Sunday Report 25 May 25

Name: Mitchell Institute Schriever Spacepower Series: Dr. Kelly Hammett
Start: 2025-06-24
End: 2025-06-24
Location: Virtual

The Week In National Security Space

Congress / White House

House passes reconciliation bill with $150B increase for defense. The House passed H.R. 1 (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), which paves the way for a $150B increase in defense spending for FY 2025-2029. Per President Donald Trump’s budget overview, the majority of this ($113B) is planned to be applied to FY 2026, pushing the FY 2026 defense budget to $1.01T. The $150B specifies spending across twelve focus areas, including $24.7B for the Golden Dome initiative, $11.5B for readiness, $13.5B for scaling innovation, and $11.1B for Indo-Pacific deterrence. Although, approved spending will largely be at the discretion of DoD. The reconciliation bill was passed through the process known as “budget reconciliation” which only requires a simple majority in both the House and Senate. Senate leadership is expected to make significant modifications to the language prior to a vote with Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) aiming to get the bill through the chamber by 4 July.

Space Force

Meink, Saltzman, and Allvin highlight FY26 priorities and challenges in SASC testimony. Secretary of the Air Force Hon Troy Meink, alongside Air Force Chief of Staff Gen David Allvin and Chief of Space Operations Gen Chance Saltzman, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee to outline the Department of the Air Force’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget priorities and the growing challenges facing the service. Hon Meink emphasized that the Department stands at an “inflection point,” balancing the need to generate readiness today while modernizing for the future. He said the Department’s top priorities include homeland defense, particularly nuclear modernization, deterring China through investments in readiness, forward posture in the Indo-Pacific, and force development. He also expressed strong support for the “Golden Dome for America” initiative. Gen Saltzman told lawmakers that new missions coupled with a slew of additional requirements, are challenged by limited resources. “The Space Force has been asked to accept new responsibilities and missions forcing tough choices between delayed readiness, reduced capacity and vulnerabilities,” he testified. He also told lawmakers that the service has lost almost 14% of its civilian employees to early retirement and deferred-resignation programs — more than what officials previously estimated. “I’m worried about replacing that level of expertise in the near term, as we try to resolve it and make sure we have a good workforce doing that acquisition work.”

Gen Saltzman talks partnerships and TacSRT at GEOINT. In his GEOINT 2025 keynote address, Chief of Space Operations Gen Chance Saltzman emphasized deepening partnerships between the Space Force and Intelligence Community to prevent redundancy, close gaps, and deliver timely space-based support to the warfighter. He announced the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to formalize collaboration and clarity, calling it a key step toward integrated operations and data sharing. The agreement describes NGA’s roles and responsibilities in acquiring and providing commercial imagery, remote sensing data and associated products, and enhancing support to the combatant commands. Gen Saltzman also highlighted the TacSRT mission as a critical tool providing unclassified, real-time awareness to combatant commanders and allies, prioritizing speed and enabling faster and more inclusive decision-making that will complement traditional intelligence work. “It’s about speed, not resolution. It’s about breadth, not depth… So this is a complementary effort, not a replacement,” he stated.

C-Note #35: Equipping the Force. Chief of Space Operations Gen Chance Saltzman released his C-Note #35 on Equipping the Force, highlighting the significant role of acquisition. Gen Saltzman writes, “Critical amongst our Service responsibilities is ‘equipping’ which occurs through DoD processes guided by our acquisition professionals.” He notes that 66% of leadership roles are held by officers with acquisition experience and 66% of the budget is devoted to RDT&E. With capability development as a core function, Gen Saltzman writes that all Guardians will now start in operations and then bring those skills to education, training, test, and threat replications activities. USSF will also shift the selection, training, and education of Guardians acquiring systems. The note details, “After an ops tour and competitive selection, a tailored 10-week, in person AQ IQT course will set our capability developers up for success.”

Golden Dome

Gen Guetlein tapped as Golden Dome lead. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump selected Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen Michael Guetlein to lead the Golden Dome missile defense program, which represents one of the most ambitious missile defense initiatives in U.S. history. Gen Guetlein has been a vocal advocate for integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and commercial technologies into national security strategies—expertise that will be crucial for coordinating the complex technological systems required for Golden Dome.

MDA announces new Golden Dome contract vehicle. The Missile Defense Agency has unveiled plans for a $151B procurement framework to field next-generation capabilities across nearly every dimension of the missile defense enterprise. The effort called SHIELD, Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense, will be structured as a 10-year, multiple-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract that will support a vast range of research, development, testing, integration, production and sustainment activities.

International

ESA pushing for a security and resilience satellite system. In a broadcast interview this week, European Space Agency Director General Josef Aschbacher said that the agency will be seeking funding at the November ministerial for a “security and resilience” satellite system at the request of member states. He suggested that one feature of the system would be improved temporal resolution and 30-min revisit rate. In January 2024, the European Commission studied a possible Earth Observation Government Service that would provide reconnaissance applications with one-year feasibility study contracts to OHB and Telespazio. Aschbacher noted that while defense programs make up 50% of government spending on space globally, in Europe it is 15%, and that European nations now see defense space funding needs to increase.

Threats

Threats Wrap-Up: A recent Chinese test succeeded in using a laser to target a satellite orbiting the Moon during daylight hours. This is an impressive technological feat and, as stated, is a significant advancement for China’s plans related to its lunar activities. However, it is also a very important advancement toward China’s ability to accurately target U.S. and allied satellites orbiting Earth in LEO and GEO during daylight. Such an ability will be crucial to China’s wartime ability to track and target adversary spacecraft. This will make it more difficult for the U.S. to protect and defend its orbiting satellites. With deterrence as a significant issue to consider in future space warfare, this newly achieved capability will add to the problem of adequately deterring all Chinese space-related abilities.

The Week Ahead

Tuesday, 27 May

Space Policy Institute: Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Civil and Commercial Uses of GPS. Washington, D.C. & Virtual. (more)

SmallSat Europe. May 27-28. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (more)

Wednesday, 28 May

AFCEA Space Coast Fireside Chat: Navigating the Changing GovCon Landscape. Satellite Beach, FL. (more)

Thursday, 29 May

INSA Securing Space: Threats, Data, and Resilience in a Contested Domain (TS//SI/TK) w/ Maj Gen Christopher Povak, Bradley Edmonson, Greg Ryckman, et. al. Chantilly, VA. (more)

AUSA Space: Enabling Multi-Domain Operations w/ LTG Thomas James, LTG Sean Gainey, Brig Gen Eric Little, Col Scott Klempner, Col Rob Davis, Col Peter Norsky, Charlotte Gerhart, et. al. May 29-30. Long Beach, CA (more)

Friday, 30 May

AUSA Space: Enabling Multi-Domain Operations w/ Col Pete Mastro, Col Alexander Rasmussen, Lt Col Nicholas Milano, Natalie Riedel, et. al. May 29-30. Long Beach, CA (more)