Pentagon chief Mattis defends his reversal on Space Force

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday he is satisfied that creating a Space Force as a separate military service is the right way to reorganize the Pentagon's approach to space.

Mattis, who last year opposed moves in Congress to create a separate space service, said his emphasis then was on establishing a consensus about what the Pentagon's space problem is before recommending a way to fix it.

"I was not against setting up a Space Force," he told reporters flying with him to Brazil to begin his first tour of South America as defense secretary. "What I was against was rushing to do that before we could define the problem" that needed solving.

This, he said, is why he pushed back against efforts in Congress to create a Space Force. In a letter to Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, in July 2017, Mattis wrote, "I do not wish to add a separate service that would likely present a narrower and even parochial approach to space operations."