Army Times:
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Tuesday again hinted at the possibility of a new military service dedicated to space, saying discussions are already underway with defense officials.
During a ceremony honoring the Army football team, Trump praised the players as representatives of “the five proud branches” of the military: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard.
And then Trump added, “We’re actually thinking of a sixth.”
“That would be the space force,” the commander in chief said. “Does that make sense? We’re getting very big in space, both militarily and for other reasons. And we are seriously thinking of a space force.”
In March, at a similar military event at Miramar Air Station in California, Trump said his new national security strategy “recognizes that space is a war-fighting domain just like the land, air and sea,” adding that “we may even have a space force” one day.
The idea drew widespread confusion among defense officials, considering that a year earlier Pentagon planners argued strongly against a plan from House lawmakers to break the Air Force’s space programs into a separate, stand-alone force to cut down on bureaucracy…
