In the News

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Tuesday fielded questions from lawmakers about three separate space organizations the Pentagon is pursuing: U.S. Space Command, the Space Development Agency and a Space Force. When pressed by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) to rank them in order of priority, Shanahan said the first two were the most urgent.

“I would push forth standing up of the U.S. Space Command because it’s the easiest and most impactful, followed by the Space Development Agency,” Shanahan said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing where he testified on the fiscal year 2020 defense budget request alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and the Pentagon’s chief financial officer David Norquist.
Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.) asked Dunford to explain how a Space Force or a Space Development Agency won’t slow things down simply by adding more organizations to the mix.

Dunford said DoD needs to do a better job developing space capabilities and that the current system is inefficient. “That is the foundational argument for the Space Development Agency,” he said.

On whether a separate military service is needed, he said it makes sense to have an organization that has “a singular focus, has a responsibility for identifying, training, equipping people.” A service also would ensure that resources are not taken from space to pay for other programs. “There’s always that temptation,” he said. But Dunford acknowledged that having a four-star general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff is no guarantee that space will get more attention. There is now a broader understanding that space is important and the tone of the dialogue in the Pentagon reflects that, said Dunford.

If Congress does authorize a Space Force, Dunford cautioned, it should recognize that DoD’s plan needs to be fine-tuned. “I’m satisfied with the way we’ve it laid out,” he said. “And I’m confident that over the next several years it’ll be refined,” Dunford said. “I think we have all the pieces in place. But we ought to not seek perfection before we start to change the way we do business given the importance of space.”