The Space Force Association applauds the Senate’s confirmation of Lt. Gen. Doug Schiess as the third Chief of Space Operations. With deep experience commanding Space Force, Joint, and coalition forces under U.S. Space Command, Schiess understands where the Service must focus to grow in both capacity and capability to deter future aggression in space.
Most coverage of Schiess’ confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) focused on its low-controversy tone and on China’s threat as justification for the Service’s $71 billion budget request. Both can be read as signs of the SASC’s growing trust and respect for the Space Force. Meanwhile, one exchange received far less attention despite its potential impact on the Service.
Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI) opened his questioning by asking how much support the Space Force still receives from the Air Force, and how that relationship may need to change in the coming years. Reed said the historical arrangement “was appropriate for a new service,” but asked Schiess to determine “where it makes sense to build independent capacity versus maintaining the current relationship with the Air Force.”
That is a powerful question, and one that could significantly shape how the Space Force looks in just a few years.
Since its creation, the Space Force has been unique among the military services in that its force structure is concentrated almost entirely in operations — space, cyber, and intelligence — and acquisition. It has little organic mission-support capability of its own in areas such as medical, security, maintenance, professional services. Because most of the Space Force spun out of the Air Force, nearly all of that supporting infrastructure still resides there.
That arrangement is arguably untenable over the long term. Today, Space Force bases rely on a heavy Air Force presence to run multiple key functions. Schiess was right to thank Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach for that support, since the status quo imposes a real burden on the Air Force through the thousands of Airmen tied to Space Force missions. For the Space Force’s part, millions of dollars intended for its combat-generation capabilities still flow through Air Force channels.
Meanwhile, Space Force operational missions and the number of platforms it supports have grown since the Service’s creation, and the FY27 President’s Budget seeks nearly 5,000 new authorizations as first payment on the Space Force doubling in size. It also seeks to fund new infrastructure across the country, including at locations that do not belong to the Air Force.
At the same time, the Space Force’s Objective Force 2040 points to even more growth. After Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg supported roughly 175 launches in 2025, the Service envisions a future with as many as 3,000 annual launches, a roughly 17-fold increase that would touch every aspect of installation activity.
This is the point behind Reed’s question. Left unchecked, the burden on the Air Force will keep growing, while the Space Force’s control over its own infrastructure and readiness stays fragmented across another service. If, when, and how this changes is a matter of real consequence.
Reed’s question is not rhetorical, either, as Congress is already exploring concrete changes. If enacted as written, the Senate’s version of the FY27 NDAA would direct the Space Force to examine whether it needs its own JAG Corps, given the unique legal issues raised by operations in the space domain.
The hearing exchange and the NDAA language can be read one of two ways. This could be a “pebble in the pond” moment where Congress has a small, specific question it wants answered, and nothing more. Or, it could be the first push of a snowball rolling downhill, signaling the start of a deeper Congressional inquiry into why, when, and how far to separate the Space Force from the Air Force.
Time will tell which it is. Any shift of responsibilities into the Space Force would be an additive resourcing requirement to its current budget, and anything beyond small adjustments would likely ripple across budgets throughout the Department of War. Still, history suggests that when Congress starts asks and tasks issues this way it already has an answer in mind that eventually shows up in statute.
The issue behind Reed’s question is worth watching closely. Lt. Gen. Schiess is the perfect leader to partner with Executive and Legislative branch leadership to answer these critical questions that will define the future of the Space Force for decades to come.
