Washington: As senior Space Force officials double down on their campaign to massively increase the service’s funding ahead of decision-making on the Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 budget request, a handful of priorities are at the top of the list for new monies. These include alternatives to GPS, more reliable satellite communications (SATCOM), and improved intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to support warfighters on the battlefield, according to the Space Force vice chief.
Citing ever-growing threats from China and Russia, Gen. Michael Guetlein said on September 4 that the service requires an influx of cash both to improve traditional space support services to combatant commanders, and bolster offensive and defensive capabilities to go up against adversary space systems.
“We need additional resources to meet the increasing demand for capability,” he said. “At 3 percent of the DoD budget, the Space Force is worth every penny. It offers tremendous value proposition for the nation. Every dollar invested brings asymmetric returns, while every cut risks asymmetric losses, given the continued advancements of the competitors, the Space Force budget needs more, not fewer, resources to do our job.”
Guetlein noted that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall recently asserted that the Space Force needs to “double or triple overtime” its current annual budget of some $30 billion to adequately fund its assigned missions.
Kendall’s statement echoed a May assessment by veteran space budget analysts Todd Harrison of the American Enterprise Institute and Mike Tierney, chief of legislative affairs at the National Security Space Association (NSSA), which found that the Space Force’s eyes are bigger than its stomach. The service’s FY25 five-year budget plan, essentially a flat line, fails to fully support all the new acquisition programs being launched, the experts stressed.
Guetlein said that in order to guarantee that “space capabilities will be there when needed” by military forces, the service needs to invest in both more SATCOM and “more resilient SATCOM” to ensure connectivity across the Joint Force.
Guetlein further pointed to the Space Development Agency’s plan for a Transport Layer of low latency, high capacity data relay satellites in low Earth orbit as a critical future capability. “It is foundational to programs like the Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control System, or CJADC2, which is a multi-domain command and control system that shares command, common operating pictures and data with the Joint Force and our allies,” he said.
More “resilient position, navigation and timing” capabilities, including “alternative methods to GPS,” are another key area of operations where an influx of funds is required, Guetlein stressed.
