House Budget Proposal Includes The Creation Of The United States Space Corps.

from the knee-deep-in-the-debt dept

There has been much in the way of focus on all the different ways Congress has devised to fight with itself as of recent, with most of that revolving around stupid partisan bickering and political posturing. Still, there are real proposals on the table, and currently the 2018 defense budget is one of them. We've already talked about some recent changes in DoD recruitment strategies that seek to get with the times, as it were. But where those changes were made to stave off dwindling rosters of soldiers at CYBERCOM, the House proposal for 2018 includes the creation of a brand new military branch.

Don't get your hopes up too high about becoming a space marine quite yet. But if the House of Representatives' version of the 2018 defense budget goes through, you may soon be able to enlist in the US Space Corps.

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) has breathed new life into those old plans by including a provision in the House version of the 2018 US defense budget that would create a separate military service dedicated to the cause of space as a warfare domain: the US Space Corps. It would also create a separate joint command, the US Space Command, breaking the role out of the US Strategic Command much in the way that was done with the US Cyber Command.

The biggest surprise in all of this might well be that it took this long, actually. Cyber Command's battleground is mere decades old, whereas we have been exploring space for more than half a century. Still, there is something unnerving about formalizing Earth's place at the cosmic table as a potential war theater. That said, the proposal does enjoy the rare consensus of bi-partisan support and it's not difficult to understand why. More than ever, we rely on assets outside of our immediate atmosphere to power all sorts of things key to our national security and power. The branch that currently oversees space defense and strategy, the Air Force, is no longer seen as capable of handling the job.

There’s been nothing shortsighted about this. We started working on it vigorously in September, and we’ve had countless meetings with a number of experts who have advised us as to how this should be construed. GAO has done three studies on this, all of which tell us that you cannot maintain the current organizational construct of the Air Force and solve the acquisition problems and the operational problems that we have. The Air Force is like any other bureaucracy. They don’t want to change.

At some level, this was inevitable. We are humans and, where we go, we fight. So don your helmets and fire up that chainsaw, future space marines, because the next battleground may be the inky blackness of the void. If so, it seems the House of Representatives, at least, wants to be prepared for it.

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Filed Under: budget, space, space corp., us government


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  • icon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward (profile), 11 Jul 2017 @ 5:21pm

    To win what?

    So we won the cold war by making it too expensive for non capitalist societies to continue to compete. Now we are going to militarize space with what as a goal? Being able to kill countries where our weapons are out of range of the 'enemy', or a second phase of the cold war win, out spend em, capitalist or not. And with our tax dollars in the boondoggle know as DoD Procurement.

    How much is currently spent on weapons systems that don't work, and how much will be spent on systems that will fail in this endeavor?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Hugh Jasohl (profile), 11 Jul 2017 @ 7:29pm

      Re: To win what?

      China is advancing in space in a big way. They have enough launches planned over the next 18 months to militarize space if they wanted too and war spending is always on a capable of doing basis, not a verified as doing basis.

      We aren't saying much in the news about it, but Russia has been replaced by China as the main cold war threat.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Atkray (profile), 11 Jul 2017 @ 7:50pm

        Re: Re: To win what?

        To win what?

        You missed this video that was leaked of their plans.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3LbxDZRgA4

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2017 @ 10:40pm

        Re: Re: To win what?

        China is the world's best hope against the emerging US threat.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 9:22am

          Re: Re: Re: To win what?

          Sadly had to mark that as both funny AND insightful.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:15am

        Re: Re: To win what?

        Cold war, space war, war against China, war against Russia, war against Islam and the Muslims, war against immigrants, you american idiots know no other word than war?

        There is no cold war, not with Russia not with China, they are both fully capitalist nations.

        "China is advancing in space"

        So? That means America should run for military action huh? Stupidity everywhere.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 9:48am

      Re: To win what?

      Now we are going to militarize space with what as a goal? ... with our tax dollars in the boondoggle know as DoD Procurement.

      Maybe getting the dollars is the goal.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:19am

        Re: Re: To win what?

        That is exactly the point, get more dollars from tax payers to stupid "defense" budgets, to protect american sheeple from those evil russians, chinese, muslism, immigrants, and now aliens. Poor american people, live always scared of an enemy, always scared of a threat created bu their own government and propaganda machines, just to send more dollars to the defense and military contractors, all while the average wage has remained stagnant for the last 40-50 years, while income inequality keeps breaking record levels, while millions live on food stamps and are considered poor.

