Book Description

This paper examines the USAF role in managing space and makes recommendations for the future of space in the United States military. Though it echoes specific recommendations made elsewhere by previous authors, the main purpose of this paper is to consider a legislative framework required to sever space from Air Force oversight, and to establish a separate United States Space Force (USSF) under the Department of Defense. The paper begins by examining the historical evolution and fractured history of space in the United States government's bureaucratic machine. Next, this paper looks at multiple reports calling for changes in space leadership and oversight, and the inability to effect meaningful change, evaluating the need for an independent Space Force. It then discusses the various roles and missions an independent space force would assume. Finally, it discusses the legal framework necessary to establish a USSF and analyzes a legislative proposal. Though this paper advocates for standing up a separate USSF, the true value of this paper is the legislation proposed in Appendix 2, and the analysis of that proposal herein. Simply considering the specific recommendations in that enabling legislation is beneficial should the United States move toward establishing a USSF.This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.The similarities between child in need of care cases and the current United States Air Force (USAF) oversight of national security space are unfortunately striking. The Air Force has been unable to properly care for space, and like the removal of the Air Force from the purview of the United States Army in 1947, removing space from Air Force management and oversight may be in the best interests of both parent and child. Congress and the Department of Defense (DOD) gave the Air Force a "parenting plan" of sorts, and for years the Air Force has failed to make significant progress on that plan and demonstrated an inability to complete that plan successfully. Time has run out, and the best interest of space dictates removal from the USAF. "Space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air, and sea... we have the Air Force, we'll have the Space Force." President Trump's words reflect the ever-growing reality that the character of warfare is changing. Much like the air domain from the end of World War I through World War II, space has emerged and evolved as a war-fighting domain. Rather than the supporting role space served up to this point, warfare in the future is likely to extend or even begin within the space domain. Additionally, as the burgeoning commercial space economy continues to grow, so too will the need for security and protection of lines of commerce grow. Unfortunately, the current USAF construct is ill equipped to meet and overcome the challenges presented by such a change in the character of war, and a new dynamic is necessary.This paper examines the USAF role in managing space and makes recommendations for the future of space in the United States military. Though it echoes specific recommendations made elsewhere by previous authors, the main purpose of this paper is to consider a legislative framework required to sever space from Air Force oversight, and to establish a separate United States Space Force (USSF) under the DOD. The paper begins by examining the historical evolution and fractured history of space in the United States government's bureaucratic machine. Next, this paper looks at multiple reports calling for changes in space leadership and oversight, and the inability to effect meaningful change without creating an independent USSF.