Name: The $30 Billion Strategy Behind America’s Space Defense
Uploaded: 2025-04-10
Duration: 5 min 27 s
Description: Space Force was created in 2019 to secure U.S. dominance in space. Today, it’s at the forefront of addressing emerging threats like crowded orbits, cyberattacks on satellites, and global competition. What does this mean for America’s national security in space?

Space Force was created in 2019 to secure U.S. dominance in space. Today, it’s at the forefront of addressing emerging threats like crowded orbits, cyberattacks on satellites, and global competition. What does this mean for America’s national security in space?

The $30 Billion Strategy Behind America’s Space Defense

Tech

Founded in 2019, the Space Force now confronts satellite threats and global rivals. What’s next for U.S. space security?

Space has evolved. Space is no longer a benign environment. It's extremely contested. Over the past decade, countries like Russia, China and India have tested anti-satellite weapons, sparking international concerns about the vulnerability of critical space systems. Essential to our daily lives, with ambitions to colonize Mars and discover new life forms, space remains a domain of exploration, but it has also become a contested frontier. The US Space Force was established in 2019. Becoming the 6th branch of the US armed forces under the Air Force, its mission is to secure our nation's interests in, from, and to space. To accomplish the mission of space superiority, we have proposed a theory of success called competitive endurance. This theory includes 3 key tenets avoiding operational surprise, denying first mover advantage, and conducting responsible counter space activities. As the players and threats in space evolve, how is the US trying to stay ahead? Tell us a little bit about how you think space itself is going to evolve as a battleground and as of course an opportunity in the next few years. Yes, so space has evolved. Um, space is no longer a benign environment. It's extremely contested. Our adversaries, they understand our reliance on space, and they're taking deliberate actions to develop capabilities such as anti-satellite weapons to degrade American advantage. That's serious. Space Force manages more than 75 satellites. In 2024, they had more than 10 types of satellites in operation. Do you use internet connectivity at all? Do you love the internet? Yes, I do. We've talked about this. Do you leverage data at all, you know, do you, when you're on those long flights, do you connect to the internet, the Wi Fi. Internet that space GPS and navigation systems are also space. Critical capabilities that we use every day in our life we rely on space-based capabilities. An anti-satellite weapon can disable these satellites through radiation or electromagnetic pulses, threatening both US military and commercial systems. That's why Space Force is turning to AI as one of the tools to help tackle this issue. So we are embracing all artificial intelligence, so we are leveraging any capability. That allows us to make decisions faster to be able to take care of our guardians and airmen, um, our allies as well as our partners. Let me talk a little bit about moonshots because the original space race, of course, was to get to the moon. What is the moonshot today from where you sit? Oh, space domain awareness. We need the ability to be able to see the different activities that are taking place in space. So one of our top priorities for artificial intelligence integration is leveraging it for space domain awareness so we can see. Various activities taking place in the domain. With regard to AI, you know, talk a little bit about even trust and how much you empowered to AI and how much you empower to humans. We will always have humans in the loop, especially when it comes to high state environment we'll leverage artificial intelligence where appropriate. I think one key area that we are are looking at is how do we leverage artificial intelligence to help streamline business functions. So from human resources to. Travel requests, etc. Space Force received just $30 billion out of an $842 billion defense budget in 2024, but responding to these threats isn't just about funding, it's about leveraging the right capabilities. That's why collaboration is critical. So we've seen a lot of commercial actors go into space. I'm thinking both, you know, there's Jeff Bezos, of course, Elon Musk, you know, many, many others. What impact has that had just On the landscape, but also, you know, the ability of space force to do its job. Yes, so we depend a great deal on our commercial partners. We know that we cannot do it alone. We have to work with industry partners. We have to work with the commercial sector. We also have to work with academia, and there are a lot of opportunities, and we will partner with the most data AI capable organizations to help us deliver on our mission, which is to protect and defend the space domain. This commercial collaboration in space can have real-time impacts on the ground as well. The United States, our allies, and our commercial companies are using space-based capabilities to help provide intelligence and surveillance support to the Ukrainian military. During the Russia-Ukraine war, jammers from both sides disrupted each other's operations. Starlink has been the cornerstone of the command and control software used by the armed forces of Ukraine to exchange data and coordinate military actions. As more players enter the space race, the orbits above Earth are getting. congested. So Chandra, how much junk is there up there? Millions. There is a lot. There are various websites where you can go look at publicly available information to see what how many objects are in space, but millions of objects are in space from a debris' perspective. In a domain shaped by rising threats and rapid innovation, the space force is focused on maintaining awareness, building resilience, and partnering across sectors to ensure the US can compete and endure in the new space era.