        More tax payer dollars for defense while the rest of the population is expected to set into "Austherity" mode, because there is no money.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Pixelation, 11 Jul 2017 @ 7:35pm

    Head start

    Might as well enlist. Everyone says I'm a space cadet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2017 @ 8:06pm

    The Russians already have the Russian Space Forces, pretty similar to this proposal.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:22am

      Re:

      Oh I see, so America has to follow suit huh? What you just said is very stupid.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2017 @ 9:03pm

    How to reduce the bureaucracy?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Christenson, 11 Jul 2017 @ 9:08pm

    How to reduce the bureaucracy?

    "..all of which tell us that you cannot maintain the current organizational construct of the Air Force and solve the acquisition problems and the operational problems that we have. The Air Force is like any other bureaucracy. They don’t want to change."

    So how do you shed the useless Air Force bureaucracy? Seems creating a "space command" does nothing to trim this waste.

    Not that we don't have a looming and thorny problem of orbiting debris....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 11 Jul 2017 @ 10:43pm

      Re: How to reduce the bureaucracy?

      I came to say that arguably the Air Force is the least suited to command a Space Corps. The Air Force mainly wants to fly fast fighter jets.

      Arguably the Navy is more suited to command a Space Corps. Space stations would be more analogous to ships at sea than fighter jets and the Navy has decades of experience maintaining hundreds of ships at sea for months at a time.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Seegras (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 12:12am

        Re: Re: How to reduce the bureaucracy?

        Absolutely, the Air Force is clearly unsuited.

        Even their ranks are ridiculous. It's clear you can't have a space vessel commanded by something like a "major" or "colonel", This has to be a "commander" or a "captain" or course.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Jason, 12 Jul 2017 @ 5:36am

          Re: Re: Re: How to reduce the bureaucracy?

          Stargate Command managed it well enough. :)

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:24am

      Re: How to reduce the bureaucracy?

      On the contrary, it will just create another bureaucracy. Another dollar swallowing bureaucracy with little results. I mean if you call the win on Mosul or the increasing income inequality a result then you have been brainwashed.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Seegras (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 12:50am

    Blame Nixon

    Well, you had Nixon to gut the space program to wage war instead. NASAs budget was cut from 4% to 0.4%. And none of the later presidents, including the one in power now, have reinstated it.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Roger Strong (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 6:06am

      Re: Blame Nixon

      Actually the big budget cuts - and the cancellation of the second production run of Saturn Vs - came before Nixon.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 1:31am

    What I wonder about is how we can go about doing this without violating the treaty that forbids the militarization of space.

    Also, it is great to see that the magnificent Timothy Geigner has an interest in Warhammer, you sir, have easily achieved the rather lowly position of my favorite writer on this site.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 4:43am

    If I had to elect one most wasteful way of spending money this would be among the finalists.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Wendy Cockcroft, 13 Jul 2017 @ 5:15am

      Re:

      Yes, but space. Spaaaaacccccce!

      Jokes aside, the space race has resulted in handy inventions we use every day, e.g. velcro, so it's not completely wasteful. I must agree that it is a massive money suck probably best left to the market since we've got so many problems here on Earth to be dealing with.

      It's a hell of a distraction, though.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:27am

      Re:

      Of course, because there is no money to spend!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    TheResidentSkeptic (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 5:54am

    Guess Again

    This is just creating an un-classified branch so we quit looking for the classified ones...

    If you really think this hasn't existed from day one, you just don't understand the "Black Budget" and what it pays for.

    Tell me again - what is the X37B used for?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 5:56am

    Shouldn't they call it Starfleet?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      E., 12 Jul 2017 @ 8:21am

      Re:

      Word.

      But isn't NASA kind of similar to this? Wouldn't it be rather redundant?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 14 Jul 2017 @ 11:29am

      Re:

      Nah, it is America we talking here, give it more bling more flash more explosions and more of everything... Universal Government or some shit like that would be more suitable to America's "blinginess".

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 6:09am

    It's called a chainsword but nice reference. Future looks grim maybe you should rebrand to TechDire...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Neverless, 12 Jul 2017 @ 9:28am

      Response to: Anonymous Coward on Jul 12th, 2017 @ 6:09am

      The "department" title is a reference to one of the levels of the classic Doom game, Knee Deep In The Dead, which also features chainsaws along with other weapons, no Warhammers required.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Jul 2017 @ 7:06am

    I wanna join up. I think I got what it takes to be a Citizen

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Roger Strong (profile), 12 Jul 2017 @ 10:24pm

    Other countries are responding accordingly.

    Canada's Governor General represents the Queen as Canada's head of state, and holds the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Forces.

    Today the Queen appointed a new Governor General of Canada. One who has been to the International Space Station. Twice.

    So now the Queen is appointing military leaders, viceregal representatives to her colonies and territories, who have astronaut experience. I sense a new round of expansionist imperialism.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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