The excellent defense reporting website Breaking Defense is reporting that the Air Force is engaged in political combat with the House Armed Services Committee, in particular the chairman of the Strategic Services Subcommittee, Republican Mike Rogers of Alabama.  The cause of this fight is the brainchild, as Breaking Defense phrases it, of Rogers: an entirely new branch of the military, a U.S. Space Corps, to take responsibility for defending America in the coming battlespace out there beyond traditional air warfare altitudes. The Air Force is adamant that no such branch is necessary, insisting that it is quite capable of managing, as it now does, its space battle sphere to include the realm of satellites and space stations. Newly appointed Air Force secretary Heather Wilson insists that her existing branch is already heavily invested in the concept of space warfare and is quite prepared to effectively continue this mission into the future as long as Congress provides the...(Read Full Post)