Sep. 11—WASHINGTON — Someday we may be calling the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station the Niagara Falls Air and Space Reserve Station.

That's because advocates for the base want to bring a Space Force National Guard unit to the Falls — that is, if Congress agrees that the Space Force should have its own National Guard.

There's a behind-the-scenes debate about that, with advocates saying the Space Force will be hampered without its own part-time Guard component and with bean counters saying the creation of a new National Guard would cost too much.

But to John Cooper, chairman of the Niagara Military Affairs Council, creating a Space Guard is important to preserving and growing Western New York's largest military facility.

"The Space Force is the future," Cooper said. "We've been trying to educate lawmakers on the importance of this, especially from the perspective of New York State. There are only seven states and one territory that have this mission in the Air National Guard at this point, so we have our foot in the door for the future with the Space Force."

The Air National Guard's 107th Attack Wing, which is based in Niagara Falls, already handles a space mission. While the Niagara Falls unit flies unmanned aircraft, its 222nd Command and Control Squadron, which operates out of Rome, works with reconnaissance satellites.

Those unmanned spies in the sky are at the heart of the Space Force's mission. Created by a bipartisan act of Congress at the behest of then-President Donald Trump in 2019, the Space Force operates in association with the Air Force in much the same way that the Marine Corps is structurally separate yet allied with the U.S. Navy.

Does the Space Force — the first new branch of the U.S. military since the Air Force was created in 1947 — need the same sort of state-based, part-time component that the National Guard provides to the other parts of the military?

Retired Brig. Gen. J. Roy Robinson, president of the National Guard Association of the United States, thinks so.

"A Space National Guard is the only efficient, inexpensive way to enhance our Space Force," he said earlier this year. "It requires no new personnel, equipment or facilities — just new uniforms and a few new signs."

Advocates say that without a separate Space Guard, the Air Force National Guard members performing space missions are essentially stranded in an agency that, save for those part-timers, no longer performs space missions. Creating a Space Guard, though, would connect those Guard members with the full-time guardians — yes, that's what enlisted Space Force members are called — and make the overall operation better, said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican.

"Creating a Space National Guard would boost our military readiness and increase efficiency," Rubio said earlier this year when introducing a bill that would create a Space Guard.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who co-sponsored Rubio's legislation, said creating a separate Space Guard would have an additional benefit.

"Without a National Guard component for Space Force, we risk losing many talented individuals who want to keep serving their country and their states after they leave active duty, and that is simply unacceptable," she said.

The proposal for a Space Guard seems stalled at the moment, though, because the Biden administration is opposed to it. The Office of Management and Budget announced its opposition in a statement of administration policy a year ago.

"Establishing a Space National Guard would not deliver new capabilities — it would instead create new government bureaucracy," the federal budget office said at the time. "The Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units with space missions have effectively performed their roles with no adverse effect on DOD's space mission since the establishment of the Space Force."

In the end, Congress will decide whether to create a Space Guard, and as is often the case, Congress appears divided.

In July, the House approved a defense authorization bill that calls for the creation of a Space Guard. Both Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, and Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican, voted for that measure.

However, the draft Senate Armed Services Committee's version of the defense authorization bill deliberately excludes language creating a Space Guard.

"The committee notes that there are Air National Guard Units conducting space missions and that there is disagreement within the Department of the Air Force on how best to allocate those forces following establishment of the Space Force," the committee said in a statement. "The committee believes that any decision on transferring or reducing those missions should be made only after a full analysis of the costs, benefits, and unit impacts."

Meantime, only a dozen senators have signed onto the bill Rubio and Feinstein authored. Neither Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer nor Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a member of the Armed Services Committee, have signed on to the bill, and spokeswomen for the two New York Democrats did not answer queries about where those lawmakers stand on the issue.

To Cooper, though, the Space Guard issue is hugely important to the future of the Niagara Falls base. He worries that if the Space Force National Guard isn't created, the Air Force could shift that Rome-based space operation out of state and away from the 107th. In that case, the 107th would lose its status as a wing within the Air Force National Guard, a move that could put the base itself in jeopardy.

Cooper said just the opposite could happen with the creation of a Space Force National Guard. Not only could the unit in Rome grow, but the Niagara Falls base could end up with a locally based Space Force Guard unit, too.

"We have the space for it," he said. "We have room to grow, and getting it (a local Space Force unit) has been a goal all along," he said.

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