President Trump Monday announced he will create the Space Force, a new military branch he says is, “So important for our military. So important. And people don’t talk about it.”
There’s a good reason for that: the United States signed a treaty in 1967 with over 100 other countries, including the UK, China, and the then-Soviet Union. Frequently called the Outer Space Treaty, signatories, including the U.S., promise no nuclear weapons on space, no weapons of mass destruction, and no use of the moon or other bodies for military purposes.
Trump on Monday told the defense sector CEOs and others he appointed to help develop his Space Force that space is “going to be important monetarily and militarily.”
The President continued, saying, “When it comes to defending America, it is not enough to merely have an American presence in space. We must have American dominance in space. So important.”
“Very importantly, I’m hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a space force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That’s a big statement,” Trump bragged.
“We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force — separate but equal,” he said. “It is going to be something. So important.”
There has not yet been any response from other nations.
Image by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr and a CC license