National Security is Everyone's Business

April 18th, 2024 | 12:33 AM ET

Securing Orbit: Countdown to a Space Corps?

Posted: June 21st, 2018

By The Cipher Brief

President Trump on Monday called for the creation of a new Space Force to be designated as an independent, sixth branch of the U.S. military.  Just a few months ago, The Cipher Brief polled our experts with deep knowledge of the issue.  Former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James was not in favor – nor was she alone.  Her view was shared by Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was among the critics who cited a host of reasons, including inefficiencies of creating new organizational layers, increased costs and a lack of integration as reasons to keep the space capabilities under the structure of the Air Force Space Command.  But supporters of the concept, including Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) and Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) argue that the United States has lost its competitive advantage in space, and we need the innovation and specific focus of a dedicated space capability to get it back.

Here’s a closer look at what those high-level concerns were just a few months ago:

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

Access all of The Cipher Brief’s national security-focused expert insight by becoming a Cipher Brief Subscriber+ Member.

Subscriber+

Categorized as:InternationalTagged with:

Related Articles

How Safe Would We Be Without Section 702?

SUBSCRIBER+EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW — A provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that has generated controversy around fears of the potential for abuse has proven to be crucial […] More

June 1st, 2023

Search

Close