Pentagon Faces ‘Intimidating’ Process to Create Space Force

September 20, 2018

National Defense:

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Creating the new Space Force that President Donald Trump has proposed is an “intimidating” challenge, Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan said Sept. 19.

In June, Trump called for the creation of a new space-focused military branch that would be “separate but equal” to the other services. Shanahan, who is leading the charge to establish the new organization, said the Defense Department is still struggling to determine the best way to go about it.

“We are really wrestling with the ‘how,'” Shanahan said at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Shanahan suggested there is disagreement between different components of the Pentagon bureaucracy about the road ahead.

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