{"id":43787,"date":"2025-09-10T00:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/on-a-day-of-rebranding-at-the-pentagon-this-name-change-slipped-under-the-radar\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T00:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:09:11","slug":"on-a-day-of-rebranding-at-the-pentagon-this-name-change-slipped-under-the-radar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/on-a-day-of-rebranding-at-the-pentagon-this-name-change-slipped-under-the-radar\/","title":{"rendered":"On a day of rebranding at the Pentagon, this name change slipped under the radar"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday authorizing the Department of Defense to refer to itself as the Department of War, reverting to a more bellicose title used until a 1940s-era military shakeup in the aftermath of World War II.<\/p>\n

The order approves the Pentagon\u2019s use of the Department of War name as an \u201cadditional secondary title\u201d for the Department of Defense while the Trump administration seeks congressional approval to officially change the name. Until Congress votes on the issue, the name change is effectively a rebrand of the DoD that could be reversed with the signature of a future president.<\/p>\n

But there was another potential name change revealed by the Pentagon on Friday, just hours before Trump signed the War Department order. This one may have more staying power.<\/p>\n

The news first appeared in a standard announcement of promotions and new assignments for 17 general and flag officers. One of the reassignments was for Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, who was nominated for promotion to become a three-star lieutenant-general as head of \u201cUS Space Force Combat Forces Command\u201d at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no such command within the military\u2019s byzantine organizational structure, so Ars asked the Space Force about the name. It turns out the Space Force is considering renaming one of its existing field commands as Combat Forces Command. This existing post is currently known as Space Operations Command, and it works with US Space Command to provide personnel (on the ground) and assets (on the ground and in orbit), and intelligence to support ongoing military space operations.<\/p>\n

Names don\u2019t win wars, but a Space Force spokesperson said the proposed new name \u201cbetter reflects the field command\u2019s critical responsibility as the Space Force\u2019s proponent for combat space power, including generating and improving combat-ready forces to execute\u201d missions assigned by the Space Force and Space Command.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Increasingly, the focus of US military space operations is shifting from an approach of controlling satellites and tracking other objects in space toward a more adversarial posture. Today, the US military is monitoring the maneuvers of more than 1,000 Chinese satellites in orbit, including missions capable of disabling US satellites, refueling critical Chinese military spacecraft, and guiding terrestrial weapons toward their targets.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Space Force officials have talked more openly about not just defending US satellites in orbit, but developing offensive capabilities to disable or destroy spacecraft operated by an adversary. The proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield would include space-based interceptors, bringing yet another element of combat into orbit.<\/p>\n

A Space Force spokesperson said Space Operations Command would be designated Combat Forces Command \u201cupon the establishment of a new commander, which is currently pending formal approval and confirmation\u201d by the Senate.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An infographic explaining the capabilities of Space Operations Command.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n US Space Force\/Robert Buckingham and Dave Grim<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The incoming commander, Lt. Gen. Gagnon, has served as the Space Force\u2019s chief intelligence officer at the Pentagon since 2022. If confirmed, Gagnon would replace Lt. Gen. David \u201cRock\u201d Miller, who took command of Space Operations Command nearly two years ago. Miller\u2019s next assignment will be at the Pentagon, where he will serve as the Space Force\u2019s chief of strategy.<\/p>\n

Space Operations Command was established in 2020 as part of a military reorganization following the creation of the Space Force as the military\u2019s newest armed service branch. From the start, the cornerstone of the new command\u2019s mission was to \u201cprepare for war that either begins or extends into space,\u201d the first chief of the Space Force, retired Gen. John \u201cJay\u201d Raymond, said at the time.<\/p>\n

When he took the top job at Space Operations Command early last year, Miller said his task was to \u201cbuild on but also build out [America\u2019s] combat space power.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

A Space Force spokesperson echoed these sentiments in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the command\u2019s mission \u201cis to generate, present, sustain, and improve combat-ready intelligence, cyber, and space forces, while partnering across the US government, allies, and commercial agencies to project combat power in, from, and to space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Trump\u2019s decision to bring back the Department of War name signaled a \u201cvibe shift\u201d to \u201crestore a warrior ethos\u201d among US military forces, repeating a familiar talking point since he took the top job at the Pentagon in January.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unclear how long the Department of War rebrand will last, the Space Force\u2019s Combat Forces Command might stick around.<\/p>\n

Officials in the first Trump administration were among the first in government to describe space as a \u201cwar-fighting domain\u201d akin to land, air, sea, and cyberspace. However, the language only escalated during the Biden administration, which also continued to boost the Space Force\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Frank Kendall, who served as secretary of the Air Force under Biden, said in January that space will be a \u201cdecisive theater\u201d in modern warfare.<\/p>\n

And last year, several Space Force generals began talking openly about deploying offensive weapons in space, something that was anathema just a few years ago, at least for discussion in public forums. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force\u2019s top general, said last December the service\u2019s job was to provide the president with \u201coffensive and defense options\u201d for combat in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2014, we had senior leaders start to talk about space and war in the same sentence,\u201d Saltzman said. \u201cThey got kind of berated by the senior leadership. So this is still a relatively new condition when we\u2019re talking about war-fighting in space.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday authorizing the Department of Defense to refer to itself as the Department of War, reverting to a more bellicose title used until a 1940s-era military shakeup in the aftermath of World War II. The order approves the Pentagon\u2019s use of the Department of War name as an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43790,"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":[],"class_list":["post-43787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43787"}],"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=43787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}