US National Guard Should Have Space Branch To Boost Trump's New Force - General

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2020) The US National Guard has performed important space military functions for the Air Force that should augment President Donald Trump's new Space Force, Guard commander General Joseph Lengyel told a meeting at the Atlantic Council.

"The National Guard is in the space mission right this second," Lengyel said on Thursday. "We, as a reserve component of the Air Force have reserve units assigned to the Air Force that do space... We surveil in space. We do intelligence in space. We do cyber in space. We do space electronic warfare. And we're doing all those things now."

However, there is no component in law for the National Guard to have a space branch that would supplement and support the new Space Force that Trump set up last year as the first new US armed service since the Air Force in 1947, Lengyel noted.

"I have advocated [this] strongly: There are others who oppose my view ...for 25 years, we have been doing space," he said.

Lengyel promoted the first National Guard director of space operations, US Air Force Brigadier General Gregory White, to major general at Buckley Air Force Base on May 20. However, neither the Air Force nor the new Space Force has shown any interest in rushing to implement the change Lengyel is advocating, according to published reports.