The Defense Department looks to establish a combatant command to manage space warfare missions in response to foreign militarization efforts in outer space, Nextgov reported Wednesday.DoD told Congress in a report last week that department officials are exploring strategies for joint space forces to manage multidomain, trans-regional and space warfighting operations.
Officials work to determine if they should form a central combatant command for space or a subunified space commands within the military branches, the report noted.
The U.S. Space Command was established in 1985 and oversaw U.S. military use of outer space until DoD deactivated the unified combatant command in 2002.
The U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have since placed space forces in their respective space command equivalents.
