Space Force Starts Briefing Stakeholders on 15-Year Vision

AURORA, Colo.—The Space Force is starting to share early versions of its 15-year force structure roadmap with industry, government, and allied officials, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman announced Feb. 23.

In a keynote speech at AFA’s Warfare Symposium, Saltzman said the objective force document, which the service has been crafting over the last year, is meant to provide a detailed accounting of what systems, support, and personnel the service expects to need between now and 2040.

That work is in the prototype phase and the service has started to float it to select stakeholders, focusing on three primary mission areas: navigation warfare, space domain awareness, and satellite communications.

“In the end, we expect the objective force to provide all our internal and external stakeholders with the details needed to oversee, support, and build the Space Force our nation demands,” Saltzman said. “I’m excited that I’ll be able to share more details on the objective force with a wider audience in the coming weeks and at all classification levels.”

The forthcoming document is the first of its kind for the Space Force, and Saltzman characterized the process of laying out a detailed roadmap that looks 15 years into the future as a major undertaking for a small service. The team, led by the Space Warfighting Analysis Center, started by dissecting public information and military intelligence to paint a picture of what threats the Space Force might face in 2040 and what technology trends might drive operations in that environment. 

The SWAC then tested those scenarios in workshops that brought together experts from industry, allies, and other military services. Saltzman described the results as “eye-opening,” forecasting a “major shift in space warfighting” driven by technologies like artificial intelligence, autonomy, and maneuver operations. 

“New activities like on-orbit servicing, space commerce, and cyber agents will emerge as new centers of gravity that we must protect, defend, and address,” he said. “The side that masters speed, agility, and resilience will have the luxury of setting the rules for that contest. Our adversaries have been working hard to transform space into an even more ambiguous and autonomous domain. So, to maintain our edge, we must evolve the Space Force.”

Ultimately, the objective force document—which will look across all of the service’s missions—will serve as the foundation for future Space Force planning. The document will be updated each year as threats and other conditions change and will be republished every five years.

While Saltzman didn’t discuss what resources the Space Force might need to operate in that future environment, officials have said the service needs to grow—and soon—in order to meet the missions it’s been tasked with today as well as those it anticipates in the coming years. Earlier this month, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentevigna told lawmakers the service needs to double in size to “effectively fulfill our national mandate.”

Service leaders have also called for USSF funding to double or triple in the coming years. There’s been some progress on that front, with the Space Force’s annual appropriation growing from $15 billion in fiscal 2021 to nearly $40 billion in fiscal 2026. Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Shawn Bratton said in January that additional resources are needed not just for new satellites and ground systems, but for infrastructure.

“We’re bringing on a lot of work. Do I have the program offices on the acquisition side to develop those capabilities and field them? Do we have the test and training infrastructure to really wring those capabilities out? Do I have … not only the number of Guardians, but do I have the places to operate from?” he said.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, who also gave a keynote Feb. 23, said there’s “a lot of push” toward increasing USSF’s resources to match its growing mission set.  

“There’s no question the Space Force is going to grow quite a bit,” Meink said.