“Despite the dramatic rise in threats and increasing importance of space over the last few budget cycles, the Space Force has experienced shrinking resources. This disconnect between value and investment creates risk for our nation,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “Further exacerbating the situation, the Space Force has been asked to accept new responsibilities and missions forcing tough choices between delayed readiness, reduced capacity and vulnerabilities.”

The Space Force has recently named “space control” as its newest and most important core function. As outlined in the Space Warfighting Framework released in April, the mission requires capabilities and guardians that conduct orbital, electromagnetic and cyber warfare operations to achieve “space superiority” by protecting on-orbit assets and military personnel from an adversary’s space-enabled attack.

Saltzman told senators that unlike its other core functions that require modernization of systems, space control calls for capabilities and infrastructure to be created entirely from scratch — a task he said would be the Space Force’s top priority in fiscal 2026.

However, the service would be unable to achieve that with current funding levels and personnel without experiencing negative impacts to its other mission areas, he said.

In his written testimony, Saltzman explained that 78 percent of the Space Force’s budget is dedicated to delivering capability to the entire joint force — leaving less than a quarter of the service’s funds available for developing space control.

“At present, we do not have the full set of capabilities necessary to secure the space domain at the scale we need to assure joint force success,” Saltzman said. “These decisions have disproportionately impacted the [Space Force’s] ability to meet its obligations to the nation.”

Compounding the issue are a number of novel mission areas given to the Space Force in the last three years. Along with space control, the service is working on transferring ground- and air-moving target indicator systems to space, developing modeling and simulation tools, increasing its launch cadence and taking a lead role in President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield.

“There’s a lot of new equipment, there’s new training, there’s new people. We can’t just take what we have and presume that we can gain space superiority with that equipment. That new equipment requires new resources, and so that’s where the disconnect comes,” Saltzman said. “We are not adequately funded for new missions that I’ve been given in space superiority.”

As the Defense Department’s newest and smallest service, the Space Force’s funding accounts for only about three percent of the entire Pentagon’s budget allocations. Officials have previously said that fiscal constraints caused by repeated continuing resolutions and FY25 funding caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act have stifled the service’s growth.

At the same time, the Trump administration’s ongoing push to cut excess spending and reduce workforce across the federal government could further impact the Space Force’s efforts to develop and buy new capabilities, Saltzman said.

He told lawmakers that the service has lost almost 14 percent of its civilian employees to early retirement and deferred-resignation programs — more than what officials previously estimated. Civilians make up over one-third of the Space Force’s 17,000 personnel, and they mainly hold roles inside the acquisition community.

“I’m worried about replacing that level of expertise in the near term, as we try to resolve it and make sure we have a good workforce doing that acquisition work,” Saltzman said.

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Speaking during his keynote speech at Space Symposium on Tuesday, Spacecom Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting outlined ongoing initiatives to deter and defeat adversaries. The efforts are framed by the combatant command’s new “elements of victory,” and include moves to operationalize new capabilities, develop new technologies and draft two new strategies — one focused on experimentation and another on AI and machine learning.

“Over the past year at U.S. Space Command, we’ve developed elements of victory: our best military judgement for what we think we need to win in a conflict,” Whiting said. “These five elements of victory are informed by lessons learned in other domains — from the best thinking across our Joint Force, exercises and modeling and simulation — and they tell us what we need for war-winning advantage and how we will win.”

Part of the initiative focuses on getting new capabilities for warfighters across Spacecom’s different mission areas. For example, Whiting said the command is working to operationalize a data-fusion system that can create a single common operating picture for missile warning and missile defense missions.

Announced last year as a pilot program to improve data-fusion capabilities, the effort looked to address Spacecom’s ability to digest and view space domain data from multiple systems on a single screen. Since initiating the program, the command has focused on developing a data integration layer for missile warning and missile defense systems and is now demonstrating the capability, Whiting noted.

“Now we’re moving forward with operationalizing this system and placing it on our [Joint Operations Center] floor,” he said. “In the coming months, we’ll be adding additional missions to that program.”

At the same time, Spacecom continues to support research and development of technologies to enable what it calls “dynamic space operations” — or the ability to quickly and continuously maneuver systems on-orbit in order to address emerging threats in that domain.

While the command has repeatedly stressed the need for more maneuverable satellites, the Space Force has put only small amounts of money into research for the capability — and whether or not that funding will continue in future years remains up in the air. Whiting stressed, however, that development of space maneuver capabilities is imperative for Spacecom, especially given recent advancements in China’s ability to freely move their on-orbit satellites. 

To support development, the command will co-sponsor an effort with SpaceWERX — the Space Force’s technology innovation arm — that focuses on sustained space maneuver, according to Whiting.

“We will soon be identifying 10 proposals for $1.9 million each in funding over a 15-month period of performance,” he said. “This effort will continue to invest in the most promising technology from commercial industry to help us solve the sustained space maneuver challenge, so we can bring this joint function to the space domain.”

Other Spacecom initiatives include the deployment of an additional next-generation mobile radar for space domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific; working with organizations across the Pentagon to field more agile command-and-control capabilities; and meeting new demands for offensive and defensive space control.

Along with additional technologies, Whiting said Spacecom is drafting two new strategies that will help the command better prepare for conflict in space. 

