Why the Air Force’s Only Tugboat Lives on a Space Force Base

Oct. 20, 2023 | By David Roza

The Department of the Air Force typically deals more with the ‘wild blue yonder’ than the deep blue sea, but it has a small fleet of maritime vessels for patrolling base waters, recovering target drones— and in one case, guiding vital supply ships to the U.S. military’s northernmost base.

Indeed, life at Pituffik Space Base, located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, would be much more difficult without Rising Star, a 71-foot tugboat that escorts fuel tankers and cargo ships, aligns them with the pier, and moves icebergs out of the way as the vessels enter North Star Bay on Greenland’s northwest coast.

Built in Morgan City, La., Rising Star entered service at Pituffik in 1992, becoming the latest in a long line of tugboats that have helped resupply the installation ever since it was first completed as Thule Air Base in 1953. The tugboat has two Detroit diesel two-stroke V-16 engines with 900 horsepower each. The engines are put to good use during the warm season from May to September, and especially during Operation Pacer Goose, the large resupply mission that usually happens from July to August.

When the weather starts to turn cold again in September, Rising Star is pulled out of the water to prevent damage from ice buildup, the public affairs office for Peterson and Schriever Space Force Base, which oversees Pituffik, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“The Rising Star is a vital lifeline for Pituffik, allowing for essential resupply which allow our Guardians and Airmen to carry out the mission of Pituffik,” the public affairs office said.

air force tugboat — The Rising Star tugboat pushes the Maersk Peary into position during a fuel resupply mission. The tugboat also pulls the fuel lines from the ship to the pier to connect to a pipeline. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Though the Air Force owns the boat, Rising Star is crewed by contractors—a captain and a deckhand.

“As fun as it is to tell visitors that we have the Air Force’s only tugboat, what really matters is that the Rising Star is operated by our outstanding contract partners to make our port safe for the vital cargo ships that re-supply us every year,” said Lt. Col. Michael Warren, deputy commander of the base. “The Rising Star is one more data point that points to the fact that life and operations on top of the world are only possible when the whole team—military, civilians and contractors—all tug together.”

In recent years, the boat has gone above and beyond its resupply mission. In 2020, the crew responded to a distress call from a leaking commercial boat about 50 kilometers south of the base. The weather was rough, with two-meter waves buffeting the vessels, but the tugboat managed to tow the powerless ship back to base, rescuing all six crew members on board.

Pituffik’s location at the “top of the world” makes it a strategic post for missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance missions using a solid-state phased-array radar operated by the 12th Space Warning Squadron. The base also provides satellite command and control through its tracking station, one of seven stations around the world that form the Space Force’s Satellite Control Network. But even high-tech military space equipment sometimes needs a low-tech tugboat to keep ticking.

Experts Note Obstacles Facing Pentagon’s New Replicator Initiative

Oct. 19, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Following the Department of Defense announcing its new Replicator initiative, lawmakers and experts voiced a range of opinions on the effort’s potential and challenges in a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing Oct. 19.

The Initiative, led by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, aims to rapidly deploy “multiple thousands” of cost-effective drones in “multiple domains” within the next 18-24 months. The Pentagon claims this effort will help counter China’s military size with a harder-to-predict, target, and defeat force, reducing human risk.

Bryan Clark, senior fellow for the Hudson Institute, emphasized the importance of Replicator in enhancing the U.S. military’s ability to analyze potential solutions creatively. However, he pointed out a critical challenge facing the initiative’s implementation

“The biggest challenge Replicator faces is integrating unmanned systems together in ways they are going to enable them to communicate with one another, be managed by command-and-control system, and then operate in a way that creates creative operational concepts for us to pursue, and dilemmas for enemies to deal with,” he said.

Historically, DOD has struggled with integrating systems between different services or domains, Clark noted. And the current approach for Replicator, which involves acquiring vehicles and entrusting their integration to individual services.

Last month, Hicks emphasized that the Replicator Initiative won’t require additional funding or create new bureaucracy by saying that DOD “will not be asking for new money” for fiscal 2024.

Without additional funding, however, Dr. Bill Greenwalt of the American Enterprise Institute voiced concerns that Replicator might divert resources from other crucial needs.

