New federal budget creates first new military branch since 1947

[Beetlegeuse]

I suppose you'll soon see recruiting offices at the local shopping center for the US Space Force.

Seriously. When I first saw the headline I figured he was making Special Operations Command its own branch. They've been headed in that direction ever since 9/11 and they already have their own budget, their own Table of Organization & Equipment (TO&E), their own billeting and training facilities, and a hefty chunk of their warfighting gear is unique to Spec Ops, and everything they do already is Top Secret 'n shit. The most recent former SOCOM commander even suggested it needed doing after he had retired from the military and was free to speak his mind.

But it's the US Space Force, which will operate as a department of the US Air Force. The same way that they Marines operate as a department of the Navy (the "men's department" of the navy ). But no doubt they'll be primairly a technical and R&D branch for the immediate future. Sort of a less exalted version of DARPA, looking for technological solutions to threats to our continued unhindered use of "space," particularly satellite communications and GPS. It'll be a long time before they start boot camp for the "Space Marines," and I doubt I'll see that in my lifetime, but it could happen.

[Ernst]

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