On a press release on June 18th, 45th President Donald Trump announced his intent to create a sixth military branch called the United States Space Force. Within hours of the Space Force being announced, news outlets, Facebook, and Twitter all buzzed with criticisms, critiques, and jokes surrounding the prospect of a science fiction sounding militia. By August 9th, Vice President Mike Pence made a press release debuting the Department of Defense plans for the Space Force, saying that the intent is to start building the foundations of the branch as soon as 2020. A newsletter from the Re-elect Donald Trump Campaign also released images of possible USSF logos as part of a fundraiser.
What exactly does this mean for the United States? Well, firstly, the act of creating a new branch of the US military would be in the hands of Congress, because an executive order cannot go in detail enough to create an entire armed forces facility, specifically in non-American territory. The likelihood of Congress passing a law that would create a new branch of the military is relatively small, given that our current branches of military function well already, dividing up various tasks that would be covered by the new Space Force upon passage of the initiative.
Secondly, the issue of resources and budgeting stands in the way of directly putting this into action. The Department of Defense currently absorbs the largest monetary amount of the fiscal year budget of federal spending of any other branch. The current five branches of the United States Armed Forces use on average over $500 billion, and for the 2018 fiscal year, the Department of Defense was allotted $655 billion. Upon the implementation of the new United States Space Force, the budget would either need to reflect the change in materials needed and money to be taken out of taxes or our current branches of the armed forces would be forced to forfeit the money used to maintain reserve soldiers, ammunition, and military benefits to absorb the costs, though the plan is unclear; no cost has been determined yet.
Unless the new United States Space Force had immense funding, the cost of building new aircraft, launch centers, and training astronauts who were prepared to spend years in space, the American economy would be forced to pick up the slack that the federal government was incapable of paying for, thus forcing prices to rise, inflation to rise, wages to plummet, and possibly also cause trade to suffer. Also, with the disclusion of the Environmental Protection Agency from plans to create this new military branch, the environmental impact of unclean manufacturing could cause the United States' carbon footprint to grow even larger than it already is.
A factor that has been left unclear is the United States' intent on keeping a "standing" Space Force or Space Force Reserve, which other branches of the US military currently have. Because of the conditions of space (no gravity, no air, not much of anything to protect, currently), it would be impractical to have this new branch in space at all times. Space is already currently occupied by the International Space Station, or the ISS, which is partially owned by the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Partner, and though it rarely has humans on it, any human life stranded in space is free to utilize the ISS for emergency response and habitation. As the only country or nation-state in the world to actually have their own space military, the US would likely find that the new branch would be not only a waste of money but also a waste of resources.
In 1983, then-president Ronald Reagan formed an initiative called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which was affectionately called "Star Wars" by the public; during that period of time, the United States was still in the midst of the Cold War with Russia, and the necessity of an anti-ballistic missile system in space to protect the United States from the Soviet threat was still laughable at best. This makes the prospect of a new branch even more ironic to many Americans and non-Americans alike. Given the infamous relationship that is currently held between the President of the United States and the leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin, it seems increasingly suspect that a Space Force is necessary.
Plans have been set in motion for the introduction of legislation about the new military branch, and we will likely know more about it down the road. Regardless of the arguments against it, there will likely be a long feud to be fought between Congress and the Executive branch regarding the Space Force, and given the history of the tight-knit relationship that takes place when there is both a Republican Congress and President, well…. Never tell me the odds.
(Sorry about that last line... I had to.)