“Right now, there are very few pods of money that the department can actually use and move around in the year of execution, to essentially focus on things that look like they’re going to be something that we can scale up,” he said.

He also pointed out the challenges associated with changing the Pentagon’s culture and processes, urging a more “streamlined and innovative approach.”

His point was echoed by Dr. Paul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for New American Security. who stressed “the need for speed.”

“The DOD has had recent successes and breaking the mold and moving quickly,” Scharre said. “The Defense Innovation Unit is brought in commercial technologies in a matter of weeks and months, not years and decades. But too often these innovation success stories have been small-scale. To fill thousands of systems, DOD will need to operate quickly at this scale. Something that is often struggled to do.”

However, should Replicator succeed with Congress’s support, Scharre said it could set a precedent for rapid acquisition. He also emphasized the necessity of the initiative, given the rising per-unit costs of traditional major weapons platforms.

Others, however, had concerns regarding the sources of components and materials that the U.S. relies on.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) asked the outside experts whether there is a clear understanding of the Replicator program’s objectives and the potential vulnerabilities it may create for the U.S. defense industrial base.

“I think that’s a question that the Congress needs to continuously ask,” said Greenwalt. “I’ve talked to a number of drone manufacturers who would like to scale up and they’re looking at the supply chain and a lot of that supply chain is not American or even allied.”

This dependency on foreign suppliers can be problematic when attempting to scale up production quickly.

In 2019, Congress passed a law prohibiting the Pentagon from purchasing Chinese-made drones and components. Nevertheless, Beijing continues to be the largest source of U.S. imports for machinery and mechanical appliances.

Should the Pentagon and Congress not work together to address the obstacles facing Replicator, Clark warned that this project is just increasing the size of forces without enhancing their effectiveness.

“It has a good goal of solving near-term operational problems faced by commanders, but its implementation, it’s going to have to make some changes that start aiming at the right types of objectives, not just math,” he said.

Navy Ship Downs Missiles and Drones as Attacks on US Bases Continue

Oct. 19, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

A U.S. Navy warship in the Red Sea shot down three cruise missiles and several drones on Oct. 19 that were launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and potentially heading toward Israel, the Pentagon said.

The destroyer USS Carney was steaming in the northern Red Sea when it shot down the missiles and drones.

“This action was a demonstration of the integrated air and missile defense architecture that we have built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests in this important region,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said.

The Pentagon also disclosed that there have been additional drone attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East. The Al Tanf Garrison, a base in southeast Syria that is used by American troops and their Syrian partners, was targeted by two drones on Oct. 18.

“U.S. and coalition forces engaged one drone, destroying it, while the other drone impacted the base, resulting in minor injuries to coalition forces,” Ryder said.

That same day, Ryder said an early warning system at the al Asad base in Iraq signaled a potential attack on the base. Though no attack took place, a U.S. civilian contractor suffered a cardiac episode and died, Ryder added.

While the Pentagon did not specify the groups that mounted the missile and drone attacks, the Houthis have long been equipped by Iran, as have the militias in Iraq and Syria.

“This is an uptick in terms of the types of drone activity we’ve seen in Iraq and Syria,” Ryder said. “These small-scale attacks are clearly concerning and dangerous.”

The increase in attacks comes against the background of Israel’s confrontation with Hamas and the controversy over an explosion at a hospital compound in Gaza that appears to have killed scores of civilians.

The U.S. and Israel say a variety of intelligence establishes that the cause of the explosion at the compound was an errant rocket fired by Islamic Jihad, a militant group that fights with Hamas. Hamas has blamed Israel.

The U.S. has around 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 troops in Syria. To deter potential escalation on the part of Iran and the militias it backs, the U.S. has sent more USAF fighters and attack aircraft to the region—F-15E Strike Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, and A-10 Thunderbolt IIs—as well as the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier, which has four squadrons of F/A-18s.

Ryder stopped short of blaming Iran for orchestrating the latest drone and missile attacks, saying the U.S. was still evaluating the situation.

“We’re continuing to assess the nature of these attacks,” Ryder said. “In the past, we have seen Iranian-backed militia conduct these types of things.”

