The Trump Administration’s Space Force proposal is “a canary in a very toxic space environment that is warning us about the challenges —  military competition, a sense of vulnerability, increasing capabilities for counterspace operations — that we are just not dealing with very well,” says Jessica West of Canada’s Project Ploughshares

“You want to kill a swarm of things — whatever that thing is — lasers are not really a swarm-killing tool. They can kill things fast, but they can’t kill a swarm of things fast enough.”

The senators’ draft of the annual defense bill puts a new emphasis on technological competition, including industrial policy moves to strengthen US companies.

SASC wants the Air Force and DoD “to come back to the oversight committee every single month” to explain how they are standing up the new Space Force — if it is finally approved by Congress.

Trump nominee for Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett “is a force to be reckoned with and has the leadership, experience, and knowledge to lead our Air Force into the future during a time of increased global threats,” says Sen. Martha McSally.

House appropriators rejected Trump’s plan to put satellite regulation under the Commerce Department and chide Secretary Wilbur Ross for his refusal to testify on the 2020 budget request.

“This is not based on ownership. We leave them their freedom.”

CSIS’s Todd Harrison, who supports the proposal, says his odds on the Space Force being fully approved by Congress this year are currently “slightly less than 50 percent.”

The resignation of Trump’s assistant secretary for arms control and verification weakens the State Department’s already shaky bench in arms control talks.

Newly proposed licensing rules for commercial remote sensing will eliminate automatic DoD review rights for of a majority of applications.