Trumps pick to lead Space Force defends plan to more than double budget
President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the U.S. Space Force backed the administration's proposal to more than double the service's budget, telling senators on Thursday that a $71.1 billion request was "exactly what we need" to counter China's rapidly expanding military capabilities in space.
Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess said most of the proposed increase would pay for weapons, facilities, training and other equipment rather than personnel. The request would add about 2,800 uniformed Guardians and 2,000 civilian employees, a major expansion for a service created in 2019 with a deliberately small workforce.
Schiess, appearing July 16 before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing, said China was fielding counterspace weapons and military satellite networks at a "breathtakingly fast" pace.
Those capabilities include an intelligence and targeting network designed to track U.S. aircraft carriers and bombers across the Pacific and pass their locations to long-range weapons, he said. The Space Force must be able to disrupt that network while protecting U.S. satellites that provide communications, missile warning, navigation and targeting support to forces around the world.
"The 71.1 billion dollars that the president has asked for is exactly what we need," Schiess said.
If confirmed, Schiess would succeed Gen. Chance Saltzman as the third chief of space operations and become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He currently serves as the Space Force's deputy chief of operations.
His testimony presented the service as entering a new stage of development. Its first chief, Gen. John Raymond, established the organization, while Saltzman recast it as a military branch designed to fight in a contested domain. Schiess said the next chief must integrate space forces more deeply into U.S. military planning and rapidly expand the personnel, systems and infrastructure needed to support that role.
In written responses submitted before the hearing, he said the Space Force must "quickly and dramatically grow" to protect U.S. forces from space-enabled targeting and provide capabilities directly connected to missile defense, nuclear command and control, long-range strikes and other military operations.
Limits on commercial weapons
Schiess drew a boundary around the Pentagon's growing reliance on commercial space companies, saying the military could lease services such as satellite communications and orbital tracking but should retain ownership and control of systems designed to damage other spacecraft.
"We have to have guardian control of those systems," he said.
The comments come as the Pentagon seeks to buy more commercially developed technology and services rather than building every system through traditional military acquisition programs. Space Force leaders have argued that commercial operators can provide communications, imagery, weather information and data analysis more quickly and cheaply than government-owned systems.
Schiess said that approach is appropriate for some missions, but not for weapons capable of destroying equipment or harming people.
He also said the Space Force's responsibility to protect U.S. interests could, if directed by the president and defense secretary, extend to commercial and allied satellites incorporated into shared military architectures.
Golden Dome benefits
Schiess said Trump's Golden Dome missile-defense initiative could provide the Space Force with capabilities that extend beyond defending the United States against missile attacks.
Asked by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal whether Golden Dome could be built on a smaller scale, Schiess did not directly address the program's size. Instead, he said its investments in tracking, communications and data systems would also contribute to the Space Force's broader mission of securing military freedom of action in orbit.
"I do believe that we will continue to get good things from that from Golden Dome," Schiess said.
Schiess said he would work closely with Gen. Michael Guetlein, the Space Force general given broad authority to manage Golden Dome.
Space Development Agency model
Schiess also endorsed preserving the Space Development Agency's rapid acquisition model as Congress and the Pentagon move to break up the agency as a standalone organization.
The SDA has used short development cycles and successive satellite purchases to deploy a proliferated constellation in low-Earth orbit. Its planned network is intended to provide missile tracking and communications for military forces.
Schiess called the agency an "incredible organization" and said the Space Force planned to incorporate its most effective practices into a new group of Portfolio Acquisition Executives, or PAEs, responsible for broad mission areas rather than individual programs.
He cited Air Force Secretary Troy Meink's plan to delegate roughly 90% of contracting authority to those executives, giving them greater flexibility to shift funding, adjust requirements and make trade-offs across related programs.
The reorganization is intended to spread SDA's rapid, iterative methods across the Space Force rather than confining them to a semi-independent agency.
Workforce rebuild
Expanding the Space Force will also require rebuilding its civilian workforce after government-wide reductions last year cut its civilian staff by about 14% to 15%, Schiess said.
Space Systems Command, the organization responsible for developing and buying most military space systems, is seeking to hire about 100 civilian employees a month, he said.
The service is also implementing a personnel system that will allow guardians to move more easily between full-time military service, part-time positions and civilian employment. Schiess said the arrangement could help retain personnel who leave for jobs in industry or to meet family obligations while allowing the Space Force to continue drawing on their expertise.
Lessons from conflict
Schiess said recent conflicts in Ukraine and Iran had underscored the need to track one-way attack drones and maintain satellite services through heavy electronic interference.
The Space Force has gained experience responding to GPS and satellite-communications jamming and has developed procedures to restore or reroute services, he said. Those lessons are being incorporated into military training and operational procedures.
He also supported greater use of artificial intelligence to analyze the growing volume of information used for space-domain awareness, the military term for detecting and tracking objects and activity in orbit. Schiess said AI could make operators more effective but that a Guardian should remain "in the loop."
In written responses, Schiess said Russia is developing an anti-satellite system involving a spacecraft designed to carry a nuclear weapon. Such a weapon could threaten satellites belonging to many countries and disrupt communications, navigation and other services worldwide, he said.
Schiess, a 34-year military veteran, began his career as an Air Force missile officer after commissioning through ROTC in 1992. He later moved into space launch, GPS and satellite communications and commanded units responsible for launch operations, missile warning and military satellites.
Before joining the Pentagon staff, he served as the first commander of U.S. Space Forces–Space, the service component that supplies operational units to U.S. Space Command.
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