He also delivered a thinly veiled warning that such attacks might prompt U.S. military action.

“I’m not going to forecast any potential response to these attacks,” Ryder said. “I will say that we will take all necessary actions to defend U.S. and coalition forces against any threat. Any response, should one occur, will come at a time and in a manner of our choosing.”

Why Declassifying Space Is Such a Struggle, According to the CSO

Oct. 19, 2023 | By David Roza

An ongoing push to lower the classification levels of military space programs is “easier said than done,” due to a tangle of overlapping policies and laws, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said at an Oct. 18 virtual fireside chat with the Center for a New American Security.

“What everybody should recognize that is trying to think about this problem is how complex the fabric of security is,” he said. “It is a layering and layering of security rules, guidelines, policies, laws, that make it really hard to say ‘just change the classification of that.’”

For several years, lawmakers and top military leadership have said that overclassification makes it more difficult for the public to understand what the Space Force does, for Guardians to work with other services and partner militaries, and for the U.S. military overall to deter adversaries in space.

“If we’re going to be a force that is taken seriously and deters our adversaries, we need to start showing them things to deter them,” then-Space Force director of staff Lt. Gen. Nina M. Armagno said in 2021. “We need to show them what we have.”

But even the most powerful military officials say it is difficult to actually deliver on those calls to action.

“I am the original classification authority for some things and I go ‘I want that classification changed,’” Saltzman said Oct. 18. “They go ‘well actually, no you can’t because it’s connected to this system and it could reveal this.’ It’s like ‘well I thought I was–’ Well yeah, but it comes with parameters and guidelines and ‘yeah, but.’”

Some of those rules are straightforward, like certain facts or systems that can be accessed only by people with top secret clearance and a need to know, Saltzman said. However, others are more convoluted, like certain kinds of top secret information that can be released to a foreign national with top secret clearance only when certain conditions are met. Other rules allow some industry partners to be briefed at high classification levels but not others. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall expressed similar concerns before House lawmakers in April.

“The major effort that we’ve done recently on that is called Special Access Programs, where the Air Force, in particular, has a great many compartments and it’s hard to move across them,” he said. “The work we were doing on the Operational Imperatives, we had to go do an extensive amount of bureaucratic work to allow people just to talk to each other so they could share information.”

Still, there has been some progress. Saltzman said he would have been fired seven years ago had he discussed Chinese counterspace capabilities, such as jammers, directed energy weapons, and on-orbit grappling arms, as openly as he did during the Oct. 18 chat.

“That probably wouldn’t have been able to be discussed outside of the kind of rooms that don’t have windows ,” he said. “So I see progress. Unfortunately it’s not as fast as any of us operators really want.”

The CSO said there is “a substantial effort inside the Department of Defense to untangle this, to start to pull things apart,” but the wins may be small at first.

“We’re really looking for low-hanging fruit, quite frankly,” he said. “And any time we can drop something from special access to top-secret, we’re taking advantage of that. Any time we can drop something from top secret to secret, we’re taking advantage of that, because it opens up opportunities.”

Still, don’t expect to see many classified programs become unclassified in the near future.

“Not everything is going to go instantly unclassified because that puts things at risk that we can’t afford to have at risk,” Saltzman said. “It’s an ongoing effort … it’s far easier to brief than it is to actually pull apart and get all the regulations right.”

DOD’s New China Report Details CCP’s Growing Military Arsenal

Oct. 19, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

China’s military continues to expand its reach around the globe, building up strategic and tactical capabilities, especially its missile programs, according to a Pentagon report released Oct. 19.

The updated annual China Military Power Report says the People’s Liberation Army is developing:

Air-to-air missiles that can strike from beyond visual range

Conventionally-armed intercontinental missile systems

Increased numbers of nuclear warheads

While the 2021 edition of the China Military Power Report cited the PL-15 missile, a beyond-visual-range munition often compared to the U.S.’s AIM-120 AMRAAM, the update did not. In a press briefing, a senior defense official declined to discuss China’s long-range air-to-air missiles in any depth. However, unconfirmed reports indicate the Chinese are working on a more advanced long-range missile, sometimes called PL-XX or PL-21. The new DOD report seems to reference this development, noting noted that the People’s Republic of China is “exploring dual-mode guidance capabilities, which uses both active radar and infrared homing seekers that improve target-selection capabilities and make the missiles more resistant to countermeasures.”

