By C. Todd Lopez
WASHINGTON (Dec. 17, 2024) -- America's newest military service, the U.S. Space Force, stood up five years ago this Friday. In advance of an out-of-this world birthday celebration, the service's commander, Gen B. Chance Saltzman, reflected on half a decade of accomplishments.
"From ... humble beginnings, we have laid the foundations of a space service that is dedicated and laser focused on achieving space superiority, a service that is unparalleled in its talent and capabilities in the domain, a service that every day is increasing our readiness to secure our nation's interests in, from and to space," Saltzman said today during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
In the past five years, Saltzman said, the Space Force has increased its budget, largely through the absorbing of other space-related agencies, and has grown considerably since it stood up.
"Although still not where we need it, our budget has increased substantially with a number of mission aggregations and some new investments since activation," he said. "On average, we have tripled in size every year for the last five years in personnel, an astounding growth rate for any government organization. We have reimagined operations, redefined policies [and] reworked processes from the ground up to forge a service purpose-built for great power competition. All of this in just five years."
More than anything, Saltzman said, the Space Force can now apply a service-level focus to the space domain in the same way the Army focuses on land, the Air Force focuses on the air and the Navy focuses on the sea.
Space Force, like other services, has also fielded service components to combatant commands in the same way as other services. Already, there are Space Force components to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command, European Command and Africa Command, with "more coming right behind it," Saltzman said.
The Space Force has also redesigned its professional military education and officer training programs and is working to replicate that for its enlisted personnel as well, Saltzman said.
With the help of Congress, Saltzman said, the Space Force has also found new ways to attract and manage talent.
"We won the authority to create a part-time workforce inside our single active component," he said. "This unprecedented approach will be crucial for retaining talent [and] improving quality of life in a way never before seen in the Department of Defense."
Right now, Saltzman said, the Space Force's personnel staff is working to develop the administrative mechanisms needed to take advantage of those authorities.
"[It's] tremendously exciting, though, because it gives us so much latitude, so much career flexibility," he said.
As a military service, Saltzman said, the Space Force has in the past five years supported an increase in the speed of space launches by nearly 500%, shared space situational awareness data with 34 foreign nations and provided position navigation and timing, or PNT services, to GPS users around the world.
"We've connected over 100,000 active [satellite communications] users; we've deployed electronic warfare capabilities to 10 nations for a collective 2,551 days," he said. "In 2024 alone, we supported 45 exercises and tracked 226 successful space launches, [and] we cataloged 3,345 space objects."
Over five years, Saltzman said, the Space Force has been guided by the service's six foundational principles, which he said form the core of what it means to be a guardian.
First, he said, is that Space Force capabilities are critical to the joint force and the American way of life.
"They underpin both our national security and our prosperity," he said.
The second principle, he said, is that it is the Space Force's responsibility to defend American space capabilities.
"Space is the backbone of the joint force," he said. "Without it, we cannot project military power. Unfortunately, we're not the only nation that's recognized the strategic value of space superiority. Adversaries have aggressively developed and fielded counter-space threats."
The third principle demands that Space Force protect the joint and combined force from space-enabled attack, while the fourth declares space a warfighting domain.
"Space Force cannot simply be a support element," he said. "It is our job to contest and control the domain through the application of military force."
The fifth principle is that the Space Force is responsible for conducting warfighting operations as an integral part of the joint force. And finally, he said, it is Space Force guardians alone who are uniquely and specifically trained, educated and experienced for warfighting in, from and to the space domain.
"No one else is better suited to lead a campaign in space," he said. "No one else has the tools required to achieve space superiority."
Space Force will celebrate the fifth anniversary of its founding for only a moment. After, it will continue furthering its mission. In the coming year, Saltzman said, the Space Force plans to, among other things, finish implementation of the Space Force Personnel Management Act, further expand the launch support tempo, stand up its Futures Command and finish the establishment of its service components to the combatant commands.
Saltzman also said the Space Force will accelerate the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, which will eventually include hundreds of satellites, delivered in tranches every two years, with each tranche providing more capability to the warfighter than the last.
Everything done so far in Space Force, and what's to come, Saltzman said, can be attributed to the dedication of the guardians who protect America's space assets.
"I'm proud to say, without question, that Space Force guardians are the preeminent space warfighters, armed and ready to protect and defend the future of our nation," Saltzman said. Ω
