THE VICE PRESIDENT: Secretary Mattis, Deputy Secretary Shanahan, General Selva, General Goldfein, people of the military regarding the united states, and all the both women and men of this united states of america Department of Defense whom every day oversee the military that is greatest within the reputation for the planet: many thanks for several you will do each and every day when it comes to US individuals. (Applause.)
And I would ike to start with bringing greetings from your own Commander-in-Chief, who may have through the really earliest days for this management proved himself become a good champ associated with military for the usa, focused on strengthening American protection right here on the planet as well as in room. We bring greetings through the 45th President associated with the united states, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)
In their Inaugural Address towards the country, President Trump proclaimed that the usa appears, inside the terms, “at the delivery of the millennium that is new willing to unlock the secrets of room.”
And because time one of our management, this President has kept their vow to replace America’s proud legacy of leadership in area, thinking that room is vital to your nation’s security, success, and our extremely life style.
Just last year, after it had lain dormant for almost a quarter-century, President Trump revived the nationwide area Council to reinvigorate and coordinate room tasks across our federal government.
Its my great honor, as Vice President, to act as the Chairman of this nationwide area Council. And I’m happy to report that President Trump has recently finalized three space that is new directives to reorient our room program toward peoples research, unleash America’s burgeoning commercial area organizations, and protect our vital room assets with brand brand new area traffic management policy.
But as Commander-in-Chief, President Trump’s greatest concern could be the security and safety for the US individuals. Even though, all too often, past administrations all but neglected the security that is growing appearing in area, President Trump reported plainly and forcefully that space is, inside the terms, “a warfighting domain, just like…land, and atmosphere, and ocean.”
And merely as we’ve done in ages past, the usa of America, under their leadership, will meet up with the rising threats with this brand new battlefield with United states ingenuity and energy to protect our country, protect our individuals, and carry the reason for freedom and comfort to the next great frontier that is american.
In 1939, in the beginning of the 2nd World War, the U.S. Army Air Corps had been nevertheless a fledgling company. But as Nazi air forces bombed their means from Warsaw to London, our armed forces commanders took decisive action then to satisfy that new threat mind on.
By 1945, the US military had almost 30 times the amount of planes, and 85 times the sheer number of pilots and help teams when compared with simply six years earlier 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 the rising threats for the time. We knew that airpower had forever changed the character of war, therefore we marshaled the resources plus the might to construct the essential powerful air force the planet had ever seen.
And merely 2 yrs from then on terrible conflict, our nation developed an innovative new branch of solution to secure American dominance in the skies for generations in the future with all the development of the usa Air Force.
Now enough time has arrived to create the following great chapter in the real history of y our military, to organize for the following battlefield where America’s best and bravest will undoubtedly be called to deter and beat a brand new generation of threats to your individuals and also to our nation. The full time has arrived to determine the usa area Force.
And that’s just just what brings us here now. Seven weeks hence, President Trump directed the Department of Defense “to instantly begin the process required to establish an area Force since the branch that is sixth of armed forces.”
The President managed to get clear which our objective that is ultimate is Discover More Here produce a fresh branch of y our army that is split from, and corresponding to, five other branches.
Today, the Department of Defense will launch a study outlining the very first phases of y our administration’s want to implement the President’s guidance and turn their eyesight into a real possibility.
This report ratings the security that is national tasks inside the Department of Defense, also it identifies tangible actions which our management will require to lay the building blocks for a unique Department for the area Force.
Now, become clear, the area Force will never be built from scratch as the guys and also the women that operate and protect our nation’s room programs today are usually the most effective in the field. And since the dawn for the area Age, America has remained the very best in room. (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 area right here in the world, and provide our warfighters the cleverness they need to maintain a strategic advantage wherever our warfighters are operating that they need, and give our intelligence community the information.
Across this Department and our cleverness agency, you can find literally thousands of armed forces workers, civilians, and contractors working and supporting our room systems, and together they’re the eyes and also the ears of America’s warfighters around the world. Plus they execute a remarkable work.
I’ve seen their work firsthand. I’ve traveled around the world to meet up utilizing the people who will be fighting for America’s future in area within my year that is first and half with this work, from the airmen regarding the 50th area Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, whose fleet of surveillance, navigation, and communication satellites raise the agility, accuracy, and effectiveness of our armed forces; to your designers regarding the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama who will be forging the following generation of rockets to bolster our missile protection; to your a number of other bases and facilities in the united states where our people in uniform come together with your intelligence community and our allies to safeguard our individuals, our country, and our passions all over the world.
And within the last eighteen months, President Trump and our whole management took decisive action to strengthen US energy in space too.
President Trump recently signed the investment that is largest in our nationwide protection considering that the times of Ronald Reagan. (Applause.) And therefore brand new Defense budget included brand new resources for just two cutting-edge armed forces communications satellites and almost $1 billion for the area protection programs. And after this, we renew the President’s turn to the Congress associated with usa to get an extra $8 billion within our room protection systems on the next 5 years.
The women and men with this Department also have taken historic steps to secure leadership that is american room. The Department of Defense is fielding a new generation of jam-resistant GPS and communications satellites and new missile-warning satellites that are smaller, tougher, and more maneuverable than ever before at the direction of Secretary Mattis.
Even though these actions are imperative to our national protection, they’re really only a newbie. They’re only a new of meeting the increasing protection threats our nation faces in space today as well as in the long run. As President Trump has stated, inside the terms, “It is certainly not sufficient to simply have a presence that is american room; we ought to have American dominance in room.” And thus we shall. (Applause.)
And that’s the key reason why we’re beginning the entire process of developing a place Force whilst the branch that is sixth of military. In the same way in past times, as soon as we developed the Air Force, developing the area Force is a thought whoever time has arrived.
The area environment has basically changed into the generation that is last. The thing that was as soon as calm and uncontested has become crowded and adversarial. Today, other countries would like to disrupt our space-based systems and challenge supremacy that is american area as nothing you’ve seen prior.
For several years, 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 attacks through the ground.
But recently, our adversaries have already been trying to bring brand brand brand new tools of war into room it self. In 2007, China established a missile that tracked and destroyed one of the very own satellites — a very provocative demonstration of Asia’s growing capacity to militarize area.