Pentagon Not So Sure If It Wants Space National Guard

The lawmakers have said that an omission in Donald Trump’s plan for establishing a Space Force does not make a Space National Guard. Jack Reed, the ranking member of the council of Armed Services Committee said that the defense department hasn’t decided as to what would be the role of Guard and Reserve in the new service. It was said on April 11 during a hearing on the proposal of the Space Force administration.

Senator Joe Manchin said that he was astonished when he heard from staff committee that DoD was not sure as to what the role of the reserve would be and he said that such decisions would be pushed away till Space Force has been forced. Manchin said that he asked why DoD is making the lawmakers vote for such a proposal which doesn’t have a plan for reserve or National Guard. The Secretary of Air Force Heather Wilson said that it won’t be possible for him to even imagine that Space Force won’t have reserve component. A white paper that was circulated at Capitol Hill, the bureau of National Guard had called for the founding of a National Guard as reserve component for the Space Force. Today when guard forces are asked for active duty, the troops from Air National Guard align with Air Force and also the Army National Guard aligns with Army.

If Congress authorizes the Space Force, that would be under Air Force. The Guard Force argues that National Guard for Space should align with Space Force as parent service is responsible for training, organizing and equipping forces.

Helpers of general from many states the previous year raised this issue with the senior leaders of Air Force after Wilson in a memo in September had placed her vision on the method of organizing Space Force.

She had suggested in the memo that the units of Air National Guard and Army that are performing duties of space might get transferred to Reserves.