Increase the Resources of the Space Force to Meet Emerging Requirements

Dear Chairman Wicker and Senator Reed:

In 2019, when Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Space Force, the threats to and requirements of the new separate military service were still being defined. As these exigencies became better understood, Congress acted. For example, in the Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the defense committees approved the President’s Budget Request to raise the authorized strength of the service by 400 military billets. Hopefully, this is only an initial expansion to meet the service’s increasing personnel demands during an age of the Great Power Competition. Yet, our competitors continue to advance capabilities in space which pose unprecedented challenges to our successful exploitation of this warfighting domain. In fact, the initial funding levels of the Space Force were not set to meet the expanded threats, and additional resources are required to meet our competitors’ advances. Accordingly, the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) respectfully requests the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) dramatically increase the level of resources provided to the Space Force in six current and five future missions areas which will have a dramatic effect in mitigating these challenges.

Current Mission Areas

1. Increasing the Number of Acquisition Billets.

The Space Force’s policy for developing new capabilities is clear. Simply put, the Space Force will “exploit what we have, [commercially] buy what we need, and build only what we must.” This is the embodiment of “lean and nimble” strategy Congress envisioned for the Space Force. However, as the Space Force develops the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared or OPIR Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite to enable the detection, tracking, and targeting of ballistic and hypersonic missile threats, additional acquisition personnel are required to field these capabilities on an expedited basis. Specifically, the AFA is seeking an increase of 500 billets and $5 billion

2. Additional Resources for Launch Services

Placing new capabilities into orbit will require an enormous increase in the number of satellite launches, both military and commercial. As the SASC is aware, there are only two military launch facilities: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) and Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB). In the case of CCSFS, the station expects to achieve 150 launches this year as it further expands to achieve one launch a day as part of the Spaceport of the Future initiative. Likewise, VSFB will increase its military and commercial launches to approximately 50 a year. Obviously, such increases will require additional financial and personnel resources. Therefore, the AFA seeks an additional 750 billets and $4 billion.

3. Additional Resources for Satellite Operations

It is only logical with the increase in the number of launches there will be a vast increase in the number of satellites and the size of satellite constellations. These satellites and constellations will need to be controlled, especially since this rapid expansion will only dramatically raise the opportunities for potential devastating collisions. In fact, on-orbit satellite operations are expected to increase by a factor of ten. Accordingly, additional resources and personnel are required, specifically, an additional 450 billets and $3 billion.

4. Additional Resources for Training

To acquire new capabilities, increase the number of launches, and expand our satellite control operations, additional personnel are required. More importantly, these new personnel will require world-class training to effectively conduct these operations. In turn, this training will require additional personnel and financial resources, specifically, 150 billets and $1 billion.

5. Additional Support for the Combatant Commanders

As our forces expand their use and leverage of our new capabilities in space, additional personnel will be required to work with Combatant Commands to ensure the potential of these new capabilities are fully exploited. One area of expanding utilization will undoubtedly be in Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance & Tracking (TSRT) support through Tasking, Processing, Exploitation & Dissemination operations. This will require an increase of 100 billets and $750 million.

6. Additional Resources for Space Surveillance

Since our adversaries are vastly increasing their capabilities in space, prudence demands the Space Force increase its ability to detect and track these space-based threats. However, surveillance of our adversaries’ satellites should be seen as an initial or foundational capability to ensure our ability to fully understand the location and, therefore, deduce the intentions of our adversaries. This initial capability, in turn, will be used to implement a concept called Dynamic Space Operations (DSO). In part, DSO calls for our own satellites to be constantly maneuvering to ensure our adversaries do not seek or achieve strategic surprise in the domain of space. Therefore, the AFA respectfully requests an additional 150 billets and $2 billion.

New Mission Areas

1. Additional Resources for TSRT

The commercial intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellite market continues to grow beyond information collected in low-Earth orbit to Cis-lunar operations. In addition, as capabilities expand the amount of data collected will grow by an order of magnitude. Therefore, additional personnel will be required to process and exploit this information even as the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence intensify. This need is only highlighted since the information provided by corporations will need to be integrated into the data which is being provided by Space Force and our allies. Specifically, an additional 350 billets and $2.5 billion will be required.

2. Additional Resources for DSO

As discussed above, DSO is a concept of operations which stresses the importance of constant maneuver of our space-based assets to ensure our adversaries are not able to achieve strategic surprise. Central to DSO is also having the ability to build resilient satellite constellations that can be rapidly replenished through on-orbit refueling and maintenance and, if necessary, replaced by responsive launch. All of this is designed to complicate the ability of an adversary to target our in-orbit infrastructure by providing an in-space capability to alter otherwise predictable orbits of legacy constellations. This will require an additional 470 billets and $4 billion.

3. Additional Resources for Data Analysis

Previously considered is the extraordinary amount of new data which will be collected through commercial, organic, and allied satellite capabilities. As the Space Force moves to a digital generation service, the need for data analysts who can exploit this information and create useful intelligence will only increase. This will require an additional 120 billets and $850 million.

4. Defending the Joint Force

The United States and its allies are not the only ones who are rapidly increasing capabilities in space, our adversaries are as well. Concerns over our adversaries’ ability to have space-based navigation, surveillance, and tracking capabilities continues to grow. In addition, there are concerns that our adversaries will seek to degrade our GPS system in a potential conflict. To confront this threat an additional 350 billets and $2 billion is required.

5. Space Futures Command

The one constant in the warfighting domain of space is the constant need to develop revolutionary new technologies to stay ahead of our adversaries. That is the purpose for the creation of Space Futures Command (SFC). According to General B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force, SFC: will be responsible for ensuring our long-term technical advantage in space. What we’re talking about here is nothing less than re-baselining the way we identify, mature, and develop concepts that will shape the service for years to come. This is critical because there are so many things that we need to get right. How do we take in new ideas? How do we test them? How do we align them with the art of the possible, then resource them according to the science of the practical.

Therefore, SFC will be responsible for developing the Force of the Future for the Space Force. The SFC will bring together three centers – the Space Warfighting Analysis Center, the Concepts and Technologies Center, and a new Wargaming Center – to forecast the future operating environment, define the service’s operational concepts and ultimately devise our force objectives required for future successes. Once the force design is complete, these concepts will be passed to the requirements community. The force design which SFC creates will be used to determine appropriate levels of funding to achieve an ideal force structure. This new structure will require 400 billets and $5 billion.

In conclusion, when the Space Force was initially created the true nature of the threats and capabilities to deter them were not thoroughly understood. It is now clear the Space Force will require additional resources in terms of personnel and spending to meet the objectives envisioned by Congress. Therefore, AFA respectfully requests the SASC dramatically increase the level of resources and personnel provided to the Space Force in six current and five future mission areas. These are resources AFA firmly believes will have a dramatic effect in mitigating the threats posed by our adversaries in space.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,