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Pence unveils plan to create Space Force by 2020
Vice President Mike Pence announced the Pentagon's detailed plan for President Donald Trump's vision of a Space Force on Thursday, which would establish the first military branch in over 70 years.
[...] Pence on Thursday stressed that the new branch would be built, in part, from pre-existing elements. "The Space Force will not be built from scratch," Pence said during a speech before members of the Pentagon. "This is a critical step toward's establishing the Space Force as the sixth branch of our armed forces."
Here are the four components to the Department of Defense establishing a Space Force:
First, DoD will establish a Space Development Agency to develop and field space capabilities at speed and scale. The Air Force has already begun to transform its Space and Missile Center (SMC). The Department will accelerate and extend this transformation to all services by creating a joint Space Development Agency.
Second, the Department will develop the Space Operations Force to support the Combatant Commands. These joint space warfighters will provide space expertise to combatant commanders and the Space Development Agency, and surge expertise in time of crisis to ensure that space capabilities are leveraged effectively in conflict.
Third, the Department will create the governance, services, and support functions of the Space Force. Many of these will require changes to U.S. law. The Department will build a legislative proposal for Congressional consideration as a part of the Fiscal Year 2020 budget cycle.
Fourth, the Department will create a U.S. Space Command, led by a four star general or flag officer, to lead the use of space assets in warfighting and accelerate integration of space capabilities into other warfighting forces. U.S. Space Command will be responsible for directing the employment of the Space Force.
Will Space Development Agency research trickle down to NASA?
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
President Trump Orders the Creation of a United States Space Force
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @01:44PM (2 children)
Hypervelocity rods are overrated ... thats what she said!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 10 2018, @01:52PM (1 child)
Anyway, the idea (hypervelocity penetrators destroying underground facilities) is not even a sound one - the rod would heat up and lose its necessary mechanical integrity, and it would disintegrate upon contact with planet surface. The damage (remaining energy transfer) would be decreasing with depth. It is all just a superweapon propaganda, to make illiterate rogue dictators of the world hesitant to commission their expensive burrows.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 10 2018, @02:16PM
Are you sure enough of that idea, that you're willing to stand at ground zero when the prototype is tested? Let me warn you that we will be testing a two ton rod, with some heat ablative tiles, and guidance fins. The guidance isn't anything to brag about, we just want to get the rod within a couple hundred yards of the target. We don't figure we need to get the bull's eye painted on a gnat's ass.