Congress creates U.S. Space Force as sixth military service; constrains budget to prevent overspending
WASHINGTON – Congress is creating a new, independent Space Force within the Department of the Air Force, but lawmakers want to make sure its budget doesn’t go to infinity and beyond. Defense News reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
13 Dec. 2019 -- Negotiators of the 2020 defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, reached a compromise this week that redesignates Air Force Space Command as the new, sixth military service.
But wary of adding costs and bureaucracy, lawmakers included language to prohibit any new billets. That means the Defense Department will have to draw from thousands of military personnel in existing space organizations, including those in the Air Force and across the department.
That’s not to say the Space Force budget would come without any new positions and organizations. It creates a chief of space operations, or CSO -- a title based on a Navy model -- who will report directly to the Air Force secretary and become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. John “Jay” Raymond is the current commander of Air Force Space Command and U.S. Space Command, the unified combatant command.
Related: Technology and politics of the new U.S. Space Force
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
