US President Donald Trump might have said he was creating a Space Force in June, but it's Congress' job to actually do that, and the defense spending bill the US Congress agreed to on Monday doesn't even include the term “space force,” much less allocate money for it.
What the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill agreed upon by a House-Senate conference committee does do is direct US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to “develop a space warfighting policy,” Futurism noted July 25. (The bill passed the House Thursday; it must next pass the Senate before the president can sign it into law.)
On Tuesday, Trump spoke before the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, Missouri, about his proposed sixth branch of the US armed forces.
“My thinking is always on military and military strength,” the president told the crowd, Military.com reported. “That is why I'm proud to report that we are now undertaking the greatest rebuilding of our United States military in its history. We have secured $700 billion for defense this year, and $716 billion next year — approved.”
“And I've directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating the sixth branch of our military. It's called the Space Force,” Trump continued. “We are living in a different world, and we have to be able to adapt, and that's what it is. A lot of very important things are going to be taking place in space.”
“And I just don't mean going up to the moon…
