State of the Space Force 2025
As Trump envisions “our manifest destiny into the stars,” the Space Force is set to play a key role in America’s space ambitions.
Audrey Decker | April 18, 2025 05:58 AM ET
Space Force Space China Russia
When President Donald Trump signed the Space Force into existence, he hailed space as the “world’s newest warfighting domain.” Five years later, the Space Force is fully embracing its role as "warfighters”—arguing for new gear to defeat enemy satellites and control the heavens.
From Chinese satellites that can “dogfight” other satellites to Russia’s development of a nuclear weapon designed for space, the Space Force says its adversaries are becoming more aggressive in space, and it needs additional funds to deter and fight back.
This call will likely be answered by the Pentagon, with longtime space official Troy Meink slated to lead the Department of the Air Force, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk serving as a close adviser to Trump.
But the Space Force’s future is far from certain. The service is poised to lose part of its already small workforce—a third of which is civilian—to the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government, and new Pentagon priorities are forcing the smallest service to find ways to cut 8 percent from its budget and redirect those funds to other efforts.
https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/04/state-space-force-2025/404672/?oref=d1-homepage-river
