Space Corps Good or Bad?

[pbar]

When all the existing services can pass an audit, then maybe we can talk about adding another one....

Edited July 6, 2017 by pbar

[matmacwc]

Another level of red tape, regulations and self interest.  Sounds good to me……NOT.

[brickhistory]

So why not spin off space AND cyber into a thing?  Staying at this public knowledge level, it would be akin to carnivores and herbivores in the air-breathing forces.  Both rely on each other.  Naturally, we can count on Big Gray and Big Green to give up their toys and people just like they did when the Air Service became the Air Corps which became the Army Air Forces which became Big Blue.  Nothing in the history books about that.

Or, if this happens, does the inevitable bloat and expanding staff mean it will eventually get its own seat on JCS?  Obviously, a bigger committee makes for better, faster decisions.

Or what about downgrading STRATCOM to a "nuclear corps?"  (Pun intended...).  Aside from a few other junk drawer missions that son of SAC has - EW - why is it a full-on combatant commander?  The numbers assigned are small, the mission very specialized.

Hey, if we're gonna reorganize, let's go the full monty.

 

Must go lie down now...

[ViperMan]

Good. But only because it's necessary to take away the AF's shiny toy in order to impose a refocusing on its core functions.

[xcraftllc]

So uh......

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a27317/space-corps-military-branch-approved-by-house/

[zmoney]

Thread bump.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/18/trump-orders-establishment-space-force-as-6th-branch-military.html

[17D_guy]

I think someone tweeted it at him, and he thought it sounded cool.  So...here we are.

I'm sure it won't hamper our attempts to increase highly contested cyber capabilities/environments at all...

[Seriously]

Cyber should have been the 6th department, not space.

[Prayforwaves321]

Reenlistment bonuses are going to be astronomical in the Space Corps

[Orbit]

Can we get rid of cyber too so we can focus on flying jets?

[17D_guy]

21 minutes ago, Orbit said:

Can we get rid of cyber too so we can focus on flying jets?

Hurtful

[HU&W]

"separate but equal" to the AF

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/trump-space-force-air-force/index.html

 

[Marco]

[SurelySerious]

 

M-A-R-S Mars

 

Edited June 19, 2018 by SurelySerious

[ViperMan]

Long, long overdue. If you think our acquisition animal sucks at buying aircraft, just watch it try to purchase a satellite.

That said, it should be administered by the Air Force - in the same way I imagine the Marines are administered by the Navy (I have no idea)? Zero need to duplicate bureaucracy or build new infrastructure. But it needs its own command, professionals, and to be separate because it is fundamentally different from the "Air" Force.

[waveshaper]

IMHO, we don't need another branch of the US Armed Forces and US leadership needs to find some middle ground. The simplest solution (in my simple mind) would be to take the next logical step by making this new "Space Force" a Combatant Command "again". This move will require leadership to reverse course and admit they made a mistake way back when. We can call this new Combatant Command "USSPACECOM" just like we did before it was absorbed into USSTRATECOM back in 2002 (original USSPACECOM lifespan 1985 - 2002). We already have 10 Geographic/Functional Combatant Commands so why not just add one more?

Problem; The cap on the number of authorized/approved Combatant Commands will need to be changed to do something like this. Currently the Unified Command Plan directs that Unified Combatant Commands be capped at 10, and with the formation of any new Combatant Command, one would have to be deactivated (this is what happened to the original USSPACECOM/it was USSPACECOM versus USNORTHCOM for spot #10 and USNORTHCOM won).

[AC&W]

Problem; The cap on the number of authorized/approved Combatant Commands will need to be changed to do something like this. Currently the Unified Command Plan directs that Unified Combatant Commands be capped at 10...

Bar napkin legalese...

US Law does not cap number of COCOMs.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter6&edition=prelim

UCP is a “plan” of the executive branch.

[waveshaper]

12 hours ago, AC&W said:

 

 

Bar napkin legalese...

US Law does not cap number of COCOMs.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title10/subtitleA/part1/chapter6&edition=prelim

UCP is a “plan” of the executive branch.

 

Yep, you're correct. I'm just having flashbacks to when Rumsfeld was SecDef. This cap issue was one of his pet peeves. After a wee bit of research I finally found something on this Rumsfeld cap stuff (9 seems to be his breaking point); See Page 84 and 85.

https://www.scribd.com/document/194147061/Unified-Command-Plan-History

If you can find this memo, i'm sure it contains more info on Rummy and caps; Memo, SecDef  for the President, Unified Command Plan 2002 (U), Apr 02, S, folder 8, box 2 UCP 2002, Historians Research and Reference Materials, JHO.

[Lord Ratner]

Hurtful

How about this? Can we get rid of cyber so they can focus on the top threat of the future while we play with airplanes?

[waveshaper]

"In a message to all airmen, service brass including Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein confirmed that, as rumored, the new "space force" would be established as a military service inside the Air Force."

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/06/20/air-force-issues-first-guidance-troops-about-space-force.html

[YoungnDumb]

Isn't that what Space Command is?  A space force thats owned by the AF?

[pawnman]

13 hours ago, YoungnDumb said:

Isn't that what Space Command is?  A space force thats owned by the AF?

That's what I'm thinking.  Do we really gain anything by creating a Space Force vs potentially standing up a Space Command similar to SOCOM that brings in the Army and Navy assets?

[waveshaper]

36 minutes ago, pawnman said:

That's what I'm thinking.  Do we really gain anything by creating a Space Force vs potentially standing up a Space Command similar to SOCOM that brings in the Army and Navy assets?

This is how the original USSPACECOM was organized back in the day. USSPACECOM also functioned as the Commander in Chief of the binational U.S.-Canadian NORAD (CINCNORAD).

Excerpt; USSPACECOM, with headquarters at Peterson AFB Colorado, is a functional
combatant command with an AOR which encompasses the entire world. Space Command
oversees three service specific commands: Army Space Command (USARSPACE), Naval
Space Command (NAVSPACECOM) and Air Force Space Command (AFSPACECOM).
It also includes one functional component (SPACEAF) and Joint Task Force Cheyenne
Mountain Operations (JTF-CM). The command was activated 23 September, 1985 to
consolidate all military space efforts under the direction of one commander-in-chief.
USSPACECOM

[Vertigo]

I'm pretty dang sure the POTUS said "Separate but equal to the Air Force".

 

[disgruntledemployee]

2 hours ago, Vertigo said:

I'm pretty dang sure the POTUS said "Separate but equal to the Air Force".

 

It's called NASA. 

When we start installing port holes for the men to shoot out on our spaceships, then we can start a military space force.  Or when the aliens attack.  Either one works for me.

Out