Space Force plan puts agency under control of Air Force

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a policy directive Tuesday that laid out a framework for the Space Force he has long sought but that fell short of his initial vision for a new service that is “separate but equal” to the Air Force.

In the document, the president directed the Pentagon to create legislation for Congress that would place the Space Force under the control of the Air Force Department, in a fashion similar to how the Navy Department oversees the Marine Corps. It marks a partial win for senior Air Force officials: They argued that creating a separate military department — as Trump had stated he wants — would create unnecessary Pentagon bureaucracy.

Trump signed the directive Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office while flanked by senior defense officials that included acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The president he was “thrilled” to do so, and believes it is just the beginning in an important process.

“Our adversaries ... whether we get along with them or not, they’re up in space,” Trump said. “And they’re doing it, and we’re doing it. And that’s going to be a very big part of where the defense of our nation — and you could say “offense,” but let’s just be nice about it and let’s say the defense of our nation — is going to be.”

The plan, which requires congressional approval, could mark the first time the U.S. government has established a new military branch since the National Security Act of 1947 created the Air Force in the wake of World War II. The administration could still press for a full Space Force Department in the future, but it is unclear whether or when that would happen.

The move appears to mark a rhetorical and political compromise: While the Trump administration will continue to call the new service the Space Force, it will more closely resemble a previous proposal on Capitol Hill for a smaller Space Corps that does not have a new, separate service secretary appointed by the president. Like the Marine Corps, it will be led by a four-star general who takes a new seat among the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon’s top officers.

A Pentagon spokesman, Charles E. Summers Jr., said that in coming weeks the Defense Department will submit a legislative proposal to Congress that authorizes the establishment of the Space Force as the sixth branch of the U.S. military.