Pence: The Time Has Come to Establish the United States Space Force

EXCERPT:

PENCE: "Now the time has come to write the next great chapter in the history of our armed forces, to prepare for the next battlefield where America’s best and bravest will be called to deter and defeat a new generation of threats to our people, to our nation. The time has come to establish the United States Space Force. And that’s what brings us here today. Seven weeks ago, President Trump directed the Department of Defense to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. The president made it clear our ultimate objective is to create a new branch of our military that's separate from and equal to five other branches. Today the Department of Defense will release a report outlining the first of our administration’s plan to implement the president’s guidance and turn his vision into a reality. This report reviews the national security space activities within the Department of Defense and it identifies concrete steps our administration will take to lay the foundation for a new department of the Space Force. To be clear the Space Force will not be built from scratch because the men and women who run and protect our nation’s space programs today are already the best in the world. Since the dawn of the space age, America has remained the best in space."