Failing to pass a defense budget is a self-inflicted wound in the space race

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launched a GPS satellite for the U.S. Space Force Jan. 28, 2026 Credit: SpaceX

As we have learned from the current conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, space-enabled capability has become critical to all we do in the military. It is persistent (always there) and operates in denied areas (first in the battlefield). These capabilities provide critical combat effects: intelligence, missile threat warning, rapid communications and necessary and amazingly accurate navigation and timing.

Obviously, our adversaries know this and threats to these critical space systems are rapidly growing. The United States Space Force knows this and has proposed rapid responses that require funding and the supporting manpower to execute these new solutions. Speed is critical to get these solutions in place in a time relevant fashion. The White House budget proposal would provide a historic and necessary increase to the Space Force. This comes in a time when the threats to our nation by Russian and Chinese hypersonic and hypersonic glide missiles that can be launched from anywhere in the world from mobile launcher, aircraft, submarines, ships and even space itself are rapidly increasing. More importantly, China and Russia have developed systems capable of negating our space systems through direct ascent ASAT, co-orbital ASAT threats (kinetic, cyber, jamming, spoofing and even kidnapping), and even more concerning have threatened the deployment of nuclear armed space based anti-satellite systems.