CNN By Jeremy Herb 7/8/2017
Congress and the Air Force are going to war over outer space.
The Air Force has launched an effort to stop a proposal approved by a House committee last week to create a new "Space Corps" under the Air Force's umbrella.
The proposal, which was included in the House's National Defense Authorization Act, would set up a Space Corps in the mold of the Marine Corps, which is a separate military branch that's housed within the Navy.
The authors of the idea say a separate and dedicated force devoted to space is needed to keep the US ahead of adversaries like Russia and China in the still-emerging domain of space war, arguing the Air Force is primarily devoted to fighting in the air, rather than space.
"The department cannot fix itself on this issue -- Congress has to step in," said Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee, who has spearheaded the concept.
Rogers' argument is that the US military is losing ground to Russia and China in space by having its space programs within the Air Force, when the Air Force's primary focus is on fighter jets like the F-35. "The Chinese literally have a space force today. Yet the Air Force would continue to force space to compete with F-35s. And we know who's going to win that competition," Rogers said.
More:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/08/politics/congress-air-force-space-war/index.html
