Some White House Snark On The Space Force (Update)
Asked if @POTUS plans to keep/modify @SpaceForceDoD "Wow. #SpaceForce. Its the plane of today! It is an interesting question. I'm happy to check with our Space Force point of contact. I'm not sure who that is but I will find out and see if we have any update on that." Tick tock. https://t.co/seI1UG8Ok7
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 3, 2021
We look forward to the continuing work of Space Force and invite the members of the team to come visit us in the briefing room anytime to share an update on their important work.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 3, 2021
.@PressSec on Space Force: "They absolutely have the full support of the Biden Administration."
Full video here: https://t.co/9yI6o2YL0x pic.twitter.com/MLxUnbrclZ
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2021
“Q: The top republican on the House Armed Services Committee is asking y ou to apologize for some of the comments you you made about the Space Force in the briefing room yesterday. WIll you apologize?
Jen Psaki: I did send a tweet last night – you may not all be on Twitter – we invite the members of Space FOrce here to provide an update to all of you on all of the important work that they are doing. We certainly look forward to seeing continued updates from their team.
Q: Big picture here – I mean: does the Space Force have the full support of the Biden Administration or is the President, perhaps, at some point try to get rid of it, or in some way diminish it?
Jen Psaki: They absolutely have the full support of the Biden Administration and we are not revisiting the decision to establish the Space Force. The desire for the Department of Defense to focus greater attention and resources on the growing security challenges in space has long been a bipartisan issue informed by numerous independent commissions and studies conducted across multiple Administrations. Thousands of men and women proudly serve in the Space Force. As you know it was established by Congress and any other steps would have to be taken by Congress – not by the Administration.”
It was a pretty dumb comment to make. Biden’s Administration needs to approach the Space Force issue constructively, rather than dismiss it simply because some see it as a Trump creation (the idea pre-dated Trump), or as superfluous (which it isn’t). Her comment undermined the Administration’s credibility on how they will handle the internal policy debate on space force, and raises questions as to whether they’ll approach an important issue in a serious manner. For the record – I think Space Force should stay, and be further enhanced in terms of how it plays a role in capability development, acquisition, have its role clarified, and ensure that it can play a constructive role in shaping US space doctrine.
She’s a good press sec, but she did handle this poorly, hence her clean up later in the day.
Clean up is important and she did. Good on her.
There are plenty of reasons to not take Space Force seriously. For one, the name is pretty ridiculous, and sounds like something a toddler would name a new branch of the military, which is actually very close to being what happened. I am not the only one who thinks this way, it even became a comedy series on Netflix.
When I was a child, the Republican Party expressed more than a little righteous indignation with the Carter administration for creating a new branch of the federal government with the Department of Education. More than a few Republican candidates campaigned on getting rid of it in the name of “limited government”. Where is this righteous indignation over trump creating a sixth branch of the U.S. military?
What would you call it, then? It was either Space Force or Space Corps.
0ffice of Space Awareness, or anything you like really. Don’t get me wrong. There are lots of capabilities that need a home and deserve to be bought under one command structure. It’s just the name “Space Force” reeks to much of “Starship Troopers” to be helpful.
Can you imagine one of Musk’s Starships with 100 troops being deployed to Mars ten or twenty years from now? An adversary would plot their path within minutes of their launch. Know within minutes the date and time of their arrival and have all that time to arrange a suitable welcome.
In space there’s nowhere to hide, and no surplus fuel to dodge an incoming missile with either.
Even on the moon an approaching adversary is visible days away.
No doubt one day all that will change. In the mean time it’s silly to pretend a capability exists that clearly doesn’t.
“Can you imagine one of Musk’s Starships with 100 troops being deployed to Mars ten or twenty years from now?”
No, and neither can US Space Force, or US Space Command, at least not from their open statements. Space Force has consistently reiterated that their activities center on the orbital assets that are “force-multipliers” for Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen. The PLASSF experiments with on-orbit ASAT activity starting in 2017 were what started the push inside Congress for a Service independent of the Air Staff, that had been “reprogramming” USAF Space Command budgets to keep fighter squadrons combat ready for 14 years by then.
“In the mean time it’s silly to pretend a capability exists that clearly doesn’t.”
The only pretense *I* see is the repeated assumption that such a capability is desired anywhere in the military. The threats Space Force must plan for are developing for the future, and are not present today. PLASSF being the primary threat, because the PLA can afford it their budget, and others cannot. The function of a military Service is to plan, and develop, and train and equip forces for the *future* and nothing about starting years ahead of when all that is needed by US Space Command is pretending anything.
The United States Space Force is as sensible as the United States Air Force, or the United States Navy. I don’t see your problem.
Personally, I’d like to see it fully independent, like those other branches of the military, rather than within Air Force, but maybe that will happen in time.
“Where is this righteous indignation over trump creating a sixth branch of the U.S. military?”
Um, not to be repetitive, but Trump did not create the Space Force. It was created by Congress, with bipartisan support no less. He pushed for it to be created, the first time a President got directly involved in this issue, but he did not originate the idea. Far from it. Ultimately, though, blame Congress if you don’t like the SF.
The fact is the creation of the Space Force has never been a partisan issue. There was bipartisan support for it’s creation and bipartisan opposition for its creation since the idea first came up seriously in the 1990’s.
There is a need for a unified organization for handling space related stuff in the DoD. Space Force might not be the answer. See it as more bureaucracy currently, IMO.
Space Force will always be tainted being the creation of Trump, regardless of the prior bipartisan efforts in it’s creation. At least to the general public.
The Space Force is currently not worth spending any political capital by the Biden administration to either enhanced or descoped. They have many other higher priority matters to deal with first.
Ten years down the road, and no one will remember or care who signed the bill.
After four years of lies, insults to journalists, and calling the media Fake News, by White House press secretaries, Psaki’s off-handed jab is hardly something to whine about. It’s too bad people are so thin skinned, especially member of Congress. She made amends later and I’m sure she will take questions regarding the Space Force more seriously in the future. That being said, the administration has made its initial priorities clear and Space Force and the color scheme of Air Force 1 aren’t in the top 10.
She cleaned it up well. Trumpies would leave things to rot and fester.
Update as of 02-03-21 White House Press Conference:
“Jen Psaki clarified today that the Space Force “has the full support of the Biden administration.” All those people who freaked out because they felt she was too flippant yesterday can relax.
“The plane of today.” The what???