{"id":15436,"date":"2018-09-05T18:34:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/05\/the-top-air-force-official-is-now-onboard-with-trumps-space-force-plan\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:29:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:29:47","slug":"the-top-air-force-official-is-now-onboard-with-trumps-space-force-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/2018\/09\/05\/the-top-air-force-official-is-now-onboard-with-trumps-space-force-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Top US Air Force official is now on board with Trump\u2019s Space Force plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=515c398c-fd9c-4e02-bff9-96ac85a7409c\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-515c398c-fd9c-4e02-bff9-96ac85a7409c.jpg\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In a Q&amp;A session at the Defense News Conference, U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson lays out her views on a space force.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force\u2019s top civilian has been one of the biggest critics of creating a separate military service for space, but now that President Donald Trump has directed the Pentagon to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/08\/09\/space-force-will-be-6th-military-branch-by-2020-vice-president-pence-announces\/\" target=_blank>craft a new \u201cSpace Force,\u201d<\/a> she wants to make sure its done right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Wednesday at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/\" target=_blank>Defense News Conference<\/a> that she was now in \u201ccomplete alignment\u201d with Trump\u2019s desire to stand up a Space Force, complete with a separate military department with the same authorities as any other service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That will manifest itself in a fiscal 2020 spending request that includes a separate budget for the \u201cDepartment of the Space Force\u201d and a \u201cfulsome\u201d proposal of how to structure the new service. From there, it will be up to Congress to decide whether to approve its formation, Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf we\u2019re going to do this, let\u2019s propose to do it right,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s have this debate, support the president\u2019s proposal and put it forward \u2014 and make sure that we don\u2019t do this with half measures. I think that\u2019s probably the most important part for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2018\/08\/09\/no-answers-yet-on-cost-structure-of-space-force\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"143\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/space2.JPG.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">How much will the Space Force cost, and what\u2019s it going to look like?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">More works needs to be done to figure out how the Space Force will fit into the Defense Department.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In August, Vice President Mike Pence revealed changes to the Pentagon\u2019s space enterprise meant to pave a way for an eventual Space Force, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/08\/07\/pentagon-setting-up-new-combatant-command-for-space-operations-mattis-confirms\/\" target=\"_blank\">reinstating U.S. Space Command <\/a>as a unified combatant command. In her first comments on the new service since that announcement, Wilson didn\u2019t go into detail on why her thinking had changed, but said that Trump\u2019s bid to create a Space Force was \u201cforward-looking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the past several years, Wilson had argued to Congress that carving space from the Air Force could jeopardize the service\u2019s efforts to integrate space with its other war-fighting operations. However, the critical tone of Air Force leaders \u2014 which included Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein \u2014 softened when Trump in March said that he was considering forming a Space Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June, the president ordered the Pentagon to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=3ee85dca-b161-420a-a6a7-0590d00b5174\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-3ee85dca-b161-420a-a6a7-0590d00b5174.jpg\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">At the Defense News Conference, U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson lays out the importance of the service&#8217;s squadrons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force. Separate but equal. It is going to be something. So important,\u201d Trump said in a June 18 announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only Congress has the authority to create a new military service, and there have been signs that the idea could face resistance, particularly in the Senate, where no notable proponent of Space Force has emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said in August that he needs to see a Pentagon estimate for the cost of standing up the service before deciding whether to support it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe don\u2019t know the ingredients yet. We don\u2019t know what the cost would be. When that time comes, we\u2019ll take a position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the Air Force&#8217;s biggest Space Force critics has reversed her stance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":110,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,110,162,163,36,23,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-15436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-defense-news-conference","category-digital-show-daily","category-military-space-report","category-newsletters","category-space","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"5K6WJHVAQVG3XBLXFJ3BLQVYXA","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/2018\/09\/05\/the-top-air-force-official-is-now-onboard-with-trumps-space-force-plan\/","remove_feature_photo":true,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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