As we began talking, though, I realised the film he wanted to star in was Interstellar.

To this young, thinking officer it was obvious that the future wasn't dog-fighting in crewed jet fighters.

The truly vital ground was higher still, way above the clouds, operating at speeds that would blast any brain senseless against the hard sheath of the skull and with G-forces to match.

The future, he insisted, was space.

But Defence doesn't move fast and that was five years ago.

Peter Dutton deserves praise for cutting through the departmental bureaucracy and natural resistance from the other services to establish a Space Force.

Cartoonists will have a field day of course, with all the inevitable jokes about Daleks and Dark Lords, but this doesn't mean the Defence Minister has made a mistake.

Far from it.

Analysts have long been talking about the five domains of warfare: land, sea, air, cyber and space.

The structure of the forces hasn't kept up with this transformation in thinking.

Until now, and thanks to the personal intervention of Dutton.

This change will significantly reinforce the government's political narrative that only the coalition can be trusted with defending the country, but this doesn't mean establishing a space force isn't necessary.

A couple of years after I'd first heard the idea pushed from below I was informed (by a far more senior commander) that the time for change hadn't yet arrived.

It's true that this person was involved in an intense struggle just to hold onto their own bureaucratic turf; but this didn't seem to excuse the lack of urgency to advocate the idea of a separate force.

It was difficult not to jump to other conclusions centring around the air force's reluctance to share its budget with a new player on the block - particularly as the cost of fighting in space is soaring faster than a rocket bound for the moon.

This is going to be the key to deciding if Dutton's initiative is genuine, or just another middle-aged man bloviating and gesturing into the air.

What's needed is more than people to 'plan' wearing suits that look as if they could be extras on Star Trek.

The minister has shown he's capable of pushing against the stasis and immovability that normally reigns on Russell Hill, but there's a big difference between announcements and the actual creation of a new force.

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Although Dutton's recognised something needs to be done about conflict's new frontier the question is whether he has the strength to wrestle enough money back off the existing services to properly fund his shiny new toy.

Australia's budget resources will never allow this country to match technical superpowers like the US or China, but that doesn't mean there aren't nodules of bright, world-leading expertise right here.

Electro Optic Systems' Ben Green is just one of the Aussie bright sparks discovering new technologies and methods of operating in space and it's vital that this new force earnestly builds these industry links.

Unless we do this from day two, today, this country is bound to be left behind in the equipment race.

Which leads to the other key question: where's the money for this going to come from?

If we're going to believe the minister's initiative is real we'll need to hear either who's going to be paying more tax or what services are going to be cut.

That's why the other services didn't want a Space Force earlier - they know it's going to be very expensive.