President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday authorizing the Department of Defense to refer to itself as the Department of War, reverting to a more bellicose title used until a 1940s-era military shakeup in the aftermath of World War II.
The order approves the Pentagon's use of the Department of War name as an "additional secondary title" for the Department of Defense while the Trump administration seeks congressional approval to officially change the name. Until Congress votes on the issue, the name change is effectively a rebrand of the DoD that could be reversed with the signature of a future president.
But there was another potential name change revealed by the Pentagon on Friday, just hours before Trump signed the War Department order. This one may have more staying power.
The news first appeared in a standard announcement of promotions and new assignments for 17 general and flag officers. One of the reassignments was for Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, who was nominated for promotion to become a three-star lieutenant-general as head of "US Space Force Combat Forces Command" at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.
There's no such command within the military's byzantine organizational structure, so Ars asked the Space Force about the name. It turns out the Space Force is considering renaming one of its existing field commands as Combat Forces Command. This existing post is currently known as Space Operations Command, and it works with US Space Command to provide personnel (on the ground) and assets (on the ground and in orbit), and intelligence to support ongoing military space operations.
Names don't win wars, but a Space Force spokesperson said the proposed new name "better reflects the field command’s critical responsibility as the Space Force’s proponent for combat space power, including generating and improving combat-ready forces to execute" missions assigned by the Space Force and Space Command.
Increasingly, the focus of US military space operations is shifting from an approach of controlling satellites and tracking other objects in space toward a more adversarial posture. Today, the US military is monitoring the maneuvers of more than 1,000 Chinese satellites in orbit, including missions capable of disabling US satellites, refueling critical Chinese military spacecraft, and guiding terrestrial weapons toward their targets.
In recent years, Space Force officials have talked more openly about not just defending US satellites in orbit, but developing offensive capabilities to disable or destroy spacecraft operated by an adversary. The proposed Golden Dome missile defense shield would include space-based interceptors, bringing yet another element of combat into orbit.
A Space Force spokesperson said Space Operations Command would be designated Combat Forces Command "upon the establishment of a new commander, which is currently pending formal approval and confirmation" by the Senate.
The incoming commander, Lt. Gen. Gagnon, has served as the Space Force's chief intelligence officer at the Pentagon since 2022. If confirmed, Gagnon would replace Lt. Gen. David "Rock" Miller, who took command of Space Operations Command nearly two years ago. Miller's next assignment will be at the Pentagon, where he will serve as the Space Force's chief of strategy.
Space Operations Command was established in 2020 as part of a military reorganization following the creation of the Space Force as the military's newest armed service branch. From the start, the cornerstone of the new command's mission was to "prepare for war that either begins or extends into space," the first chief of the Space Force, retired Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, said at the time.
When he took the top job at Space Operations Command early last year, Miller said his task was to "build on but also build out [America's] combat space power."
A Space Force spokesperson echoed these sentiments in a statement Friday.
The spokesperson said the command's mission "is to generate, present, sustain, and improve combat-ready intelligence, cyber, and space forces, while partnering across the US government, allies, and commercial agencies to project combat power in, from, and to space."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Trump's decision to bring back the Department of War name signaled a "vibe shift" to "restore a warrior ethos" among US military forces, repeating a familiar talking point since he took the top job at the Pentagon in January.
While it's unclear how long the Department of War rebrand will last, the Space Force's Combat Forces Command might stick around.
Officials in the first Trump administration were among the first in government to describe space as a "war-fighting domain" akin to land, air, sea, and cyberspace. However, the language only escalated during the Biden administration, which also continued to boost the Space Force's budget.
Frank Kendall, who served as secretary of the Air Force under Biden, said in January that space will be a "decisive theater" in modern warfare.
And last year, several Space Force generals began talking openly about deploying offensive weapons in space, something that was anathema just a few years ago, at least for discussion in public forums. Gen. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's top general, said last December the service's job was to provide the president with "offensive and defense options" for combat in space.
"In 2014, we had senior leaders start to talk about space and war in the same sentence," Saltzman said. "They got kind of berated by the senior leadership. So this is still a relatively new condition when we’re talking about war-fighting in space."
EchoStar to sell spectrum to SpaceX after FCC threatened to revoke licenses