{"id":62621,"date":"2019-03-01T17:00:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T17:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/03\/01\/space-force-to-cost-2-billion-include-15000-personnel-in-first-five-years\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:38:10","slug":"space-force-to-cost-2-billion-include-15000-personnel-in-first-five-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2019\/03\/01\/space-force-to-cost-2-billion-include-15000-personnel-in-first-five-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force to cost $2 billion, include 15,000 personnel in first five years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The Trump administration plans to spend $2 billion in new funding over a five-year period to create its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/06\/18\/trump-orders-creation-of-independent-space-force\/\" target=_blank>Space Force<\/a>, during which roughly 15,000 space-related personnel will transfer from existing roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials unveiled those details and the Pentagon\u2019s legislative proposal for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/08\/09\/no-answers-yet-on-cost-structure-of-space-force\/\" target=_blank>the new military service<\/a> March 1. Defense leaders sent the formal proposal to Congress Feb. 27 after President Donald Trump ordered its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/06\/18\/trump-orders-creation-of-independent-space-force\/\" target=_blank>creation in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While many of the details have yet to be determined \u2014 will the service have a bootcamp (unclear), its own service academy (no), their own uniforms (possible) or recruitment centers (probably) \u2014 a Space Force would share resources such as an acquisition chief, general counsel and chaplains with the broader Department of the Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2018\/08\/09\/space-force-will-be-6th-military-branch-by-2020-vice-president-pence-announces\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/final-to-upload.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Pentagon lays groundwork for Space Force to blast off in 2020<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The U.S. will also create an independent unified combatant command.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSpace is not just a support function. It\u2019s a war-fighting domain. We have to be prepared to fight, deter and win,\u201d a senior defense official said Friday. \u201cWith these changes, we need to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is a good path forward, which allows us to deliver capabilities, faster, better, and stay ahead of the adversaries,\u201d another defense official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Details of the legislative proposal were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/12\/20\/trumps-new-space-force-to-reside-under-department-of-the-air-force\/\" target=_blank>first reported by Defense News in December<\/a> but questions about personnel size and budget figures have remained open questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In September, Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-force-association\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-secretary-space-force-will-come-with-13b-in-added-costs\/\" target=_blank>floated a cost of $13 billion<\/a> for the Space Force, while an independent estimate from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/11\/19\/space-force-could-cost-fraction-of-air-force-estimates\/\" target=_blank>Center for Strategic and International Studies<\/a> put the additional costs at around $550 million per year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, senior department officials said March 1 that the Pentagon plans to spend about $72 million on setting up a headquarters for the service with about 200 staffers in fiscal 2020. As the force ramps up, those costs could rise to about $500 million per year. Those costs are in addition to the roughly $10 billion the Department of Defense already spends on unclassified space programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An executive summary of the legislative proposal stresses that the $2 billion represents \u201cless than 0.05 percent\u201d of the Pentagon\u2019s expected budget during that five-year period, and adds that \u201cmore than 95 percent of the Space Force annual budget is estimated to consist of resources that will have been transferred from existing DoD budget accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAdditional resources will be dedicated to building out the Space Force headquarters and establishing and maintaining new support elements such as education, training, doctrine, and personnel management centers,\u201d the summary continues. \u201cOnce the Space Force is fully established, these additive costs are estimated to be $500 million annually, which would represent approximately 0.07 percent of the annual DoD budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement released by the Pentagon, acting Secretary of Defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/11\/15\/heres-what-the-pentagon-thinks-the-actual-cost-of-a-space-force-will-be\/\" target=_blank>Patrick Shanahan<\/a> called the legislative proposal a \u201chistoric moment for our nation&#8221; and \u201ca strategic step towards securing America\u2019s vital national interests in space.\u201d Wilson added that \u201cWe will continue to be the best in the world at space and establishing a dedicated space force strengthens our ability to deter, compete and win in space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b>Five-year timeline<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The legislative proposal offers up a rolling plan between FY20 and FY24 for how to phase in the new service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In FY20, DoD would create the initial Space Force headquarters. An undersecretary of the Air Force for space (who must be nominated and confirmed by the Senate) and the service\u2019s Chief of Staff, a four-star position, would lead the organization. While reporting to the Secretary of the Air Force, the Chief of Staff will also serve on the Joint Chiefs, like how the commandant of the Marine Corps operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such a move would create \u201cinstitutional advocacy and priority for that domain and it wouldn\u2019t be subject to personalities,\u201d a senior defense official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those initial Space Force personnel will be a \u201cmix of military and civilian personnel with key military