ARLINGTON, Va. -- The nation needs a new branch of the military -- a separate "space force" -- because the Air Force is too preoccupied with aircraft to keep the U.S. strong in space, a high-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday.
"America's future and security depends on supremacy in spaceand space is absolutely critical to the war-fighter," Sen. Bob Smith (R-New Hampshire) told military and aerospace officials at the Global Air & Space 2000 conference. "Whoever controls space tomorrow will win the next war."
Smith complained that the Air Force's investment in space -- from laser weapons in orbit to an un-piloted "spaceplane" -- is "paltry" compared to what it spends on other programs.
The Air Force spends about $8.5 billion of its $71 billion budget -- about 12 percent -- on space programs.
"I don't see a service dedicated to dominance in space," he said. "The Air Force's space budget is devoted almost entirely to [satellite-] information systems. This is not space warfare. It's using space to support land, air and sea warfare."
Air Force Secretary Whitten Peters told the conference that the service still is studying how best to use space for future warfare.
"We must have commanders who are versed in all phases of aerospace operations, as comfortable with space-based sensors as with aircraft systems," he said.
But "it is unlikely that we will witness a revolutionary jump to space," Peters said. "We are more likely to see an integrated and evolutionary migration into spacewhen there is a compelling need, significant military utility or cost savings."
There is a growing movement on Capitol Hill to establish a space force separate from, but equal to, other military services.
The space force could number about 30,000 people if the U.S. missile forces under the control of the U.S. Space Command are included or 20,000 if the missile forces remain where they are now. The Air Force has about 365,000 active duty personnel and 180,000 in the reserves.
The idea of a space force is not new. It first surfaced in the early 1980s at an Air Force Academy seminar in Colorado and gained momentum in the Pentagon and the White House in the mid-1990s.
Smith, the third highest-ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has championed the cause for the last few years.
He cited the example of the Army Air Corps, which began in 1926 as part of the Army but was spun off in 1947 to become the U.S. Air Force.
"We in Congress will drag [the Air Force] there kicking and screaming or perhaps we'll create a new force altogether," Smith said.
"A lot of my colleagues on the Hill are talking about this. A lot," he said. "I intend to muster all the political support I can to make it a reality, and soon. We must seek an Apollo-like commitment from the American people to reach out into space. It's our moral legacy, our manifest destiny and our national security for decades to come."
Not all share Smith's enthusiasm for a space force.
The idea is "dumb as dirt," said Pete Aldridge, a former secretary of the Air Force and retired chief of the National Reconnaissance Office. He now heads an aerospace consulting group, The Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California.
"There's no mission for space. Right now, it's a supporting element, something all the services are using. Sen. Smith is a hand-grenade thrower. He can talk all he likes but he doesn't have to defend the nation's investment in these programs," Aldridge said.
The answer, he said, is to make all the military services share equally in the cost. As it stands now, the Air Force alone has to pay for much of the nation's space assets.
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