(techno digital tones)
(bold percussion music)
- We may even have a Space Force.
- [Narrator] When President
Trump first mentioned
the idea of creating a
Space Force in March 2018
it caught many by surprise.
- You know I was saying it
the other day because we
are doing a tremendous
amount of work in space.
I said maybe we need a
new force, we'll call
it the Space Force, and
I was not really serious.
And then I said what a great idea,
maybe we'll have to do that.
- [Narrator] It sounded
to many like a random
off the cuff idea and
it provided great fodder
for late night comedians.
- The President said
that he wants to create
a new branch of the military that would
patrol outer space.
(laughter)
And get this he wants to call it.
- Space Force.
(laughter)
- Space Force.
(laughter)
It sounds like what my
grandma calls Star Wars.
- [Narrator] But behind the
scenes the Trump administration
was tapping into a debate
that had been simmering
for more than two decades.
He just happened to
bring it to the forefront
of the public discourse
for the first time.
The idea of warfare in space dates
back to the beginning of the space age.
(beeping)
After the launch of Sputnik in 1957,
American and Soviet engineers went to work
developing weapons that
could defeat satellites.
(blast off sound)
(cheering)
The first anti-satellite
test was conducted in 1959.
An American B47 bomber
launched a Boulder-Ryan
missile at a de funked US satellite.
IN the quest for military superiority the
United States became a
leader in space technology.
- That lead was built up within
the late 50s and early 60s.
Now when we separated
space within the DOD,
within the nation into three
separate categories of space.
We had civil space,
which is the most obvious
part of space , which is NASA.
We had Department of Defense space,
which was mostly focused
on nuclear war fighting
at the time.
And then we had a national
intelligence side of space.
And each of them were
their own cadre of people.
But they interchanged a lot.
The amazing this we did
is we created these giants
of space, who most of us revered today.
Who understood the
technology, the doctrine and
the strategy of space and
could execute it across
any of those three organizations.
- [Narrator] In the wake
of the first gulf war,
and the collapse of the Soviet
Union the way the military
used space began to change.
Through space forces that helps us command
and control our conventional
forces around the world.
It provides our conventional forces
intelligence, surveillance,
and reconiscience capabilities.
And further more it allows
us to place procession
guided munitions on potential targets.
I would argue it is essential.
And that's one of the
reasons why Russia and China
are developing a full range
of anti-satellite systems.
They understand how dependent
our conventional forces
are on outer space derived
data and they are developing
capabilities to deny us
access to that information.
- We started to go ahead
after the end of the cold war
But we lost that singular focus from the
Office of the Secretary of Defense.
We put in place personnel
structures within
our Department of Defense space activities
that actually inhibited the growth that
we had early in the space age.
- [Narrator] How the National
Security Space Enterprise
was organized to meet
these new challenges.
And some began discussing weather a
new military service might be necessary.
So in 1999, Congress
created what became known as
The Rumsfeld Commission,
to study the issues.
(quiet orchestra music)
General Fogleman was one
of the commissioners.
- Like any of these things
after it bubbles and boils
for a while the Congress
gets engaged in it.
And so they wanted and
independent outside group
but yet a group of knowledgeable people
to address this whole idea of organization
management in national security space.
That was really what we were supposed
to get together and do.
Secretary Rumsfeld was
chosen to lead this effort.
- [Narrator] Congress
tasked the commission with
accessing the cost and
benefits of establishing
an independent military
department for space
and a space corps within the Air Force.
- They also address this issue
about weather or not the Air Force was
capable of fostering the development,
the professional development
of the human beings
that are involved in space,
and weather the Air Force was capable
of really fostering the
growth of doctrine and
concepts, tactics, techniques
and procedures and other things.
- [Narrator] In January
2001, the Rumsfeld Commission
issued its final report to Congress.
- We pretty well came down
I think on the idea that
in the not too distant future
we may have a space corps
but it will probably be like
the Marine Navy relationship
would be with the Air Force.
That was about as far as
the Rumsfeld Commission
was kind of willing to go the thing.
Then 911 happened.
(sirens)
And so I think the focus
on the recommendations
coming out of Rumsfeld Commission
were just kind of lost.
- We waited for years
for the Air Force to take
the appropriate action on it's own.
It really looked like the
Pentagon was going backwards.
