Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the The-only-good-bug-is-a-dead-bug dept.

Trump orders creation of space-focused U.S. military branch

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he was ordering the creation of a sixth branch of the military to focus on space, a move critics said could harm the Air Force.

"It is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space," Trump said before a meeting of his National Space Council. "We are going to have the Air Force and we're going to have the 'Space Force.' Separate but equal. It is going to be something," he said later.

The United States is a member of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bars the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in space and only allows for the use of the moon and other celestial bodies for peaceful purposes.

The idea of a Space Force has been raised before, by Trump and previous administrations, with proponents saying it would make the Pentagon more efficient. It has also faced criticism from senior military officials. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein told a 2017 congressional hearing that creating a new space branch would "move us in the wrong direction." The Air Force oversees most of the nation's space-related military activity.

The move would require the budgetary approval of the U.S. Congress, which has been divided on the idea.

President Trump orders the creation of new Starship Troopers/Space Marines memes.

We should have a separate "Space" topic on SoylentNews at this point. We are all going to be drafted to fight aliens eventually.

Also at BBC (#winning image).

Previously: The United States Space Corps Wants You...
Congressional Panel Puts Plans for a US Space Corps in 2018 Defense Budget
The Case for a U.S. Space Force


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @01:32PM (#694970)

    Trump wants a space force?

        Is he talking about eminent domain, or a close encounters in a hotel elevator?

    The airforce really can't complain. They had their chance in the 60's and screwed it up. And their crew + payload requirement in the 80's that resulted in the space shuttle set the whole program back by about 50 years. In a nutshell, their beurocracy is more about graft and the vanity of the AF general staff, than anything else.

    The issue is whether a"Space Force" can exist without being even more corrupt than the AF. The most likely case, is they alacazam the thing into place with no funding. And then after that, being government and having little else but their dick in their hands to show for their titles, they'll just do what always happens in that case: They'll steal shit and perpetrate kickback fraud.

    What this is probably about is federal "research grants" probably to Boeing and Lockheed Martin that will get kicked back into PAC's that are shilling for Trump. Same shit. Different day. And all sponsored by SCOTUS courtesy of Citizens United v. FEC.

    Corporations aren't people and speech isn't money, because the dictionary act of 1871 was not passed by a Constitutional Congress. There is a lawful way to create corporate personhood. It wasn't done that way. The ideology doesn't matter. The PROCEDURE used by SCOTUS was and is unlawful.