Saltzman: Space Force in ‘pretty good spot’ regarding DoD funding shift

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman addressed the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference in Orlando, Fla., on Dec. 6, 2024. (Credit: Space Force Association)

WASHINGTON — Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said today he believes the Space Force’s own priorities are well aligned with those of the Trump administration, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth considers an 8 percent funding realignment across the services for fiscal year 2026.

“I think in the end, what you’ll see is that because our priorities were so focused on warfighting, so focused on the new emerging threats, that everybody is kind of coming to realization that we have to address, that we were pretty well aligned. We were pretty well aligned with the new administration’s priorities. And so I think the Space Force is going to be in a good spot,” he told Defense One in an online interview today.

Indeed, Hegseth told the Department of the Air Force Summit on Wednesday that he sees the space domain as critical to the future of warfare.

“I feel like there’s no way to ignore the fact that the next and the most important domain of warfare will be the space domain,” Hegseth said. “So, you’re going to see far more investment from this administration into that domain, both offensively and defensively … because that’s where we can continue to maintain an advantage.”

Saltzman declined to go into any detail about what he put forward as areas for reductions in the service’s budget in the 8 percent drill, but said the Space Force “looked at what our lowest priorities were and we offered those up.” He maintained that his highest priorities for the service are space domain awareness, resilience and capabilities to “hold at risk” adversary space assets to protect the Joint Force.

He explained the fact that the US military is now “really recognizing” that “space is a contested warfighting domain” is what is driving the service’s priorities, including a push to develop new capabilities for offensive and defensive operations.

That realization, Saltzman said is “what’s new — not that a military is considering offensive and defensive operations. Militaries always conduct offensive and defensive operations to contest the domains, to meet military objectives. … We’ve just recently had to up our game.”

He elaborated that there the service is looking at how best to invest in six categories of counterspace weapon systems, stressing that China’s military already is pursuing similar capabilities.

“I talk about six categories of counter space weapons, three that are ground-based: jammers, directed energy and then kinetic capabilities, like we’ve seen the PRC [People’s Republic of China] use with missiles attacking satellites. And then those same three categories can be done from space, from satellites on orbit: jamming and directed energy and kinetic capabilities,” Saltzman said.

“So those six categories all have to be invested in, because each one is optimized for different types of targets, whether it’s low Earth orbit, whether it’s in geosynchronous orbit, whether it goes out further than that,” he said. “How much you need in each weapon is kind of what we’re working through in terms of a strategy. But you really have to invest across all those. The PRC is showing us that because they’re investing in all those.”