{"id":76855,"date":"2025-06-06T22:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/06\/06\/trump-should-fulfill-his-promise-to-create-the-space-national-guard\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:01:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:01:37","slug":"trump-should-fulfill-his-promise-to-create-the-space-national-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/opinion\/2025\/06\/06\/trump-should-fulfill-his-promise-to-create-the-space-national-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump should fulfill his promise to create the Space National Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As America faces growing competition in the space domain, it\u2019s time to strengthen \u2014 not dismantle \u2014 one of its most proven space war-fighting tools. The creation of the U.S. Space Force in 2019 was a historic shift in national defense. But it remains incomplete without an essential piece: a Space National Guard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, more than 1,000 Air National Guard members across several states are executing critical space missions \u2014 missile warning, satellite command and control, space domain awareness, defensive cyber operations and expeditionary space electromagnetic warfare. These units represent nearly one-third of the Space Force\u2019s operational squadrons and are already integrated into global combatant command operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that, the Department of the Air Force is pursuing a plan to transfer these forces<\/a> into the active duty Space Force \u2014 effectively dismantling seasoned units and starting over. Internal projections show only 8% of these Guardsmen are willing to leave their current status. The rest would walk, taking decades of hard-won experience with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach isn\u2019t just shortsighted \u2014 it\u2019s expensive. The National Guard Bureau estimates<\/a> that standing up a Space National Guard using existing personnel and infrastructure would cost just $250,000. <\/b>By contrast, transferring and rebuilding units under active duty structures is projected to cost upwards of $700 million<\/a>. <\/b>That\u2019s a staggering figure, particularly as the proposed fiscal 2026 defense budget would force the Space Force to cut elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\t