In surface-to-surface weapons, the senior defense official said that if China does develop a conventionally-armed intercontinental missile, it would mark the end of a progression for the PLA Rocket Force, which has steadily developed short-, medium-, and long-range conventional ballistic missiles.

“It would give them a conventional capability to strike the U.S., for the first time for the PLA Rocket Force, and to threaten targets in the continental U.S. and Hawaii and Alaska,” the official noted. “And I think as we see them maybe exploring the development of those conventionally-armed ICBMs, it raises some questions about risks to strategic stability.”

Meanwhile, China continues to rapidly expand its nuclear forces, which U.S. officials have previously termed “breathtaking.” While last year’s report predicted the PLA may have “about 1,000” nuclear warheads by 2030, and 1,500 by 2035, this year’s report was less definitive; while still projecting “over 1,000” warheads by 2030, it does not offer a longer-term forecast.

More immediately, the report posits that China “probably completed the construction of its three new solid-propellant silo fields in 2022, … [with] at least 300 new ICBM silos, and has loaded at least some ICBMs into these silos.” In all, the report estimates Chine “possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023,” up from 400 a year ago.

While that growth is significant, China’s nuclear force is still small in comparison to the U.S. and Russia. Russia has nearly 5,900, according to the Federation of American Scientists, while he U.S. warhead inventory numbers more than 5,200.

“We see the PRC continuing to quite rapidly modernize and diversify and expand its nuclear forces,” the senior defense official said. “What they’re doing now, if you compare it to what they were doing about a decade ago, it really far exceeds that in terms of scale and complexity. They’re expanding and investing in their land-, sea-, and air-based nuclear delivery platforms, as well as the infrastructure that’s required to support this quite major expansion of their nuclear forces.”

While China’s nuclear capabilities grow, it is also updating its air fleet. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force”. The Pentagon report noted that “the PLAAF, “in particular, has received repeated calls from its leadership to become a truly ‘strategic’ air force, able to project power at long distances to advance and defend the PRC’s global interests.”

To do so, the report said, the PLAAF is investing in:

Upgrades to its fifth-generation J-20 fighter

Developing its H-20 bomber, projected to have both nuclear and conventional roles

“New medium- and long-range stealth bombers to strike regional and global targets.”

On top of that, the report notes for the first time that China has fielded the new Y-20U tanker.

“These new air refuelable aircraft will significantly expand the PRC’s ability to conduct long-range offensive air operations,” the report states. “In addition to aerial refueling, it is expected that there will likely be further Y-20 variants, such as a possible [airborne early warning and control] variant.”

Taken together, all these developments mean the PLAAF “is rapidly catching up to western air forces,” the report concludes.

At the same time, the PLA’s aviation forces have become increasingly aggressive in confronting and harassing U.S. and allied aircraft in the region, a trend the Pentagon highlighted earlier this week by declassifying and releasing dozens of photos and videos of threatening and unsafe behavior from the past two years.

US Forces in Iraq Attacked by Drones as Threats Grow in Middle East

Oct. 18, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Two drone attacks were launched against U.S. forces in Iraq in the span of 24 hours, the U.S. military said Oct. 18.

The attacks, which took place in western and northern Iraq, came as a wave of unrest swept Arab nations over Israel’s clash with Hamas. They are also the first attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq by suspected Iranian-backed militias in more than a year.

U.S. officials said the targets of the drone attacks were al Asad air base in western Iraq and al Harir air base in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. U.S. efforts to defend against the drones were largely successful, though some coalition forces suffered minor injuries, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement. A U.S. defense official said drones were engaged by ground-based systems.

“In the last 24 hours, the U.S. military defended against three drones near U.S. and Coalition forces in Iraq,” CENTCOM said in a statement released on Oct. 18. “In western Iraq, U.S. forces engaged two drones, destroying one and damaging the second, resulting in minor injuries to coalition forces. Separately in northern Iraq, U.S. forces engaged and destroyed a drone, resulting in no injuries or damage.”

