Space Force leaders see a need for more investment in electronic warfare capabilities. (Screen grab, Space Systems Command video)
WASHINGTON ― The loss of Space Force capabilities during Operation Epic Fury in Iran has highlighted the need for the service to invest in disaggregating its ground-based space operations centers and new “tactical” electronic warfare (EW) centers both at home and abroad, according to one of the service’s top budget planners.
“We’ve seen in Operation Epic Fury, for the first time, that our space capabilities have been targeted and destroyed,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Fernengel, told the State of Space Industrial Base (SSIB) conference in New Mexico today. “We expect that to happen more, whether that be OCONUS [outside the continental US] or targeted kinetically or through cyberspace activity [inside] CONUS.”
Fernengel, as the director of plans and programs in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, is responsible for implementing service programs across the five-year Future Years Defense Program.
As first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine, the Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget includes $1 billion to build four space operations centers in the US at: Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Schriever Space Force Base, Colo.; and Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. (The Space Force does not have a separate military construction budget, instead relying on the Air Force.)
