The Space Force budget needs a budget increase that could approach 20 percent, a “step function shift” necessary to fulfill USSF’s growing mission profile, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said March 26.
Saltzman made the pitch during a visit with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, in response to a recently published report that recommended President Donald Trump’s administration increase spending on the Space Force by 13 to 18 percent annually. Asked if that would be enough, Saltzman replied, “maybe not.”
The Space Force needs to “a fundamental shift, a step function shift” to build new capabilities and respond to Chinese and Russian investment in order to hold their space assets at risk while protecting U.S. satellites in space.
“Just doing 3 or 4 percent inflation increases doesn’t buy us new capability,” Saltzman said. “We’re just treading water. And so I think that’s really been our pitch … new missions require new resources, and that’s going to be a step function for the Space Force.”
The Biden administration sought a $30 billion budget for the Space Force in fiscal 2024, but Congress approved a little less; then in fiscal 2025, the Pentagon cut the Space Force budget, requesting $29.4 billion—the first proposed budget cut in the service’s five-year history. But Congress failed to pass a 2025 budget, passing instead a continuing resolution that will fund the government through September, that effectively cut Space Force investment to only about $28.8 billion.
Cutting the force when it’s being asked to do more and take on new missions is untenable, he said.
USSF needs “$10 billion in the near term, plussing up our current resources,” Saltzman said. “We can spend that.”
While the first budget of the new Trump administration is still being formulated, Saltzman’s comments suggest a growing confidence among Department of the Air Force leaders that years of short budgets could be coming to an end. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently directed Defense Department organizations to identify options to cut 8 percent of their budgets so that money can be reallocated to other priorities. Saltzman said he expects the Space Force to benefit from that reallocation.
“I’m very hopeful that the case that the Space Force makes means that a lot of that money will come back into our budget,” Saltzman said.
Like other military branches and DOD agencies, the Space Force had to identify things it could cut. The CSO did not detail those proposed cuts, believing they will ultimately be funded. And he cited initiatives, like the Golden Dome missile defense shield, as factors likely to increase the topline.
Adding to Saltzman’s confidence were comments Hegseth made at a gathering of senior Department of the Air Force leaders. Saltzman said Hegseth called space “the next and the most important domain of warfare” and pledged “far more investment” in both offensive and defensive capabilities.
“If you don’t have space superiority, you can’t enable all the other functions,” Saltzman said. “Secretary Hegseth understands that. So that’s why I’m not uncomfortable with this reprioritization drill in the FY ’26 budget.”
Offensive space, or the ability to control the space domain, has emerged as one of Saltzman’s major priorities, one that will require significant investment.
Meanwhile, with more than six months remaining in fiscal 2025, Saltzman still has work to do this year. The year-long continuing resolution does enable Space Force leaders to change some investment plans and to start new programs, but overall it left the Space Force underfunded compared to prior years.
“The bottom line is our appropriated money is less than we had in ’24, so we are literally shrinking in resources as a Space Force,” Saltzman lamented. “We have less to do more with. That’s a concern, and it’s starting to be a trend. We’re starting to be able to connect some dots that over the last few years, even if you don’t account for inflationary adjustments, we’re still shrinking in real dollars. We’re trying to work hard on resolving that as we go forward on ’26.”
The ponderous Pentagon budget process means that today’s funding levels date back to planning that took place in the fall of 2022, when the fiscal 2024 budget request was set. And because the fiscal 2026 budget request has not yet been submitted, the entire process for that budget is well behind schedule, making another CR to start fiscal 2026 likely. If that happens, the Space Force will have gone nearly three without being resourced against a threat that is rapidly changing and growing simultaneously.
“That is stagnant,” Saltzman said. “In the face of an adversary who is not stagnant, I’m worried that we’re not going to be able to keep pace, certainly the way we want to.”