{"id":23410,"date":"2018-02-28T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/28\/2021-a-space-odyssey-space-corps-could-launch-in-three-to-five-years-key-lawmaker-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:01:30","slug":"2021-a-space-odyssey-space-corps-could-launch-in-three-to-five-years-key-lawmaker-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2018\/02\/28\/2021-a-space-odyssey-space-corps-could-launch-in-three-to-five-years-key-lawmaker-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US Space Corps could launch in 3 years, key lawmaker says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Congress\u2019 strongest supporters of a new Space Corps<\/a> have not given up the fight, slamming the U.S. Air Force for wasted time as Russia and China pose a growing threat to America\u2019s vital satellites<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe could be deaf, dumb and blind within seconds,\u201d House Armed Services Strategic Forces ranking member Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., said Wednesday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum on space. \u201cSeldom has a great nation been so vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and the Corps\u2019 biggest champion on Capitol Hill, said a space-focused service could be built in three to five years. By year\u2019s end, Rogers, R-Ala., expects an independent report, required by the 2018 defense policy law, about how that process might look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers and Cooper argue it\u2019s necessary for the military to have a dedicated space force because the Air Force let space capability atrophy in favor of more traditional air needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers on Wednesday accused the Air Force of not taking space seriously enough to send a speaker to the CSIS event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years, the Air Force has used space programs as a money pot to reach into and subsidize air-dominance programs when they feel like Congress hasn\u2019t given them enough for tankers, fighter jets, whatever,\u201d Rogers said. \u201cCongress has not given any of the services enough, but that doesn\u2019t mean you starve to death one of your subordinate missions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House, Pentagon and Air Force leaders pushed back on a failed proposal from the House Armed Services Committee to create a Space Corps, arguing it would add unneeded bureaucracy. The provision faced opposition in the Senate, and the 2018 defense policy law forbids the creation of such an organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law did give Air Force Space Command authority over space acquisitions, resource management, requirements, war fighting and personnel development \u2014 viewed as a start for the potential creation of a Space Corps in the future. And it requires an independent organization develop a road map to start a separate military department to encompass \u201cnational security space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. military officials have acknowledged that America\u2019s adversaries have caught up to it in space, but classified reports paint a even more troubling picture, the lawmakers said. Rogers called the over-classification of such information \u201cdisturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere would be a hew and cry in the American public to fix this situation if they knew how bad things were and what we\u2019ve allowed Russia and China to do,\u201d Rogers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t