The United States Department of the Air Force (DAF) is one of the three military departments within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Air Force was formed on September 18, 1947, per the National Security Act of 1947 (codified into Title 10 of the United States Code) and it is the military department within which the United States Air Force and the United States Space Force are organized. The Department of the Air Force is headed by the Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/OS), a civilian, who has the authority to conduct all of its affairs, subject to the authority, direction and control of the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Air Force's principal deputy is the Under Secretary of the Air Force (SAF/US). Their senior staff assistants in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force are five Assistant Secretaries for Acquisition, Financial Management & Comptroller, Installations, Environment & Logistics, Manpower & Reserve Affairs, Space Acquisition and Integration and a General Counsel. The highest-ranking military officers in the department, and senior military advisers to the secretary, are the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Chief of Space Operations. By direction of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Air Force assigns Air Force and Space Force units – apart from those units performing duties enumerated in unless otherwise directed – to the combatant commands. Only the Secretary of Defense and the President have the authority to approve a transfer of forces between combatant commands. Proposed redesignations As the Department of the Aerospace Force In 1981, Congressman Ken Kramer introduced legislation to rename the Department of the Air Force as the Department of the Aerospace Force, along with renaming the United States Air Force as the United States Aerospace Force, to reorient the service and department from an air force to an aerospace force. The legislation would also have established a space command within the Aerospace Force and renamed the Air National Guard to the Aerospace National Guard. The legislation was cosponsored by Representatives G. William Whitehurst, Ike Skelton, and Robin Beard of the United States House Committee on Armed Services. Although the legislation was supported by General James E. Hill, who commanded North American Aerospace Defense Command and Aerospace Defense Command, the Air Force did not support the name change and the legislation did not pass.