Space Force: Donald Trump unveils new US military service
Donald Trump has officially signed off funding for a US Space Force.
It is the first new military service to be implemented in 70 years and was unveiled on Friday after the President signed the $738bn (£567bn) annual US military budget.
It will fall under the US Air Force domain and will receive an initial $40m of funding for its first year.
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Trump said space was “the world’s newest war-fighting domain”.
“Amid grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital,” he said.
“We’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, but very shortly we’ll be leading by a lot.”
“The Space Force will help us deter aggression and control the ultimate high ground,” he added.
While no troops will be sent into space, the US assets, such as hundreds of satellites, will be protected.
It comes as a result of improvements seen in China and Russia’s space advancements.
Vice-President Mike Pence has previously said both nations had airborne lasers and anti-satellite missiles that the US needed to counter.
“The space environment has fundamentally changed in the last generation,” he said. “What was once peaceful and uncontested is now crowded and adversarial.”
Space Force will continue the work of existing US Space Command (SpaceCom), which was created in August, with Air Force General Jay Raymond remaining in charge.
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The force will employ around 16,000 people.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already called the US expansion into space a threat to Russian interests that would require a response.
“The US military-political leadership openly considers space as a military theatre and plans to conduct operations there,” Putin said.