“To ensure we maximize our readiness for day-to-day operations so that we are ready for conflict, we are operationalizing the command’s first-ever experimentation strategy and artificial intelligence and machine learning strategy,” Whiting said. He added that the priorities for these strategies focus on space fires, operational space command and control, missile defeat effects, enhanced battlespace awareness, cyber defenses and the command’s business processes.

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The so-called “space warfighting” framework is expected to outline the common vocabulary and concepts used by the service in order to achieve what it calls “space superiority” — that is, the ability for the United States to operate freely in the space domain while also denying an enemy’s ability to do the same. The document will also categorize adversary on-orbit capabilities, link structures, ground facilities and network targets, Saltzman said during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute.

“What the framework does is, it defines our terms so that planners — and this is space planners, but this is [also] joint planners — to make sure that our capabilities are accounted for and integrated fully into all the operational design,” Saltzman said. “We felt like we owed the Joint Force that set of framework, that set of definitions, so that we could have the right kinds of discussions.”

The drafting of the new framework comes as the Space Force continues efforts to more accurately convey its mission and warfighting functions both within the Defense Department and to the general public. In recent weeks, Saltzman and other senior service leadership have begun openly discussing the Space Force’s ability to conduct warfare in the space domain — marking a shift in messaging following years of keeping such rhetoric behind closed doors.

“We must think of space as a warfighting domain, rather than just a collection of support activities that the Space Force must organize, train, equip and conduct warfighting operations as an integral part of the joint and combined force,” Saltzman said March 3 during his keynote speech at the annual AFA Warfare Symposium in Denver, Colorado.

Saltzman said during Wednesday’s webinar that senior leadership across the Pentagon fully support the Space Force’s mission to enable all the military services to conduct joint operations. Likewise, younger warfighters who understand today’s “digital environment” understand the importance of space-based capabilities, he added.

However, there is a group in between those two levels that aren’t as informed as others, he said. The new space warfighting framework will provide a doctrine-level lexicon for that middle group and others as a way to help inform them of the Space Force’s missions.

“Here’s the terms we can talk about. Here’s what orbital warfare means. Here’s how we use electronic warfare. Here’s how we would use cyber warfare, and in pursuit of space superiority, protect what we have and deny an adversary,” Saltzman said regarding what the document will lay out.

Additionally, the service’s Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) will also soon publish the Space Force Doctrine Document–1 (SFDD-1). Saltzman previously said that the document will articulate the doctrinal concepts shaping the service moving forward — including the service’s newest core function known as “space control,” among others.

The concept encapsulates the Space Force’s ability to deny, degrade, disrupt or even destroy adversary space systems using both kinetic and non-kinetic weapons. Space control can refer to both offensive and defensive orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare and other counterspace operations.

“We have to deny the adversary the ability to use the space-enabled targeting that has now made them so lethal — particularly in the western Pacific — against our other terrestrial forces,” Saltzman said. “They have increased the range and the accuracy of their weapons because of that space-enabled targeting system, and it’s the Space Force’s job to deny them that.”

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“With our commercial assets, we have observed five different objects in space maneuvering in and out around each other in synchronicity and in control. That’s what we call dogfighting in space,” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein said Tuesday during the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference. “They are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to do on-orbit space operations from one satellite to another.”

A Space Force spokesperson told DefenseScoop that the series of demonstrations occurred last year and featured three Chinese Shiyan-24C experimental satellites and two experimental space objects known as the Shijian-6 05A/B. The rendezvous proximity operations tests were observed in low-Earth orbit via commercially available data, they added.

The demonstrations serve as yet another example of adversary advancements in space-based capabilities over the last few years. Co-orbital satellites could maneuver close to U.S. space systems in an attempt to disrupt or even directly hit them — raising further concerns about their potential use for military operations.

“Unfortunately, our current adversaries are willing to go against international norms of behavior … and they’re willing to do it in very unsafe and unprofessional manners,” Guetlein said. 

Along with maneuverable space vehicles, China has worked to develop anti-satellite missiles and other non-kinetic weapons that can attack U.S. platforms on-orbit. Russia has demonstrated similar counterspace capabilities, such as its 2021 test of an ASAT weapon that destroyed another Russian satellite. Moscow is also reportedly developing a nuclear space weapon that could create a massive energy wave and destroy multiple sats.

At the same time, the Space Force is monitoring cyber operations against U.S. space assets almost daily. Adversaries are also using their own satellites to shadow American on-orbit systems in a “cat-and-mouse game,” Guetlein said.

Guetlein’s comments come as the Space Force begins discussing its efforts to develop counterspace capabilities more publicly. The service recently added “space control” — that is, the ability to disrupt, degrade or destroy adversary systems via both kinetic and non-kinetic effects — to its list of “core functions.” Space control ops could include orbital warfare, electromagnetic warfare and other counterspace efforts.

And while the Space Force may be actively pursuing both offensive and defensive capabilities, Guetlein warned that Washington is at risk of losing its edge over Beijing and Moscow.

“There used to be a capability gap between us and our near peers, mainly driven by the technological advancement of the United States,” he said. “That capability gap has significantly narrowed, and we’ve got to change the way we’re looking at space, where that capability gap may reverse to not be in our favor anymore.”

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