Because, ironically
enough the Pentagon had
a Space Command from about 1985 to 2002.
Then in the Iraq and
Afghan wars we started
not paying as much attention
to our space assets.
- [Narrator] In 2006
Congress ordered a new
independent review of the
National Security Space Enterprise.
What become known as
the Allard Commission.
But before the commission
had finished it's work
China shocked the world
with an unannounced
destructive anti-satellite
test, in January 2007.
- As a result of that test
there have been thousands
of incidents where pieces
of debris from that test
have come close to China's own satellite.
Putting their satellite at risk.
- The timelines in space are very short.
It's very difficult to know
when something went wrong
and why it went wrong.
- Nations like China started
launching ASAT missiles
that could destroy virtually
any satellite above our heads.
And we just sat on our hands.
In fact we allowed space R
and D budgets to go down.
- So what Russia and China are doing
it's not like they are doing
things that we can not do.
It is just the fact that
they are now doing it.
- [Narrator] In 2008 the Allard Commission
finished it's work and issued
it's report to Congress.
General Fogleman was
the only person to serve
as a commissioner on both the
Rumsfeld and Allard Commissions.
- So in the Allard
Commission we kind of focused
on how could we come up
with a single organization
that would have requirement authority,
acquisition authority,
oversight of production,
the fielding.
How could we do that?
And we came up with
this idea that what you
really did was under Secretary
of Defense for Space.
The other thing the Allard
Commission was very, very
strong on was on the
requirement to have somebody
responsible for the
training of space experts
Weather they were in the
intel community or they
were going to be space operators.
- If you take the Rumsfeld Commission and
the Allard Commission
and all of the others.
If I had to translate
today what the problems are
I would say we have three
basic problems today.
One is a war fighting
readiness problem and
I believe that is the
major problem that we have.
We are not ready to fight a conflict that
either begins in or extends into space.
We also, I think, we have a
problem with unity of effort.
What Rumsfeld would have
called seams, exist today.
It exists operationally and it exists
in the preparation of our forces and
capabilities to be able to fight in the
kind of environment we're going
to find ourselves in today.
And then third I think, we
have a capabilities issue.
I think those are the three problems
that if I had to define
the problems to go solve
those are the three.
- [Narrator] But following
the Allard Commission report
little changed within
the Department of Defense
in terms of how national
security space was organized.
By the spring of 2017,
some members of Congress
were ready to take action.
- The culture of the Air
Force remained the same.
Much more focused on fighter
jocks and letter jackets
(laugh)
than on a space cadre that
could really do the job
and keep up with the advances
made by other nations.
So we thought after eight
or ten years of waiting
on the Air Force to do something that we'd
prod them a little bit
to take stronger action.
Mike Rodgers and I came
up with a bi-partisan
proposal that passed the
House Armed Forces Committee
overwhelmingly.
It was received somewhat
reluctantly by the Senate,
but was included in the National
Defense Authorization Bill.
The start to creating the
separate group of space
professionals within the
Department of Air Force
kind of like the Marine Corp is
in the Department of the Navy.
But people whose job, whose career,
whose promotion opportunities
would be centered on
space excellence.
That's what we were looking for.
- [Narrator] The Air Force argues against
creating a Space Corp.
Air Force Secretary, Heather
Wilson, told reporters
quote, "This will make it more complex,
add more boxes to the organization chart,
and cost more money" end quote.
The Space Corp proposal ultimately did not
pass the Senate in 2017
but the idea got a second
chance in 2018 from an
unexpected supporter.
- Very importantly I am here by directing,
the Department of Defense
and Pentagon to immediately
begin the process necessary to establish a
Space Force ad the sixth
branch of the armed forces.
- Certainly I was surprised.
I have never heard a
President of the United States
mention a Space Force
before, and it had an
interesting impact to the overall debate.
- Space Force.
(cheering)
Space Force.
- It sounds fantastic and
fanciful and clearly people
want to know what's the uniform and
is there a band that goes with
the new branch of the military?
- We re going to have the Air Force and we
are going to have the Space Force.
Separate but equal.
- I think a lot of people
anticipated it would be
something like star ship troopers,
in that we are going to
have guys parachuting
out of satellites, I don't
even know how that would work.