The U.S. military has been on high alert following Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the punishing air strikes Israel mounted in response.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia group, has also launched rocket strikes against Israel but has held back for now from launching a full-fledged missile attack.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Iran. Experts said the attacks in Iraq also appeared to be conducted by Iranian-backed militant groups.

“To put it simply, the Iraqi militias, backed by Iran, have been wanting to find a way to get involved since this started,” said Michael Knights of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

U.S. officials have been worried that Iran might seek to escalate the conflict between Hamas and Israel. President Joe Biden has ordered two aircraft carrier strike groups to the Eastern Mediterranean and sent more aircraft to the region to try to deter Hezbollah and Iran.

On Oct. 16, Biden spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and discussed “ongoing efforts to prevent an expansion of the conflict in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s abhorrent attack in Israel,” according to a readout of the call from the White House.

“This is very much all evidence of a kind of region-wide network of Iranian proxies all seeking to kind of back each other up, reinforce each other’s operations,” said Charles Lister, director of the Syria and Countering Terrorism and Extremism program at the Middle East Institute. “What everybody’s been concerned about for the last several days is that the U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria would become sort of sitting targets for Iranian retaliation for everything happening in Gaza.”

The U.S. has about 2,500 troops in Iraq who are advising Iraqi forces that are fighting Islamic State group militants and some 900 troops in Syria who are working with local partners to combat ISIS.

Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, the U.S. has stepped up its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance efforts with both manned and unmanned platforms to look for signs of escalation in the region, according to a U.S. official.

“In this moment of heightened alert, we are vigilantly monitoring the situation in Iraq and the region,” CENTCOM said in its statement.

The firepower the U.S. has sent to the region includes the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, whose four fighter squadrons and other aircraft have been operating off in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Ford is accompanied by cruise missile-carrying warships.

U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, and F-16 Fighting Falcons multirole fighters have also been sent to the Middle East, in addition to the fighters that were previously in the region. Another American carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, is on its way to the Eastern Mediterranean, also accompanied by other warships.

On Oct. 17, the Pentagon said 2,000 troops were being placed in a heightened state of readiness in case they needed to deploy to the region.

The USS Bataan, which carries about 2,400 Marines, as well as fighters and helicopters, was headed closer to Israel in case it is required, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said Oct. 17. The Bataan is currently operating near the Red Sea, according to U.S. officials.

“We want to emphasize U.S. forces will defend U.S. and Coalition forces against any threat,” CENTCOM said.

Saltzman: Why Record-Breaking ‘Victus Nox’ Launch Is Such a Big Deal

Oct. 18, 2023 | By David Roza

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman likened the record-breaking launch of a satellite last month to when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947, saying it has implications for how quickly the Space Force can respond to threats in the future.

“Now the question is, how do we take advantage of that?” Saltzman said during an Oct. 18 virtual fireside chat with the Center for a New American Security. “Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier. Big deal, it’s one airplane, what are you going to do with it? It opens the door, it shows the capability, it shows what you can do, it shows how you do it.”

Dubbed Victus Nox, the launch took place Sept. 14 at Vandenberg Space Force, Calif., just 27 hours after the receipt of launch orders. Less than a year earlier, Space Systems Command contracted with Millennium Space Systems and Firefly Aerospace to build a satellite to help with the service’s Space Domain Awareness mission. Then the waiting began.

“We built a satellite in less than a year and put it in a warehouse,” Saltzman said. “And it sat there in a warehouse until we gave an order, and when we gave the order, it had to be ready to launch, on the launch pad, within 60 hours. They did it in 57.”

After that, launch crews were told to wait indefinitely again until given a launch order, after which they had 24 hours to send the satellite skywards. The launch was three hours late due to a weather hold, Saltzman said, but the team later met a requirement for the satellite to be “checked out and operational in 48 hours,” of reaching orbit, he said, meaning the satellite went from a warehouse to on-orbit and mission-capable in a week.

“Think about the contracting work that had to go in place, think about the airlift to get the satellite in place, think about the infrastructure and the telemetry of the launch facility, make sure that’s all squared away, all the safety checks that had to be done, the payload integration,” Saltzman said. “I mean, these are massive checklists that have to be run. And for those that haven’t been in the launch business, I don’t think you can fully appreciate all the work that goes into that.”

