Space Force needs a strategic plan
Big changes are coming to America’s space forces.
For decades, military space has been defined by mission stagnation. Early mission sets like launch, missile warning, nuclear detonation detection, nuclear command and control, weather, and military satellite communications were put in place in the 1960s and have been operational since before 1970. In the last three decades, only one new mission was added: global positioning.
But since the creation of the United States Space Force in 2019, Congress has been funding the development of fundamentally new capabilities. That hardware is now nearly ready, positioning Space Force on the cusp of a surge.
These include Air Moving Target Indications (AMTI), a kind of global space radar able to track aircraft and missiles that move through the air; Ground Moving Target Indications (GMTI), a kind of global space radar that can track mobile threats on the ground; missile warning, a capability to track hypersonic, ballistic and cruise missiles from space; and space-based missile defense, part of President Trump’s “Golden Dome” to protect Americans and the homeland from nuclear and hypersonic missile threats. Functions like Cislunar space domain awareness and mobility, meanwhile, are intended to serve as insurance that the Space Force will be there to defend America’s emerging vital economic interests, and a long-term investment in America’s prosperity and economic advantage.
But those new constellations will need new personnel to man them. Those personnel will need buildings, and those buildings will need bases, or room on existing ones, as well as increased security personnel to guard sensitive sites. Each new mission set will require at least one new squadron, and probably more.
It is inconceivable that the Space Force can do this with existing personnel and ground facilities. The Space Force training pipeline is already bursting at the seams, with the support infrastructure unable to meet either the demand or the level of quality recruiting.
Congress has bought the systems. But systems alone do not equal a capability.
Those systems will not work without the military personnel and military construction on the ground to operate them, and the training infrastructure and pipeline that get them ready.
The Space Force is a tiny service. Its manpower bill is what larger services grow or shed for minor missions. Yet the Space Force is about to double its mission set with a host of new constellations and expand its mission impact in nearly incalculable ways.
Meanwhile, the White House’s recent Executive Order on Space Superiority is asking even more of the Space Force – to develop capabilities for Cislunar space, Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion, and the ability to protect America’s vital economic interests in space. This simply cannot be done without increasing the number of joint and interagency liaison officers at NASA, the Departments of State, Energy, Commerce, and Transportation, at sister services, and at the Joint Staff and combatant commands.
The infrastructure need creates opportunity. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Texas, and Wisconsin all face potential losses due to Air Force modernization and the retirement of aircraft. This creates opportunity to create Space Force units and an opening for states that want to spend on infrastructure to attract long-term job growth.
The Space Force might currently be lean. But we cannot be shy about growing capabilities so vital to the nation and its joint force.
Congress has bought the systems. Now it must fund the people, the infrastructure, and the training pipeline to operate them. That growth needs to begin in this National Defense Authorization.
Peter Garretson is Senior Fellow for Defense Studies at the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.