But I think that's what the thinking is
or they are thinking it
a suddenly huge change
for the United States
and we're shifting to
suddenly having a national
security space capability.
And a lot of it is that people don't know.
They don't know that
the US military has been
involved in space from the
beginning of the space age.
They don't know that
it's part of our enabling
for how our national
security establishment works.
And they don't understand what
exactly is being promoted.
And to be fair, a lot of
that is because the branding
has been terrible on the Space Force.
- As their actions make clear,
our adversaries have transformed space
into a war fighting domain already.
And the United States will not
shrink from this challenge.
- [Narrator] I think the
idea behind the Space Force
is that it would be
able to more accurately
put US National Security
capabilities in space
into one key place and really push for it,
as opposed to having it be up to the
United States Air Force
which frankly is still
very air plane centric.
- [Narrator] What the Trump
administration ended up
proposing to Congress in 2019
is not a separate department,
as the president had first suggested.
Instead, it ended up
proposing a separate service
that would remain under the
Department of the Air Force
much like the Marines Corps falls
under the Department of the Navy.
This proposal is similar
to the Space Corps proposal
Congress considered in 2017.
Importantly the Space
Force would not include
space organizations or activities from the
National Reconiscience Office or
other intelligence agencies.
The military, Congress and
outside experts remain divided
on the best way to proceed.
- We've been chasing
something for well over
20 years in space
organizationally that I think
does not have an organizational solution.
I believe that if the
space missions remain with
the Air Force changes have to be made.
I could embrace a Space
Corps if it was structured
correctly, I am not sure
that the Marine Corps model
is exactly right.
- I used to say today we
are air and space force.
But we are moving toward
being a air and space force
and we will eventually
a space and air force.
I think the idea that you are
going to try and put together
a National Space Force that
excludes the intel committee
is folly, you can't do that.
I just don't think you can do that.
- We should not be making
decisions like this on the fly.
- You would carry that assignment out
I would be very greatly honored also.
Where is General Dunford?
- Here.
(applause)
- General, got it.
- [General}Yeah.
- Let's go get it General.
(applause)
- We need a robust
national debate to examine
the pros and cons of such
an important decision.
Because the last thing
we want to do is make
rash decisions today.
In five years from now have
to rethink and rejigger
the entire organization.
- The biggest misconception
is this was a wild
idea that came out of the
mind of the president.
That has no basis in reality.
And that is just wrong,
the fact of the matter
is this is a well argued
question that has taken
the times of Secretary
of Defense and heads
of armed services committee
over the last 25 years.
- In previous incarnations
this was really discussing
reorganizing what already existed.
There's bits of space in number
of different military branches.
And the idea that you
would not only call it
Space Force you would be
elevating this to another
military branch.
It has the affect with
the language but you also
need to be thinking
carefully about bureaucracy.
- So I think China.
I think it depends on the translation,
but I think they already do have something
that is very close to the Space Force.
The Russians, they're kind
of all root place in terms
of what they do for their
military space capabilities.
But I think there is
definitely probably an interest
in having the ability to
play to their own domestic
audiences, that they are keeping
up with the United States.
- I often tell people, hands down,
the US has the best
Air Force in the world.
We should ask ourselves,
would that be case
if the Air Force was still
subjugated to the Army?
And the likelihood is that
it probably would not be.
People need to understand
that military space
is critically important to
everything the US military does.
And that we will loose
soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
We will loose lives of
without the use of space
for the advantage of the military.
We will loose lives of non-combatants
without the use of space to the military.
We will loose lives of our adversaries
that are unnecessary to be lost.
- [Narrator] Ultimately, Congress
will determine the fate
of the Space Force.
- I haven't meet anybody yet who hasn't
been to the briefs that
doesn't agree with this.
So we need to enhance space
capability in America.
And we can't just turn it
over to the folks who love
to pilot fighter jets.
So, I think there is a huge
bi-partisan coconscious here
It's a question of working
it through the system.
- We've said enough, let's sign
Let's sign.
- [Narrator] In the
history of the stand up
or not stand up of the US Space Forces.
People are looking for a Billy
Mitchell or a Hap Arnold.
That person may not
exist, it may never exist.
I want folks to understand that this is a
this is not a single individuals crusade.
This is a group of individuals
from all political persuasions.
All who have come together to try to
create something for the nation.
(bold orchestra music)
