Space Force presses case for more personnel and training

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is intensifying its push for more personnel and training resources as military leaders warn that the Pentagon’s reliance on space capabilities is expanding faster than the service itself.

Gen. Shawn Bratton, vice chief of space operations, told lawmakers Wednesday that training exercises and war games are increasingly focused on integrating space capabilities with broader military operations.

“Recent events around the world clearly demonstrate the importance of the Space Force as part of the joint force with guardians, both in garrison and deployed in harm’s way,” Bratton told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s readiness and management support subcommittee during a March 4 hearing.

“Our priority is clear,” he said. “We must protect the joint force from space-enabled attack.”

Bratton appeared alongside the vice chiefs of the other military services. The hearing examined readiness across the armed forces.

Space Force leaders have spent the past several years arguing that the service must evolve from an organization focused primarily on operating satellites to one organized and trained to fight through attacks on space systems. The shift reflects growing concerns in the Pentagon that rivals could target U.S. space assets during a conflict.

Space-enabled threats can take several forms, including missile strikes guided by satellite navigation, anti-satellite attacks designed to disable spacecraft, or the use of space-based intelligence systems to locate and track U.S. forces.

To counter those threats, Bratton said the service must expand.

“Guardians must be ready at any time for any threat across the entire spectrum of conflict,” he said. “These new missions and our responsibilities to the joint force mean the Space Force must aggressively increase its end strength and infrastructure.”

The Space Force currently has about 10,000 uniformed Guardians and roughly 5,000 civilian employees. 

“We will need to double in size in the coming years to meet identified operational needs, as well as significantly increase our training facilities,” Bratton said. “Even as we prepare for current warfighting challenges, we are aggressively looking ahead at capability requirements for the future force.”

Bratton repeatedly emphasized the need to build training programs capable of preparing a larger workforce to operate next-generation space systems and integrate those capabilities into joint military operations.

Space systems critical to military operations include missile warning, navigation, communications and surveillance. 

“The Space Force continues to provide tremendous value to both the joint force and the nation,” Bratton said. “That value will grow as we work to build the service to meet these rapidly expanding requirements.”

Training infrastructure a top priority

Responding to questions from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska), who chairs the subcommittee, Bratton again pointed to the need for training infrastructure as the service grows and introduces new systems.

If the Space Force expands and fields new capabilities, he said, the service must ensure it can “onboard those guardians who need to be working in the program offices to bring all this new mission, all this new equipment, into the service, and then work it through the test and training infrastructure so we’re fielding fully capable systems with guardians that are trained to operate it.”

He noted that the service is already building a training framework centered on large-scale exercises designed to simulate combat conditions in space.

Among them is Space Flag, a tactical warfighting exercise modeled on the Air Force’s Red Flag air combat drills. The event brings together operators responsible for satellite command and control, GPS, missile warning and space domain awareness to train in simulated contested environments.

Another event, Resolute Space, is run by U.S. Space Command and focuses on how space capabilities support broader military operations, integrating space activities into joint war-planning scenarios.

A third exercise, Flashpoint, is a smaller operational drill that tests how space units respond to specific crisis scenarios, such as simulated attacks on satellites or disruptions to space services.