A new $13 billion cost estimate for President Trump’s Space Force did little Tuesday to shift the political dynamic for the initiative on Capitol Hill, where key lawmakers appeared unsurprised and took a wait-and-see attitude.
“That number has been hinted at for quite a while,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “What we haven’t seen — we have the figure $13 billion — what do we get for $13 billion? We don’t know that yet.”
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson made the estimate in an internal Pentagon memo leaked on Monday. It projected the military would request $3.3 billion from Congress in next year’s budget and need a total of $13 billion budgeted by lawmakers over five years.
Trump has made the new Space Force military service a signature issue and the Pentagon plans to ask Congress to authorize its creation as part of the budget request in February.
“I’m not going to speculate about funding before the budget has even been submitted,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., who has spearheaded a space service for two years, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
Rogers and other proponents have estimated the cost for the first new service branch since the Air Force was founded in 1947 would not be very high. A $3.3 billion annual request would be a small fraction of a total defense budget set to reach $674 billion this year.
They argue that a historic overhaul of space operations is needed because the military has fallen dangerously behind and threats from Russia and China are rapidly growing.
But Armed Services Democrats question the expense and have been skeptical about the need for a whole new service branch to handle space operations.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the new Space Force cost estimate unsurprising and it could draw from other military priorities.
“I think those funds could be used much more effectively in other endeavors, research, and new weapons systems,” Reed said.
One of the most ardent and important opponents of Trump’s new space service is Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee and could become chairman if Democrats win a majority in the chamber in the midterm elections.
Even Smith was indicating Tuesday that the $13 billion estimated by the Air Force was just a starting point as the House gears up for the coming Pentagon budget request next year.
“This is an initial estimate, but it suggests just how costly President Trump’s plan for a separate ‘Space Force’ would be. That is a major reason why I am opposed to his request,” Smith said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
[Opinion: Space Force has a cool name but more bureaucracy isn’t going to keep America safe]
