Trump Directs Creation of Space Command as 11th Combatant Command

@Graylight I think he already knows that, but trying to create it as a separate, independent branch of the US Military.

@PikachuTrainer I rather like the idea of doing the opposite, consolidating the branches.

@Xuan12 didn't the US already try that with the United States Army Air Corp and United States Army Air Force?

@PikachuTrainer Well, those are both kind of the same thing. The USAAC was made organize the army's aerial assets before the Air Force existed. The USAAF was simply the direct successor to that organization, and both disbanded when the Air Force was founded.

Essentially, it started when it was first realized that planes were viable military assets and the modern air craft carrier became the lynchpin of naval and aeronautical power it is today. The increasing sophistication and reliance on air craft led to formally creating a new branch to manage such operations.

However to me, the vast improvements in communication technology, joint operations, and technological compatibility indicate that it might be more efficient to begin thinking about going the other way. Particularly with the Air Force and Navy, and presumably, and future extension of the two into space.

That's actually why I signed up to be a submariner, because it's the closest practical simulation we have to living on a space craft. I know it's different and actual space travel is a thing, but submarines are much more accessible and still share a lot of features with prospective space travel.

@Xuan12 true and you do make some very good points, of course a unifying branches of a military will make it less flexible, but when we do finally go into Space full and proper it will mean that a unified branch will have more success in the long run.

@PikachuTrainer Yeah, I don't think that loss of flexibility is inherent in such a reorganizing. In business you often hear of corporations restructuring into smaller, more nimble leadership structures. The idea being to reduce the amount of bureaucracy and red tape it takes to make decisions. HOWEVER, the devil is in the details, and I acknowledge you could go either way with these kinds of things.

Personally I think the US Armed Forces biggest weaknesses have been at the very top. Pushed into conflicts that aren't being waged with clear strategic, military objectives. Those would be simple to accomplish. But rather being used as a political wrecking ball.

Fighting terrorism is more suited to spies, guerrillas, special forces, and the like. And we've seen the advent of many counter-terrorism programs in US Forces. But how do you actually stop the ideology of terrorism? I think we've seen you can crush it for a time, but it'll creep back up.

@Xuan12 it would also avoid mistakes being made too where design is concerned, during the Vietnam war there was a big debate between the army and air force about the need for Aircraft dedicated to CAS, which is also why the US currently has the A-10.

@PikachuTrainer Yeah, for a while there was talk about potentially retiring the A-10 due to mounting maintenance costs. Last I heard, they came up with an upgrade system that cut back on costs for a while more.