Increasing the Personnel Size of the Space Force
September 9, 2024
Increasing the size of the U.S. Space Force (“USSF”) is the Air & Space Force Association’s (“AFA”) number one legislative priority this year. As the Senate Armed Services Committee (“SASC”) and House Armed Services Committee (“HASC”) are aware, when the USSF was created in 2019, the service’s true personnel requirements to meet the emerging threats of our strategic competitors were unknown. Fortunately, the President’s Budget Request called for, and both the SASC and HASC marks of the Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (“FY’25 NDAA”) recommended, increasing the personnel authorization of the service by 400 billets for a total of 9,800. However, AFA believes this increase should be viewed as the minimum responsible expansion. Far more personnel are required to maintain and operate existing systems while developing new countermeasures, architectures, and systems to adequately meet our competitors’ initiatives in space. Therefore, as the versions of the FY’25 NDAA are reconciled, AFA respectfully requests the USSF personnel authorized strength be increased by at least 400.
Areas in which additional personnel will be required to assist in the development and operations include: a) establishing new resilient architectures in both low-earth orbit and medium-earth orbit; b) creating advanced communications satellite constellations, commonly called transport layers; c) increasing our ability to launch payloads on an expedited basis, including maintaining on-orbit and ready-to-launch ground spares; and d) exploiting and maintaining commercial capabilities including a commercial Space reserve.
New mission areas which will also require further personnel include: a) operating beyond geosynchronous orbit, including cislunar; b) utilizing orbital maneuvers as part of dynamic space operations; c) enhancing the USSF headquarters and staff assigned to the Joint Staff in order to adequately represent and support the service’ objectives and solutions.
In conclusion, when the USSF was created sufficient personnel requirements to meet the threats of our competitors was not yet known. Therefore, as these threats have been examined and plans and countermeasures have been developed, the time is now to make additional investments in the service’s personnel strength. Therefore, AFA strongly believes at a minimum 400 new billets should be authorized for the USSF.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
