"President orders creation of US Space Force" Topic

So what assets will the USSF control, and what will its operational mission be?? New uniform, new logo, new service anthem?? What will the inter-service rivalry be like, and can it survive as an independent branch of service?

President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the Pentagon to create a new US "space force," which he said would become the sixth branch of the American military.

"I'm hereby directing the DOD (Department of Defense) and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces," Trump said at the start of a meeting of the National Space Council.

"That's a big statement. We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the space force, separate but equal."

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I'm sure they will have their very own camo pattern uniforms to wear around the office.

Another branch to populate the Pentagon with an entirely new bureaucracy.

I'm certain the existing services will cheerfully share their budgets.

I just hope the uniforms don't end up like this somewhere down the road, under some really strange administration.

Dan

Come on, that uniform isn't weird, it's futuristic.

Time to dust off Project Horizon.

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Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

There had better be Marines involved.

When you hear "space force" everyone imagines Buck Rogers and Captain Kirk, but the reality will probably be closer to…nerds sitting at computers.

If it's not tungsten long rod penetrators hanging in orbit it's not worth it.

He must have just read the Roswell file.

Time to dust off Project Horizon.

Oh, yeah!! I want me some Lunar Bases!

So what assets will the USSF control, and what will its operational mission be?? New uniform, new logo, new service anthem?? What will the inter-service rivalry be like, and can it survive as an independent branch of service?

The inter-service rivalry is going to be worse than the 1950s.

I don't expect it to survive as an independent entity past the point where we have 20-man crews in spaceships, unless it deliberately adopts Naval traditions for that.

Sixth branch of the American military? I can only count four – Army, Navy Air Force, and Marines. That makes the Space Force number five.

CC, you realise the trio in that picture are submariners, don't you? Crew of Skydiver

Beat me to it !

In space Bacofoil will be de rigueur.

I just hope the uniforms don't end up like this somewhere down the road, under some really strange administration.

My father has several of those shirts. They're a thermal spacing layer for mountaineering, mostly.

The entire program can be funded for less than $9.00 USD.
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rmaker---you forgot the Coast Guard. The hard corps around which the Navy forms in time of war!

The service or one of its predecessor services, has fought in almost every war since the nation was formed.

Semper Paratus!

It's probably the AFSC renamed. It's going to be the space component of the USAF, much like the marines being the "ground component" of the navy.

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David Manley: "CC, you realise the trio in that picture are submariners, don't you? Crew of Skydiver"

Aren't spaceships basically submarines? :)

Dan

Aren't spaceships basically submarines? :)

No.
I think you're overlooking a serious problem with the issue of pressure. Submarines are designed to resist external pressure trying to crush the hull. In space, you have to worry about the opposite problem: All the pressure is inside, trying to get out. The dynamic is one of explosion versus implosion. The engineering is exactly opposite, so, no.

I think you're overlooking a serious problem with the issue of pressure. Submarines are designed to resist external pressure trying to crush the hull. In space, you have to worry about the opposite problem

Compared to a submarine, spaceships operate with effectively zero pressure differential.

It's probably the AFSC renamed. It's going to be the space component of the USAF, much like the marines being the "ground component" of the navy.

Possibly. Will it be given command of US space assets? We currently have many service branches and agencies running their own satellite systems – US Navy has their own sats, so does USAF, NRO, etc. Would USSF take "ownership" of these sat system and the launch programs that sustain them? Does it take over the USAF X-37B robotic spaceshuttle?

The reason the various services all run their own space programs is because they all have different needs. Navy can get away with Radar satellites for observation, while the Army needs much better resolution.

There's a different program for watching for missile launches, but that's basically a fire detector.

Aren't spaceships basically submarines?

No, under sea is far more forgiving than space is.

rmaker---you forgot the Coast Guard. The hard corps around which the Navy forms in time of war!

No I didn't. The USCG is part of the Department of Transportation (used to be under Treasury, should still be), not Department of Defense. Only in time of declared war does it come under Navy jurisdiction and even then only after an appropriate Presidential Order declaring it so.

The USCG is part of the Department of Transportation (used to be under Treasury, should still be), not Department of Defense.

Now it's part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Ah, someone has been watching 'Starship Troopers' and getting ideas!!!!

It's been years in the making.

Dan

Initial plans call for the US Space Force to be an additional service under the department of the Navy.

While it makes more sense for the Department of the Air Force to have oversight, the Chief of the Air Force was not enthusiastic about creating a separate service when he first heard the announcement at a press conference. So it was tasked to the Chief of Naval Operations.

I'm just kidding/making that up.

I don't think we need a Space Force. The US Air Force has been evolving towards a Aerospace force with a heavy CYBER flavor. It would have made more sense to redesignate the Air Force as the Aerospace Force (which has been proposed in the past) and give them an inspirational mission or commander's intent.

But the USCG is still considered the 5th Branch of the Armed Forces.

According to a friend of mine in Army Space (and therefore 'on the front lines' as it were), the current operational model is closer to cyber than it is to either air or naval ops. And the operational tempo seems to be a best fit to the Air Tasking Orders. Even worse, he is of the opinion that we're a couple centuries away from having 20+ crew in space ships. *cry*

But the reason that this came up in public is because HQAF has been taking all of AFSpace's budget and giving it to Air Combat Command.

Bizarrely, those string vests the 'submariners' are wearing ARE military uniforms.
There are RAF firefighters string vests, they used to wear them under big heavy wool suits with blue 'pixie boots'
Until they were replaced by civilian versions in the late 90s-2000's.

P.a.