Space Shuttle Door Gunners rejoice!

[Grand58742]

President Trump instructs the Pentagon to create a 6th service, the Space Force.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/president-trump-directs-pentagon-defense-department-to-immediately-being-the-process-of-establishing-space-force-as-sixth-military-branch.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/18/trump-orders-establishment-space-force-as-6th-branch-military.html


President Trump vowed on Monday to make space great again.

Speaking at a meeting of the National Space Council, Trump ordered the Pentagon to immediately establish a national “space force” that would become the sixth branch of the armed forces.

“We are going to have a space force,” Trump said in Washington D.C. “An Air Force and a Space Force. Separate, but equal.”

This is not the first time that Trump has floated the idea of establishing a “space force.” The president mentioned the idea in May during a ceremony at the White House honoring the Army Black Knights college football team.

Trump did not go into details about what military role the so-called “space force” would carry out or who would command it, but he framed space as a national security issue, saying he does not want "China and Russia and other countries leading us."

[Moose-Knuckle]

Solar Warden. :ph34r:

[Grand58742]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Df_dGDqVQAE2xDX.jpg

[Doc Safari]

He knows something we don't.

Betcha a lot of those "illegal" aliens are of the little gray kind.

But you didn't hear that from me.

:jester:

[The_War_Wagon]

Oh - I wanna go 18X all OVER this!!! :jester:


http://extremecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Obama-debt-death-star.jpg

[just a scout]

I’m thinking this is sitting out near Jupiter.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180618/a3ff5367a1633b0dd2a01a22d12cda50.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[militarymoron]

Well, all jokes aside, the space threat is real, both from spy satellites and ICBMs. I'm not sure whether a separate Space Force is needed, since the Air Force has been flying most of the govt birds, but why not.

The space threat is something the big aerospace companies take very seriously. Plus, I like the name 'kill vehicle' - no beating around the bush to disguise what it is:
https://www.upi.com/Defense-News/2017/05/23/Boeing-awarded-1B-contract-for-Redesigned-Kill-Vehicle/7761495544541/

You can be sure that other countries have been working on ways to take out our satellites and disrupt communications.

[BH321]

Oh - I wanna go 18X all OVER this!!! :jester:


http://extremecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Obama-debt-death-star.jpg

18X the AFSC for a Drone Pilot or 18X the Special Forces contract designator?

[OH58D]

As the product of Army ROTC and former Cadet, and the father of a USMA Cadet, I guess officer trainees for this new branch will be Space Cadets.

[The_War_Wagon]

18X the AFSC for a Drone Pilot or 18X the Special Forces contract designator?

Awww man - do I have egg on MY face! I was thinking that MOS was 18X; here it turns out, it's 17Bravo! :eek:


https://i.pinimg.com/736x/90/93/24/909324174bc0009cc2bbb1c246c11a0c--space-shuttle-military.jpg

[SeriousStudent]

As long as the Space Force has Colonial Marines like Corporal Vasquez, they will do fine.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVn2HSHW1aI

[titsonritz]

It is pissing the liberals off so I'm all for it.

[elephant]

are you serious like actually uniformed DOD personnel in outer space or more like tactical satellites/space drones with men on the ground controlling them?

[militarymoron]

are you serious like actually uniformed DOD personnel in outer space or more like tactical satellites/space drones with men on the ground controlling them?

Men on the ground controlling satellites/missiles, like the current AF.

[elephant]

Men on the ground controlling satellites/missiles, like the current AF.

Well, a few years ago, USAF had a midget top secret replica of the space shuttle in orbit for like 500 days and at the same time, NASA had an astronaut onboard ISS for over a year . I thought that just maybe they were going to put spacemen on space craft.

[The_War_Wagon]

Technically, it's a joint service operation...

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/memory-gamma/images/4/46/StarfleetCommandEmblem.JPG/revision/latest?cb=20080802144454

[26 Inf]

All kidding aside, what we don't need is another service.

Some folks don't understand that President Trump throws out things to distract from other things and to keep media attention.

Read the play book.

[sgtrock82]

It is pissing the liberals off so I'm all for it.We can make them wear the red shirts for this episode.

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[BrigandTwoFour]

FWIW, maybe I can shed a little light on to this. For half of my career in the Air Force, I served under Space Command (later switching to the newly formed Global Strike Command since my primary AFSC was as an ICBM officer).

This is a political fight that has been brewing for decades. Every year I was in, there were rumors that ,"this was the year for space to break off, like the Air Corps did from the Army in '47"

The various elements of Space Command have been quietly consolidating their bases and writing their own policies that distinguish them from main line USAF, even if only a little. Fundamentally, this is all driven from a divide between the flying world and "the rest" of the USAF. Like the Corps, Space Command was near chronically underfunded for the equipment and missions they were expected to carry out, and then the pilots would get pissy that they couldn't get whatever space asset to help on the mission (various communications, ISR, navigation, whatever). it's also a political reality that the space dudes realize that one of them will never become Chief of Staff, since it has always been a pilot's club. Likewise, the flying portions of the USAF would never accept a non-pilot running things. The fact that Space has become such an important domain means that the space dudes think they are just that more important, and deserve their credit.

As an ICBM guy, we just kinda watched from the sidelines. We've never really been welcome in either community. We weren't fancy enough for space, especially since we didn't put anything in orbit, but we were too "spacey" for pilots, who thought of us more like long range artillery.

