WASHINGTON \u2014 Following a 38% increase in its fiscal 2023 budget request, the U.S. Space Force expects the upward funding trajectory to continue next year, according to a senior official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson said during an Oct. 25 Mitchell Institute event in Arlington, Va., that the service will require more resources as it looks to make its spacecraft and other systems more resilient and takes on tasks including space domain awareness and data exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t talk about the current budget process that we\u2019re in, but you should not expect that emphasis and that understanding to change as we move into the future,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s tremendous need and tremendous opportunity for growth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson said there has been strong support for the service from Congress and a recognition from the Biden administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re providing the resources that we need to get after all of the missions \u2014 missions that we have to continue to do today, the pivot that we have to do to those more resilient architectures . . . missions that we didn\u2019t do a decade ago that we now need to do to defend and protect our interests and capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In March, the Space Force requested $24.5 billion in fiscal 2023, up from $17.4 billion last year. Nearly half of that growth includes existing Department of Defense budget lines that transferred from elsewhere in the Pentagon. The proposal includes $15.8 billion for research and development and $3.6 billion to procure new capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress has yet to approve a defense spending package for the government fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The department is operating under a continuing resolution, which freezes funding at fiscal 2022 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thompson declined to discuss the details of the service\u2019s fiscal 2024 budget request, which hasn\u2019t been finalized by Pentagon leadership. An analysis of the Space Force\u2019s future funding projections conducted by research firm Metrea Strategic Insights using publicly available data from the service\u2019s budget justification documents shows that its topline request for next year could reach $27 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Thompson described, near-term budgets will largely be driven by the service\u2019s need to maintain its current capabilities while transitioning to satellites and ground systems that are protected against threats from adversaries including China. While it will take time to develop and field the architecture the Space Force ultimately wants, the service is pushing to deliver some upgrades by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To achieve greater resiliency, leaders at Space Systems Command, the service\u2019s acquisition arm, developed an \u201cexploit, buy and build\u201d mantra, emphasizing that before building something new, the service should consider how it can better use its current systems and what commercial industry may already be developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brig. Gen. Timothy Sejba, program executive officer for space domain awareness and combat power and battle management, command and control, said during an Oct. 19 Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference that this approach doesn\u2019t mean the service won\u2019t build new systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The demand for resiliency will likely lead to near-term budget and program decisions that prioritize leveraging existing capabilities, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe may have to make some tough choices as we look at what is required over the next three to four years to ensure our architecture is much more resilient going forward,\u201d Sebja said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The service expects to require more resources as it looks to make its systems more resilient and expands certain missions, like space domain awareness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":37,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","left-column","home","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["news","your-air-force","left-column","home","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"8":{"categories":["budget","management","congress","federal-oversight","home"],"primary_category":"budget"},"10":{"categories":["space","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","home"],"primary_category":"space"}}},"categories":[7,29,32,37],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3260],"class_list":["post-34140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-home","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WQSF45XNDNH5HPACJD66ISDERI","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/space\/2022\/10\/26\/space-force-expects-budget-growth-into-2024-amid-tremendous-need\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n