More than setting a record, the test is part of the Space Force’s larger effort to enhance the resilience of the U.S. space architecture. Part of that resilience lies in forming proliferated constellations of satellites, where there are too many targets for an adversary to realistically destroy. Another part is being able to quickly backfill that constellation, which faster launches could accelerate. But another benefit could be responding quickly to new threats.

“From the warehouse to an on-orbit capability in a week. That’s tactically responsive,” Saltzman said. “That’s something that you can respond to irresponsible behavior on-orbit and the response is directly connected to that irresponsible behavior.”

The CSO said the Space Force was able to pull off Victus Nox because it could make decisions as an independent service.

“The Air Force didn’t have time to service-level focus on something like this,” he said. “They had other things to worry about.”

USSF has already started planning another speed-run titled Victus Haze, but the next challenge is turning it into a regular capability.

“Now you start talking about ‘how do you build a unit that can do this on a repeatable basis?’” Saltzman said. “How do you do the training? How do you put contract vehicles in place through this augmentation reserve capability? How do you put all that together so it’s operationalized, not just a demonstration capability?”

Space Force Strategy Projects First Ever Budget Drop in 2025

Oct. 18, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Force is projecting budget reductions in the next few years—the first such cuts since the service was established in late 2019, according to a recently publicized report to Congress.

Whether such reductions will actually come to pass remains uncertain.

The Department of the Air Force’s Comprehensive Strategy for the Space Force, required by the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, includes a chart showing the service’s projected budget broken down by mission area over the future years defense program—from fiscal 2024 through 2028.

The Space Force’s 2024 budget request is for $30 billion, with investments in missile warning systems, GPS, and launch vehicles.

The document shows, however, steady decline from 2024 through 2026, with a topline figure below $30 billion in both 2025 and 2026. That is followed by a sharp uptick in 2027, above the 2024 funding level.

The chart specifically indicates cuts in spending for the coming years in areas such as Missile Warning/Missile Tracking and classified programs. Classified programs in particular are slated to decline every year over the FYDP.

Space Force spokesperson Maj. Tanya Downsworth told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the projected temporary decline in topline funding is the result of several systems transitioning from their development phase into operational readiness and the completion of prototype demonstrations.

Downsworth also emphasized that these estimations are subject to evolving requirements, emerging threats, and changes in force structure.

The 2024 budget plan would fund 10 National Security Space Launches, including launching the Space Development Agency’s first communications and data transmission satellites. **Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman/USSF**

Last year, lawmakers expressed concerns about the Space Force’s capacity to sustain its ambitious plans and growth, particularly regarding missile warning and missile tracking (MW/MT), and asked for a new cost estimate by January 2023.

The comprehensive strategy document indicates that MW/MT investments will decline in the next few years before bumping up significantly in 2027.

The document also highlights the redesign of the Space Force’s MW/MT architecture.

“In collaboration with key stakeholders and considering emerging threat assessments, rigorous analysis, and wargaming was used to define a more resilient, more capable and more defendable MW/MT architecture,” the strategy states.

Downsworth added that this is one example where the service is innovating to ensure readiness; and deter, and, if necessary, defeat adversaries in an era of great power competition.

Lawmakers are the only ones who have expressed concern about the USSF budget and possible limitations as expanding capabilities demands hardware and personnel.

Back in June, Gen. David D. Thompson voiced reservations about leaner future investments hindering mission fulfillment.

“Either the department may need to look at its priorities for various investments, or we will have to throttle the growth that we have seen and the delivery of capabilities,” Thompson said during a livestreamed event by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “It will simply be incumbent on us to make sure that our leaders inside the Department of Defense and in the White House and Congress understand the risks we’ll take if in fact we cannot continue that.”

Thompson also underscored that the issue lies in the fact that the existing budget agreement does not match inflation, which will reduce the service’s purchasing ability in the coming critical two years.

Like the rest of the Pentagon, the Space Force continually revisits its five-year plan and offers updates alongside its budget submissions. The fiscal 2025 budget request is slated to be submitted in February 2024. The five-year plan shown in the strategy document is only up-to-date as of February 2023.

