THE VICE PRESIDENT: Secretary Mattis, Deputy Secretary Shanahan, General Selva, General Goldfein, users of the military for the united states, and all sorts of the women and men associated with usa Department of Defense who every day oversee the military that is greatest within the history of the whole world: many thanks for many you are doing each day when it comes to US individuals. (Applause.)
And I want to start with bringing greetings from your own Commander-in-Chief, who has got through the extremely earliest days for this management proved himself become an excellent champ regarding the military for the united states of america, focused on strengthening US safety right here on the planet plus in room. We bring greetings through the President that is 45th of united states, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)
In their Inaugural Address to your country, President Trump proclaimed that the usa appears, in the terms, “at the delivery of a brand new millennium, prepared to unlock the secrets of room.”
And since time certainly one of our management, this President has held their vow to displace America’s proud legacy of leadership in room, thinking that room is important to the nation’s protection, success, and our extremely life style.
Just last year, after it had lain dormant for pretty much a quarter-century, President Trump revived the National area Council to reinvigorate and coordinate room tasks across our federal government.
It really is my honor that is great Vice President, to act as the Chairman of this National area Council. And I’m happy to report that President Trump has recently finalized three brand new room policy directives to reorient our room system toward human being exploration, unleash America’s burgeoning commercial area organizations, and protect our vital area assets with brand new space traffic administration policy.
But as Commander-in-Chief, President Trump’s greatest concern is the security and safety regarding the US individuals. And even though, all too often, previous administrations all but neglected the security that is growing appearing in room, President Trump reported obviously and forcefully that space is, inside the terms, “a warfighting domain, just like…land, and atmosphere, and ocean.”
And simply as we’ve done in ages past, the usa of America, under his leadership, will meet up with the rising threats about this brand brand new battlefield with United states ingenuity and power to guard our country, protect our people, and carry the reason for freedom and comfort in to the next great US frontier.
In 1939, in the beginning of the 2nd World War, the U.S. Army Air Corps ended up being nevertheless a fledgling company. But as Nazi air forces bombed their means from Warsaw to London, our army commanders took decisive action then to satisfy that new threat mind on.
By 1945, the US military had almost 30 times the sheer number of planes, and 85 times the sheer number of pilots and help teams in comparison to simply six years early in the day.
America and our allies emerged victorious from World War II due to the power of y our military, and because our armed forces adapted to meet up with the rising threats of this time. We knew that airpower had forever changed the type resume help of war, therefore we marshaled the resources as well as the might to construct the essential powerful air force the whole world had ever seen.
And merely 2 yrs from then on terrible conflict, our nation produced a unique branch of solution to secure American dominance into the skies for generations in the future using the development of the usa Air Force.
Now enough time has arrived to create the second great chapter in the real history of our military, to organize for the following battlefield where America’s best and bravest is supposed to be called to deter and beat a fresh generation of threats to your individuals also to our country. The full time has arrived to determine the usa area Force.
And that’s just just just what brings us here now. Seven weeks hence, President Trump directed the Department of Defense “to instantly start the process required to establish a place Force while the sixth branch for the armed forces.”
The President managed to get clear our ultimate goal is always to create a unique branch of y our armed forces that is split from, and corresponding to, five other branches.
Today, the Department of Defense will launch a written report outlining the very first phases of our administration’s want to implement the President’s guidance and turn their eyesight into a real possibility.
This report product reviews the nationwide protection area activities inside the Department of Defense, plus it identifies tangible actions our management will require to lay the building blocks for an innovative new Department of this area Force.
Now, become clear, the room Force won’t be built from scratch due to the fact males plus the ladies who operate and protect our nation’s area programs are already the best in the world today. And since the dawn of this area Age, America has remained top in area. (Applause.)
The United States has assembled the largest and most sophisticated constellation of military and intelligence satellites in the world over the past 60 years.
We’ve pioneered the technology to leverage American energy in room right right here in the world, and present our warfighters the intelligence which they require, and present our cleverness community the knowledge they should keep a strategic benefit wherever our warfighters are running.
Across this Department and our cleverness agency, you can find literally thousands of armed forces personnel, civilians, and contractors running and supporting our room systems, and together they’re the eyes plus the ears of America’s warfighters around the world. And so they execute an extraordinary task.
I’ve seen their work firsthand. I’ve traveled around the world to generally meet because of the both women and men that are fighting for America’s future in area in my own year that is first and half with this task, through the airmen for the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, whose fleet of surveillance, navigation, and communication satellites boost the agility, accuracy, and effectiveness of our armed forces; into the designers associated with the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama that are forging the new generation of rockets to bolster our missile protection; to your a number of other bases and facilities around the world where our gents and ladies in uniform come together with this intelligence community and our allies to guard our people, our country, and our passions around the globe.
And in the last eighteen months, President Trump and our whole management took decisive action to strengthen US energy in space too.
President Trump recently finalized the largest investment in our nationwide protection considering that the times of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.) And that Defense that is brand new spending plan new resources for just two cutting-edge army communications satellites and nearly $1 billion for the room protection programs. And after this, we renew the President’s turn to the Congress for the usa to get yet another $8 billion within our room protection systems within the next five years.
The gents and ladies of the Department also have taken historic steps to secure US leadership in area. During the way of Secretary Mattis, the Department of Defense is fielding an innovative new generation of jam-resistant GPS and communications satellites and new missile-warning satellites which are smaller, tougher, and much more maneuverable than previously.
Even though these actions have now been imperative to our national protection, they’re actually only a new. They’re only a new of fulfilling the increasing protection threats our nation faces in space today as well as in the long run. As President Trump has stated, in the terms, “It is certainly not adequate to just have a us presence in area; we ought to have American dominance in area.” And thus we will. (Applause.)
And that’s the key reason why we’re beginning the process of developing an area Force because the sixth branch of your military. Just like in past times, once we created the fresh Air Force, developing the room Force is a concept whose time has arrived.
The room environment has basically changed within the generation that is last. The thing that was when calm and uncontested happens to be crowded and adversarial. Today, other countries would like to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge US supremacy in room as no time before.
For quite some time, countries from Russia and Asia to North Korea and Iran have actually pursued tools to jam, blind, and disable our navigation and communications satellites via electronic assaults through the ground.
But recently, our adversaries have now been trying to bring new tools of war into room it self. In 2007, Asia established a missile that tracked and destroyed one of the very very very own satellites — a very provocative demonstration of Asia’s growing power to militarize area.