Question: What’s black and white and not at all green?
Answer: Space.
U.S. President Donald Trump‘s newly-created branch of the military, the Space Force, is already the laughing stock of the galaxy of Twitter after unveiling its new uniforms, which are camouflage green.
The Space Force tweeted a first look at its new uniforms on Friday afternoon, in a message announcing that the new “utility uniform nameplates have touched down in the Pentagon.”
The tweet includes a photo of a green-and-beige camouflage outfit with “U.S. SPACE FORCE” written across the front.
“How many trees are you expecting to find in space?” one user wrote in response.
“Y’all expecting a need for camo in space?” asked another.
Twitter users quickly piled on, calling the Space Force a “farce” for getting the idea of camouflage so wrong. They recommended making the uniforms black, or white, or black and white … or just about any colour other than the colour of grass.
Several people suggested the uniforms were for Star Wars-style missions on far-away worlds, such as the Forest Moon of Endor.
Journalist and Navy veteran Shelley Carbone tried to pour cold water on the controversy, calling it “peak civilian.”
“Not everyone is going to be floating around up there, people,” she tweeted.
The U.S. Navy applauded the uniforms as “out of this world!” in a response. “Let’s trade,” the Navy wrote. The Navy has several different uniforms, including many in blue and a few in green.
The Space Force eventually chimed in amid the intense criticism on Twitter.
“Space Operators are on the ground, on Earth working with joint partners like the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army. Hence utilizing their uniform,” the organization tweeted.
Space Force’s first members will be focused on cyber threats and satellite positioning, the U.S. government announced when the new military branch was authorized last month.
That means that the camo-clad Space Force members will be trying to blend into an office setting, not the star-dotted inky blackness of space. At least, for now.
“Space is the world’s new war-fighting domain,” Trump said when he signed the order authorizing Space Force in December. “Among grave threats to our national security, American superiority in space is absolutely vital. And we’re leading, but we’re not leading by enough, and very shortly we’ll be leading by a lot.”
The U.S. is certainly ahead for the moment — especially when it comes to putting little green men and women in space.
—With files from The Associated Press