Trump Just Signed The Space Force Policy

The Pentagon has a lot of work to do.

space force
US President Donald Trump shows his signature on the Space Policy Directive-4 (SPD-4) on February 19, 2019, at the White House in Washington, DC. - Trump, on June 18, 2018, directed the US Defense Department to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the Armed Forces. SPD-4 outlines the framework for establishing the US Space Force (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
AFP/Getty Images

President Trump made “Space Force” a reality on Tuesday by signing Space Policy Directive 4 at the Oval Office in Washington, D.C., paving the way for the Department of Defense to create a branch of military for space.

Trump says Space Force is a “national security priority” because other forces are training their people and developing technology to “undermine our security in space, and they’re working very hard at that.”

According to Space News, Trump creating a military branch in space “should have been done sooner.”

The United States Space Force would be made up of uniformed and civilian workers from all military branches. According to SPD-4, the policy will “assume responsibilities for all major military space acquisition programs; and create the appropriate career track for military and civilian space personnel across all relevant specialties — for example, operations, intelligence, engineering, science, acquisition and cyber.”

The DoD will submit a plan to delegate authorities and create the new plan for military action in space.

“We’ll focus on the headquarters functions to begin with,” an Air Force official said. “I think it will be probably fairly heavy with people with advanced technical backgrounds,” they said. “But also we need people with strong warfighting skills… We’ll establish a framework in the legislative proposal and then move things gradually over a number of years.”

Trump originally wanted an entirely new branch of military, which found little support on either side. However, if that new addition does occur, the policy pushes that directive off to a much later date.

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