{"id":17846,"date":"2019-12-20T21:25:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T13:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/president-trump-signs-the-space-force-into-existence-under-the-air-forces-wing\/"},"modified":"2019-12-20T21:25:29","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T13:25:29","slug":"president-trump-signs-the-space-force-into-existence-under-the-air-forces-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/president-trump-signs-the-space-force-into-existence-under-the-air-forces-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"President Trump signs the Space Force into existence under the Air Force\u2019s wing"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_539031\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-539031\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-539031\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump-630x374.jpg\" alt=\"Signing of defense bill\" width=\"630\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump-630x374.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump-1260x747.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump-768x456.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump-1536x911.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/191220-trump.jpg 1669w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-539031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump signs the National Defense Authorization Act as VIPs including First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence look on. (White House via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amid military fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a defense authorization bill into law to create the U.S. Space Force as a sixth branch of the armed forces.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a very big and important moment,\u201d Trump told hundreds of military personnel and VIPs who gathered at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for today\u2019s signing ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>The Space Force is intended to bring together military resources focusing on the high frontier, including potential threats from GPS jammers, anti-satellite weapons, space-based weapons and hypersonic attack vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>Trump said the creation of the Space Force recognizes that the final frontier has evolved into a distinct warfighting domain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerican superiority in space is absolutely vital,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re leading, but we\u2019re not leading by enough. But very shortly, we\u2019ll be leading by a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Trump Signs Defense Bill Authorizing Space Force, Parental Leave | NBC News (Live Stream Recording)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0IeroVaOpaQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not as if there\u2019ll be squads of military \u201cStarship Troopers\u201d rocketing into space anytime soon. Instead, Space Force personnel will be monitoring the skies from existing facilities down on Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Its workforce (roughly 15,000 military and civilian) and its budget ($40 million in operations and maintenance funding for the first year) make it the smallest of America\u2019s six military services.<\/p>\n<p>Although this is the first new military branch to be created since the establishment of the Air Force in 1947, it will operate under the administrative purview of the Department of the Air Force.<\/p>\n<p>The arrangement represents a compromise with congressional leaders who had concerns about the costs and organizational complications that would have come with a new military department. It\u2019s similar to the arrangement the Marine Corps has with the Department of the Navy.<\/p>\n<p>Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett pledged to get the Space Force up and running quickly. \u201cThe launch of an independent U.S. Space Force propels us into a new era dedicated to protecting U.S. national interests and security in space,\u201d Barrett said today in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>At today\u2019s ceremony, Trump also signed the paperwork to put Air Force Gen. Jay Raymond, commander of the U.S. Space Command, in charge of the Space Force as Chief of Space Operations. The president noted that Raymond is also now in line to join the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n<p>Congressional Democrats cleared the way for the creation of the Space Force \u2013 one of Trump\u2019s top national security priorities \u2013 in return for a provision that would give federal employees 12 weeks of paid family leave.<\/p>\n<p>The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act authorizes $738 billion in funding for all of America\u2019s military branches, including a 3.1% pay raise for service members and the acquisition of billions of dollars\u2019 worth of new equipment.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s part of an overall $1.4 trillion spending package that was hammered out by Congress this week to avert a potential government shutdown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump signs the National Defense Authorization Act as VIPs including First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Karen Pence look on. (White House via YouTube) Amid military fanfare, President Donald Trump signed a defense authorization bill into law to create the U.S. Space Force as a sixth branch of the armed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2539,439,332],"class_list":["post-17846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-military","tag-space-force"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17846"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17846\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}