terrifying. Imagine, for instance, towing a small asteroid into orbit and dropping it on a city. There's also the fact that exploiting the resources of space will be important to our future as a species, but that the insanely harse environment in space means that even small fights will preclude that.

    There are treaties specifically against doing so. I'm sure it's debatable whether we're violating those treaties by doing this, but we're certainly violating the intent.

    Anyway, 2020's just around the corner. I'd like to think there's nobody here on /. who doesn't understand why a Space Force is a horrible thing. Now would be the time to vote somebody into office who'll put a stop to this. And that means showing up the the Democrat's primary so we don't vote another Hilary Clinton style war hawk in either.
    • This really hasn't done anything. All he's done is rename some parts of the air force as the space force. The air force has already militarized space. Trump has just put his name on the situation.

    • Sorry to interrupt your panicked ranting, but you are completely off-topic here.

      This bill does nothing but re-arrange space assets that already exist to all belong to one branch of the military. Right now, the Army flies some, the Air Force flies some, the NRO flies some, the NSA flies some, the CIA flies some, and so on. After this, the Space Force will fly them.

      Whee. That's it.
      There are no "treaty violations", by letter or intent. This is not a horrible thing. There is no need to be worried, and ther

      • So what's this right here [wikipedia.org]

        You'll notice the two examples I gave are literally impossible with current tech. Sure, it's a photo op for Trump now. A rather silly one. But what about 50 years from now? 100 years from now?

        Another question, why did we sign treaties to preclude the militarization of space if the science wasn't there? To draw a line that must not be crossed.

        You're underestimating the importance of formalizing warfare in space. It's normalizing. We should be horrified at the prospect, ju
    • Space was not supposed to be militarized.

      The only thing that is prohibited is putting weapons of mass destruction into orbit. Weapons of mass destruction are allowed to pass through space on a ballistic course, ie ICBMs. Spaceships are allowed to be armed. Military reconnaissance and espionage is allowed. Military targeting systems are allowed, ie GPS.

      There are treaties specifically against doing so. I'm sure it's debatable ...

      No, its not, neither in actual wording nor intent.

      who doesn't understand why a Space Force is a horrible thing.

      Perhaps if you knew what Space Force is it might be helpful. It is combining the existing space assets and responsibilities spread around numerous se

      • the process of normalization that naming those assets means you'd have the proper level of apprehension.

        We had aerial balloons before an air force. We kept building out that air force until we routinely kill civilians with drones and nobody cares outside of a few guys on YouTube.

        Also the treaties cover a lot more than that [slashdot.org].
        • And perhaps if you understood the process of normalization that naming those assets means you'd have the proper level of apprehension. We had aerial balloons before an air force. We kept building out that air force until we routinely kill civilians with drones and nobody cares outside of a few guys on YouTube. Also the treaties cover a lot more than that [slashdot.org].

          Space was weaponized in 1944 when the German V2 rockets bombed Britain, no normalization necessary, spaceflight started as a wartime attack. Your link confirm my statement that the only prohibition is on weapons of mass destruction. The only things that comes close, but still fails, if the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes. Space Force's mission would be compatible with that, just as the Coast Guard's management, regulatory and enforcement powers related to maritime law are co

  • Co-ed shower scene. Where do I enlist?

  • by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @11:58AM (#59544696)

    This space force couldn't come soon enough for Pluto. We're already down to 8 planets. How many more will we lose?

    MaPPA! Make Pluto a Planet Again!

    • by shanen ( 462549 )

      This space force couldn't come soon enough for Pluto. We're already down to 8 planets. How many more will we lose?

      MaPPA! Make Pluto a Planet Again!

      Fake news! But I think we should send Trump to lead the expedition to find the REAL 9th planet. It's out there somewhere, but the Ukrainians have been hiding it!

      By the way, my prediction is that this "space force" will go away soon. No real justification unless it creates its own by pushing other countries into "attacking" space. The only real candidates to attack space are the Russians and the Chinese, and neither of them is stupid enough to it (or rich enough to afford it). Ergo the next president will er

  • American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we're leading, but we're not leading by enough.

    It takes an epic level of arrogance and narcissism to say that we're "leading" in space superiority when our space organization can't even get astronauts into space anymore without sending them on rockets built and operated by another country. If space superiority was so damn important, then why did Trump's fellow Republicans cut NASA's budget down to almost nothing years ago?

    The launch of the Space Force

    • NASA is not the military. But at least they had a really nice Muslim outreach program under Obama.
    • our space organization can't even get astronauts into space anymore ... If space superiority was so damn important, then why did Trump's fellow Republicans cut NASA's budget

      Because this is about putting control of US government satellites under one command, rather than having them spread over several different agencies?

      This is mostly about monitoring and protecting the weather, spy, GPS and communication satellites that every branch of the armed forces depends upon. Hacking, for example, has been a growing concern.

      $40 million? That's not enough to do anything serious, although I guess that's the point. This is more about a narcissistic sociopath trying to build a personal legacy using our tax dollars rather than trying to build a legitimate agency to tackle specific goals.

      Trump: Follows through on fairly minor reorganization that's been suggested by different groups since the 80s.

      Organgtool: He's a narcissistic sociopath! And how

  • Meh doesn't really pop, how about

    Department of Earth and Related Planets

    I think that would really be the cornerstone of Trumps legacy.

  • by heretic108 ( 454817 ) on Saturday December 21, 2019 @12:46PM (#59544824)
    So will its officer training recruits be officially referred to as "Space Cadets"? :P
  • "In Space Force, no one can hear you scream."

    (Presumably about wasting money, but that's just a guess.)

  • 5..4..3..2..1.. Thunderbirds are GO!

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