leadership positions filled by individuals from each Military Department,\u201d per the summary. \u201cSome personnel will be transferred from the existing Military Services, some new personnel would be hired, and some personnel would be temporarily detailed to the Space Force to provide surge capacity and expertise during stand-up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In FY21 and FY22, the plan calls for the majority of missions transferred from existing space-related offices to the new service. \u201cThis will include relevant space operational elements, acquisition elements, training and education elements, and other identified space-specific entities,\u201d per the summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, the Navy\u2019s Mobile User Objective System, a narrowband communications satellite system, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/space\/2018\/08\/15\/sprint-towards-new-missile-warning-satellites-begins-with-first-contract-award-to-lockheed\/\" target=\"_blank\">satellites in use by the Missile Defense Agency<\/a> would likely shift to the Space Force, space officials said. The Secretary of Defense would sign off on those moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/newsletters\/military-space-report\/2018\/06\/05\/whats-next-for-the-navy-in-space\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635575181868401947-january-22-frontlines-7jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">What\u2019s next for the Navy in space?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Program Executive Officer Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence, as well as Space Systems, discusses what the Navy\u2019s next task on orbit might be.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the following two years, FY23 and FY24, new units or organizations could be stood up, including potentially \u201cactivating additional operational, acquisition, and\/or training units, as necessary to meet new mission demands and to establish organic space-specific capacity for doctrine development, intelligence analysis, education, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All told, roughly 15,000 \u201chighly technical\u201d personnel from existing offices will move under the aegis of the Space Force by the end of FY24. Those individuals may be transferred both voluntarily and involuntarily, and will move with the grade, rank, duty, and pay status they had previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While in the past decade Air Force Space Command has been described as including as many as 40,000 employees, not all of those workers were strictly focused on space and may have provided support functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some new general officer roles will be required to fill out the Space Force, which requires Congressional authorization. Just how many is unclear, with the proposal promising a report to Congress on that issue sometime in FY20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One challenge in setting up the Space Force during this period will be collaboration with the intelligence community, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/c2-comms\/satellites\/2019\/02\/07\/trump-nominates-new-leader-for-spy-satellite-agency\/\" target=_blank>National Reconnaissance Office<\/a> (NRO) will remain independent of the new military branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new service, along with its adjacent U.S. Space Combatant Command, will \u201cplace greater demand on the IC to better understand space threats and to provide intelligence support to planning, operations, and acquisition,\u201d per the summary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Space Force, in collaboration with the IC, will identify, prioritize, and advocate for the intelligence capabilities, personnel, training, and organizational constructs necessary to provide intelligence support to DoD and IC space missions. Such intelligence support could include staffing a joint intelligence operations center; improving foundational military intelligence, including scientific and technical intelligence; and developing tasking, collection, processing, exploitation, and dissemination processes and capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, the Space Force will assume functions currently executed by Air Force Space Command elements within the NRO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another uncertainty for the service is how the guard and reserve components will work. The legislative proposal essentially punts on that question, pledging a more detailed proposal for FY21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We now know the details of the Space Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25817,"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":23,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","left-column","home","your-military","middle-column"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"4":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home","your-air-force","middle-column"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"5":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","your-army","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"6":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","your-marine-corps","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"7":{"categories":["pentagon-congress","news","your-navy","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"pentagon-congress"},"9":{"categories":["satellites","c2-comms","home","daily-brief","newsletters"],"primary_category":"satellites"}}},"categories":[160,114,36,19,23,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3399,3378],"class_list":["post-62621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-federal-budget","category-newsletters","category-pentagon","category-space","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"YULWLR64EVBSLJE5VS7OEYZ3QU","arc_canonical_url":"\/space\/2019\/03\/01\/space-force-to-cost-2-billion-include-15000-personnel-in-first-five-years\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Space Force to cost $2 billion, include 15,000 personnel in first five years - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We now know the details of the Space Force.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Space Force to cost $2 billion, include 15,000 personnel in first five years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We now know the details of the Space Force.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/space\/2019\/03\/01\/space-force-to-cost-2-billion-include-15000-personnel-in-first-five-years\/\" \/>\n<meta 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