The Space Force met its 18-month deadline to get up and running. Here’s what’s next – By Rachel Cohen (Air Force Times) / Aug 19 2021
When Congress created the U.S. Space Force in December 2019, the Pentagon hadn’t launched a new military service since 1947. Lawmakers wanted the idea to become reality in just 18 months.
The Space Force met that deadline earlier this summer. Now, it turns from tackling the first organizational steps to the meat of becoming an effective warfighting branch.
It’s preparing to welcome soldiers, sailors and Marines as its first guardians from outside of the Department of the Air Force starting in October, and absorbing some of their missions.
The Space Force will take on wideband satellite communications in the Army and narrowband SATCOM operations in the Navy this fall — though that could be derailed if Congress fails to pass a defense budget by Oct. 1, the start of fiscal 2022, Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David “DT” Thompson told Air Force Times in an Aug. 12 interview.