In the end, this is grandstanding. Trump can direct DoD to do the legwork and prepare, but it is ultimately congress who is going to make the law and fund the service.

[Jer]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Df_dGDqVQAE2xDX.jpg

ROFL.

[Watrdawg]

As the product of Army ROTC and former Cadet, and the father of a USMA Cadet, I guess officer trainees for this new branch will be Space Cadets.

My son is at The Citadel and and he brought up the Space Force article also. I threw the Space Cadet label at him and he turned around and said "Aw that just aint right!" All I could do is laugh!

[OH58D]

My son is at The Citadel and and he brought up the Space Force article also. I threw the Space Cadet label at him and he turned around and said "Aw that just aint right!" All I could do is laugh!
Awesome. I bet you're proud of him. Is he doing college ROTC in one of the branches? My son did four years of High School JROTC before the Academy. He just finished his Freshman year at the USMA. He is in training right now getting ready for Air Assault School at Fort Campbell. It's gonna be hotter than Hell for his ten days of fun. He's been rucking with his flick and ruck carrying 45 lbs, doing 8-12 miles twice a week. Getting himself toughened up.

[SteyrAUG]

So in this hypothetical space force, are we still hitching rides with the Russians?

[ubet]

Finally! https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180620/492aeda79d256ca5f0d206d9aa890441.jpg

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[Whiskey_Bravo]

So in this hypothetical space force, are we still hitching rides with the Russians?

That was kind of my thought. Before we start spending more money on a new space force, how about we figure out how to get to space without relying on the Russians.

[kwelz]

Not that I am opposed to this, but aren't we signatories of treaties that keep us from having an armed presence in space?

[SteyrAUG]

https://i.imgur.com/Va91A1K.jpg

[BrigandTwoFour]

Not that I am opposed to this, but aren't we signatories of treaties that keep us from having an armed presence in space?

That treaty technically only applies to emplacement WMD in space.

[MA2_Navy_Veteran]

Remember the "Star Wars" project?
Ever wonder about all those military satellites they've been sending up recently?
Remember all the talk about what was to replace the space shuttle program?
They sure have been doing A LOT of mars studies lately.

Personally, I think we could use a base on the moon. :p

[Watrdawg]

Awesome. I bet you're proud of him. Is he doing college ROTC in one of the branches? My son did four years of High School JROTC before the Academy. He just finished his Freshman year at the USMA. He is in training right now getting ready for Air Assault School at Fort Campbell. It's gonna be hotter than Hell for his ten days of fun. He's been rucking with his flick and ruck carrying 45 lbs, doing 8-12 miles twice a week. Getting himself toughened up.

He did JROTC in HS and got a 4yr Army ROTC scholarship. He contracted Army 3-4 months into his Freshman year. He's going into his Junior year this Aug. Next week her heads to Ft. Knox for 6wks to work as Op4 for the Advance Camp cadets coming through. He's looking forward to it. He actually volunteered for it. It will give him OML points towards his branch choice. Can't beat an Academy/Military school education thats for sure.

Sounds like your Son is well on his way to being one of the best also. The main thing with Air Assault is paying attention to detail and memorizing everything exactly as it should be. One of my buddy's kids flunked out of it twice. 1st time was the inspection the very 1st day. He left his chin strap on his helmet unbuckled. The 2nd time was a major test and he missed the cutoff score by 2 points.

[The_War_Wagon]

That treaty technically only applies to emplacement WMD in space.

And as "Space Cowboys" proved, the Russians have ALREADY broken that agreement. :jester:

[Moose-Knuckle]

Yeah we have weapons in space, aka kill vehicles that can neutralize satellites. And this doesn't even cover the stuff we'll never know about. :ph34r:

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8502/29242935904_3e4ef4991d_z.jpg

[Coal Dragger]

Will there be space grunts?

If yes, does that mean there will also be space POG’s?

[Moose-Knuckle]

Shit just got real . . .

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1786/41130954130_14702c38a8_z.jpg

[HeruMew]

Waited to get into the Duluth Rally for Trump that was held Locally yesterday.

Got in. He mentioned Space Corps and everyone went wild.

Crazy stuff, should be a cool proposal to Congress, we'll see what happens.

Thankfully Secret Service didn't take my Surefire light and holster like I thought they were going to. They were all good guys, made the event go very smooth.

[pinzgauer]

He just finished his Freshman year at the USMA. He is in training right now getting ready for Air Assault School at Fort Campbell. It's gonna be hotter than Hell for his ten days of fun. He's been rucking with his flick and ruck carrying 45 lbs, doing 8-12 miles twice a week.

That's great he's getting to go to Campbell, for the last several years Air Assault was done in NY at Camp Smith and later, on post on the USMA ranges/reserves.

They brought in blackhats from Campbell, but most I know would have preferred to do in mainstream groups rather than classes with 75% cadets. Logistically I could see where it would make sense to hold certain courses regionally.

Given your background, I'm guessing Campbell is familiar territory? Glad to hear plebe year is successfully behind him. Should be a fun summer as a "pluck" (not quite a yearling/yuck yet, until end of buckner/CFT)

[Heavy Metal]

So, will they have a service academy like the other services?

A space academy?

Space cadets?

[Coal Dragger]

Space working parties to police call?

Drawing dicks on porta-shitters on Mars?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Shit just got real . . .

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1786/41130954130_14702c38a8_z.jpg

Water boarding in zero g....