By signing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), President Donald Trump established the new sixth branch of the military — United States Space Force. The creation of a new military branch hasn’t occurred in over seventy years, with the last being the United States Air Force. 

Under this year’s version of the NDAA, $738 billion is budgeted towards military spending. Most of the funding goes towards financing general operations of the Department of Defense, increasing troops’ salaries and buying new air jets for the Pentagon. 

Donald Trump, though, allocated $40 million from the 2020 financial plan into the formation of the new Space Force. The defense policy effectively ended the current existence US Air Force Space Command and legally named the former Air Force sector as the US Space Force. 

“Space is the world’s newest war-fighting domain,” said President Donald Trump, during a press conference. “Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough.”

Sixteen thousand Air Force personnel are planned to be transferred over into the newly made branch within 2 years. Ultimately, staff members will be comprised of government officials, engineers and active  Air Force members. 

The intended staff actually compares quite small to other sects of the military. The Air Force, for instance, currently has over 300,000 active members, while the Navy has around 180,000 on-duty personnel. 

It is important to note that the Space Force affirmed to be under the domain of the US Air Force. Their conditions is similar to how the Marine Corps acted as a subset of the US Navy. The efficient use of already existing resources allowed the Space Force to better handle their new responsibilities. Space Force targeted to permanently separate into its own branch in the indefinite future. 

“Our reliance on space-based capabilities has grown dramatically, and today outer space has evolved into a warfighting domain of its own,” said Mark Esper, the Defense Secretary. 

The world relies more heavily on the many services offered by space, as the race for new technology heats up. The nation’s Global Positioning System, also located in space, plays a crucial role for all of the military branches because it helps guide missile paths and gather foreign intelligence. Forty highly qualified personnel have been assigned to carry out the new expectations. 

Therefore, one of the new responsibilities for the Space Force is the expansion and maintenance of satellite systems positioned in space. Establishing dominance over the new region and exploring the capabilities of new research were two primary goals which the National Defense Authorization Act sought to do. 

The funds from the allocated budget pays for officer training and recruitment procedures. In the upcoming months, US Space Force’s Head General John Raymond, along with other top government officials, will draw up plans for establishing a concrete branch operating structure and segregating Space Force responsibilities amongst officer ranks. 

“It’s going to be really important that we get this right,” said Space Force General John Raymond. “We’re not going to be in a rush to get something, and not do that right. There’s a lot of work going on towards that end. I don’t think it’s going to take a long time to get that done, but that’s not something we’re going to roll out on day one.”

Raymond estimated that the branch will be in full operation within 18 months. By that time, six locations are set to be the final and permanent facilities for the Space Force, which include states like California, Colorado and Florida. 

The sixth military branch may be just starting off in its preliminary stages. Though, the emboldened goals of the US Space Force are evidence for a promising future in space expansion.