President Donald Trump on Friday touted a undertaking from the brand new army department as a “super-duper missile” that travels 17 occasions quicker than is presently in the marketplace.
“We’re building right now incredible military equipment at a level that nobody’s ever seen before, we have no choice we have to do it with the adversaries that we have out there,” Trump mentioned, at a presentation of the U.S. Space Force flag earlier than asserting one of many new weapons.
“I call it the super-duper missile and I heard the other night 17 times faster than what they have right now. You take the fastest missile we have right now, you’ve heard Russia has five times and China’s working on five or six times, we have one 17 times,” he mentioned.
With Defense Secretary Mark Esper nodding as he spoke, the president added that the missile simply acquired the go-ahead to be produced earlier than addressing one of many three generals who had been off-camera on the ceremony
“Seventeen times faster, if you can believe that, General. That’s something, right? Seventeen times faster than what we have right now. Fastest in the world by a factor of almost three.”
Asked concerning the “super-duper missile” through the White House press briefing as a result of the Pentagon referred reporters to the White House, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany mentioned she wasn’t in a position to elaborate.
The president has taken curiosity within the Space Force since he created it, unveiling its brand on in January on Twitter earlier than the coronavirus disaster took maintain within the conscience of the nation, the place he referred to as it “the sixth branch of our magnificent military.”
While the Space Force has been the goal of parody, together with with a coming Netflix sequence starring Steve Carrell of “The Office” fame, its proposed finances isn’t any joke.
The Air Force shifted $15.4 billion to the Space Force that was already appropriated for the Air Force, with an anticipated $2.6 billion finances development over the 5 years, with most of it for the procurement of labeled house techniques.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP through Getty Images/Getty