Downsworth added that in terms of the overall budget decrease, some programs may be projected to end, but the scale of funding expectation may change to support Joint Force requirements and will be reevaluated each year. She said during the “dip year,” the service aims to put existing capabilities into active use or operation, as well as acquiring new capabilities and resources.

Space Force Budget Requests By Year

Year	Amount
2021	$15.4 billion
2022	$18.05 billion
2023	$26.1 billion
2024	$30 billion

Pentagon Budget documents

‘Lives Are at Risk’: Pentagon Declassifies Hundreds of Dangerous Chinese Intercepts of US Planes

Oct. 17, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Chinese aircraft have engaged in many more risky intercepts of U.S. planes over the past two years than was previously publicly known, the Pentagon said Oct. 17.

There have been more than 180 dangerous incidents over the South and East China Seas during that period, according to newly declassified information released by the Pentagon. That is more than the previous decade combined.

The incidents are part of a “centralized and concerted campaign to perform these risky behaviors in order to coerce a change in lawful U.S. operational activity and that of U.S. allies and partners,” Ely Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said Oct. 17.

In a January incident, highlighted during the Pentagon briefing, a U.S. plane was flying above the South China Sea when a Chinese fighter jet armed with missiles closed within 30 feet and stayed for around 15 minutes.

That came just one month after a close call—within 20 feet—between a J-11 and an RC-135 over the South China Sea that was made public and led to recriminations on both sides.

In other instances, Chinese fighters came within 10 feet of U.S. aircraft and discharged chaff and flares.

The newly released footage comes as talks between the U.S. and the Chinese military, known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), are largely stalled at both the uniformed and civilian levels.

While both Ratner and Adm. John C. Aquilino, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), have had isolated conversations with Chinese officials, no substantive dialogue is taking place.

“I’ve asked to speak with my counterparts, the Eastern and Southern Theater commanders, now going on two and a half years,” Aquilino said. “I have yet to have one of those requests accepted.”

The newly declassified images come ahead of the annual Congressionally mandated China Military Power Report, which will highlight the rise in incidents, according to U.S. officials.

Images and video newly released by the Department capture a PLA fighter jet in the course of conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the East China Sea. The PLA fighter jet first sped toward the U.S. asset and crossed under the plane’s nose, causing the U.S. aircraft to lose visual contact of the PLA fighter. After the U.S, pilot opened some distance between the two planes, the PLA pilot re-approached at a distance of just 15 feet laterally and 10 feet below the U.S. plane. DOD photo

American aircraft are not the only ones being harassed by the Chinese. There have been 300 risky incidents involving the U.S. and its allies and partners since 2021.

The precise metric for determining if a Chinese intercept is risky is classified, but the standard has been consistent over time, the Pentagon says.

Looming in the background is the possibility such encounters could turn deadly, even if China’s armed aircraft have no intention of intentionally downing a U.S. plane.

In 2001, a Chinese fighter collided with a U.S. Navy spy plane, forcing the American plane to make an emergency landing in China. The American crew was temporarily detained while the aircraft was eventually returned after it had been dismantled. The Chinese pilot was killed.

“People’s lives are at risk,” Aquilino said. “One accident is too many. We went through it in 2001.”

One of the more egregious episodes occurred in June when Chinese fighter approached within 40 feet of an American surveillance plane and “flashed its weapons,” which are visible in a video released by the U.S.

“After the U.S. operator radioed the PLA fighter jet, the PLA pilot responded using explicit language, including an expletive,” the Pentagon said.

The U.S. insists it will continue to fly in international airspace. China’s territorial claims are expansive, including most of the South China Sea and the airspace above it.

“U.S. planes are operating safely, responsibly, and in accordance with international law,” Ratner said. “Indeed, the skill and professionalism of American service members should not be the only thing standing between PLA fighter pilots and a dangerous, even fatal, accident.”

An image and video newly released by the Department captures a PLA fighter jet conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 70 feet from the U.S. plane. Courtesy video

A video newly released by the Department captures a PLA fighter jet conducting a coercive and risky intercept against a lawfully operating U.S. asset in the South China Sea, including by approaching a distance of just 50 feet from the U.S plane. Courtesy video