Trump’s Space Force to Cost $13 Billion to Establish
Defense News reports the U.S. Ar Force has estimated it will cost $13 billion over five years to establish an independent space force.
In a Sept. 14 memo obtained by Defense News and signed by Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, the service laid out its proposal to transition its space functions to a sixth branch of the military known as the Space Force.
Notably, the Air Force’s Space Force proposal pushes back on a previous proposal, put forth by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, in several key ways, including advocating for increased integration with the National Reconnaissance Office and objecting to the White House’s plan to install an assistant secretary of defense for space to help guide the transition.
In an exclusive Sept. 17 interview with Defense News, Wilson said her intention was not to hit back at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, but to provide an alternative way to execute President Donald Trump’s direction to create a Space Force….
The proposal put forward by the Air Force would strip all space capability and personnel from the existing services, but even then, there will be additional funding needed to run a new space branch.
10 responses to “Trump’s Space Force to Cost $13 Billion to Establish”
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About the cost of an attack submarine per year and about a billion less a year than the cost of the ISS. In short, a bargain.
This just the additional administrative and overhead costs involved in setting up the Space Force, not reflecting the costs (currently spent through the existing services) of space assets and operations, right?
I believe so. Clearly not a bargain, but it was an inevitability.
This is what people presently getting MilSpace money to manage want us to believe will be required to manage MilSpace money outside the Air Force. Of course, that is true only if you manage the money in the same way the Air Force has done. That something must be spent on management is true. That a new hierarchy must use the same crusted rules and procedures as the Air Staff has used is not at all evident.
a waste…we can use the attack sub…
USAF doesn’t want the Space Force to exist so what would you expect them to say? When Bush 41 talked up going to Mars, NASA – which wanted nothing to do with the idea – “estimated” it would cost a half-trillion bucks to do the job.
I think NASA really does want to go to Mars. As evidenced by the travesties that have been Ares I, Ares V, CEV, SLS, and Orion, I think it really would cost half a trillion dollars for NASA to go to Mars “their way”. Unfortunately “their way” has proven to cost far more than necessary as evidenced by the cost of commercial cargo and commercial crew.
NASA decided it wanted to go to Mars when Obama put the Moon off-limits. Certainly won’t give you any argument about the costs of “the NASA way.” But Constellation was never a Mars rocket, it was a Moon rocket(s). The travesty involved was trimming Ares V into SLS then pretending SLS was a Mars rocket.
Ares V was called a Mars rocket, but I see nothing in Ares V that would have given it a higher than the once a year flight rate or lower cost than SLS will have. As such, Ares V would not have been a very good Mars rocket with such a dismal flight rate and high cost.
He can pay for it by his 10-20% tax on electronics from China.