USA’s House Armed Services Committee has supported to divide the US Air Force through voting, creating the US Space Corps. This decision makes the US the only country with a division of the military devoted to space, but with utmost honesty not everybody is happy with this.
Even though this is the first new military division formed in the US since 1947, it has been proposed as an option since the early 2000s.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said:
“This is an issue the subcommittee has studied for months and I can’t even tell you how many meetings with space experts and leaders Jim [Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper] and I have had on this subject,”
“We both have come to the same conclusion – that the Department can’t fix itself on this, Congress has to step in. And that is why the Mark creates a new Space Corps within the Department of the Air Force, under its Secretary, but separate from the Air Force itself. It also re-establishes a Space Command as a sub-unified command under U.S. Strategic Command.”
The subcommittee considers that this decision will assist the US to uphold their tactical benefit in space. But not all participants of the committee were likewise pleased with this as the mark-up (suggested regulation before it is passed) was only argued in a couple of meetings.
Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), a retired Air Force colonel, told Federal News Radio:
“This is honestly the first time I’ve heard about a major reorganization to our Air Force. This is sort of a shocking way to hear about a very major reorganization to our military, and I think it deserves at least a couple hearings and discussions on the matter at the full committee level.”
Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) stated similar doubts claiming that he only learned about the scheme the week before. People in the armed forces have raised their concern too. But Rogers said that he didn’t imagine them to hold the reforms.
“These changes won’t be easy and will be disruptive in the short-term, but our adversaries will never be less capable than they are today – we must act now if we wish to maintain the advantages the U.S. military obtains from by operating in, through, and from space,” Rogers added.
The House will vote on the proposal when it returns from its recess after July 4.