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The Trump Administration’s $1.5 trillion budget request for the Department of Defense has landed in Congress with a thud simply due to its SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power and Cost). Breaking out proposed space-related expenditures, the administration hopes to increase the U.S. Space Force’s buying power by 124%, raising the youngest service branch’s budget topline from $31.6 billion in FY2026 to $71.1 billion in FY2027.
Sticking to nutritional staples
When explaining this to the Defense & Aerospace Report’s audience, I compared the FY 2027 Space Force budget request as something akin to skipping breakfast and lunch and then going to the supermarket. And let’s be honest here, we know that the Space Force has had little meat on its bones for some time, despite official protestations that it was designed to be a lean service.
To be fair, while the topline is massive, Sam Wilson, a guest on this week’s podcast, pointed out that there are few new budget lines. Rather, the vast majority of the proposed budget, if enacted, would flow into already established budget-line programs, like National Security Space Launch.
Risk in the legislative process
Todd Harrison, who called the FY 2026 budget a “one time sugar high” last year on this podcast, said in this week’s episode that this budget request had “protein built in.” Harrison, however, cautioned listeners that the administration’s plan to continue to bifurcate the appropriations process — between a regular discretionary appropriations bill and a mandatory reconciliation bill — carried a real risk of disappointment, due to political headwinds and parliamentary mechanics.
“I think reconciliation, like I said before, is like a coin toss. But if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen in July. So I think July is where I would watch for reconciliation. If it hasn't happened by then, you gotta go to ‘Plan B.’” — Todd Harrison
Getting to a credible deterrent
Even to an untrained eye, the proposed dramatic FY 2027 budget increase; the two recently published forward-looking Space Force documents covered in the prior podcast episode “Space Power: The Space Force Reveals What’s In Its Crystal Ball”; the December 2025 Presidential Executive Order “Ensuring American Space Superiority”; and reaching back to prior stories, such as the naming of weapons systems, all of that taken together seems to get the Space Force closer to publicly fielding a credible deterrent on orbit.
Just the dramatic growth in the launch budget is worth admiring all on its own. But, if you take a step back and consider the upmass planned for those rockets, you might conclude a lot of on-orbit warfighting capability could be available in short order.
DOGE impacts
Notice I have not said on orbit to cis-lunar, as the December EO called for. Serious plans, policy, or money for defending U.S. interests in the cislunar region are not the only thing missing. The Space Force knows it is also missing the civilian workforce it had before Elon Musk’s DOGE, when its budget was a mere $28.9 billion. A service being asked to execute $71 billion in spending while its total workforce is in flux could be a risk hiding in plain sight.
In September, Commander, Space Systems Command, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said SSC, which is responsible for acquiring, developing, and delivering capabilities, had lost 450 civilians. He said these civilians were “typically doing acquisition all the way from new interns who we had just hired to very experienced, decades of experience, and across all career fields: program management, financial management, AC [acquisitions], logistics, contracting. I would offer our biggest impact is in the contracting career field.”
At that time, seven months ago, Garrant said his highly space-specialized contracting workforce was at 60 percent strength. It has to raise the question of how Space Systems Command will manage that workload and annual federal budget spending requirements.
The Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM or STAR Command) is the U.S. Space Force field command responsible for equipping and educating Guardians for space operations. On April 10, STARCOM announced that it was “expanding its civilian workforce with a hiring surge of more than 400 positions across the country.”
Budget lines to pay attention to
The single biggest line item in the Space Force budget is classified — a research and development line labeled simply “Classified Programs” nearly triples in one year, from $6.6 billion to $17.3 billion. It is larger than the entire Space Force procurement budget was just one year ago. According to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman, squirreled away inside the “Objective Force 2040” document’s classified annexes were two topics: orbital warfare and electronic warfare. Is there a connection?
Last but not least, it is pretty clear that the Pentagon is attempting to find ways to show that Golden Dome is moving, but the big questions remain. Last week, Gen. Michael Guetlein declared the program ahead of schedule and on budget, while Space Systems Command issued a press release saying it had awarded contracts worth up to $3.2 billion to 12 companies — including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril, and Raytheon — to develop space-based interceptors.
O.K., but Guetlein himself told Congress on April 15 that space-based interceptors are not guaranteed: “If boost-phase intercept from space is not affordable and scalable, we will not produce it.” Tracking the true cost of Golden Dome is also harder than it looks — components are spread across the service branches, from space sensors in the Space Force budget to ground-based interceptors in the Army budget.
Top 5 Budget Lines from the U.S. Space Force Procurement and Research, Development, Test & Evaluation Justification Books:
Classified Programs (RDT&E): $17.330 billion — FY2027 Space Force RDT&E Justification Book
AMTI/GMTI (procurement): $7.7 billion — PB27 Rollout Brief and FY2027 Space Force Procurement Justification Book
Resilient Missile Warning/Tracking LEO and MEO combined: ~$5 billion — FY2027 Space Force RDT&E Justification Book
National Security Space Launch: $4.190 billion — FY2027 Space Force Procurement Justification Book
Evolved Strategic SATCOM: $1.839 billion — FY2027 Space Force RDT&E Justification Book
What’s in this episode
The Trump Administration is asking Congress to more than double the Space Force budget — but with billions flowing to classified programs and a missile defense shield still under development, the real question is whether this is a strategy or a very expensive bet.
Who’s in the episode
Todd Harrison — Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner
Sam Wilson — Director, Strategy and Program Support, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, at The Aerospace Corporation.
Reading
“NASA Shuts Off Instrument on Voyager 1 to Keep Spacecraft Operating” — Press Release, NASA Science Editorial Team, NASA, April 17, 2026
“Where are Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 Now?” — NASA
“NASA shuts off another Voyager science instrument to save power. The spacecraft is now 15 billion miles from Earth” — Iain Todd, BBC Sky At Night Magazine, April 20, 2026
“Well, this is embarrassing: The Lunar Gateway’s primary modules are corroded” — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, April 24, 2026
“House Science Committee members vow to reject NASA budget cuts” — Paul Brinkmann, Aerospace America, April 22, 2026
"April 2026 Space Nuclear Weapons Analysis" — Peter Garretson and Richard Harrison, American Foreign Policy Council, April 24, 2026
“Space Force’s Space Based Interceptor Program to Counter Growing Speed and Maneuverability of Modern Missile Threats in support of Golden Dome for America” — Press release, Space Force Space Systems Command, April 24, 2026
“USSF terminates program for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System” — Press release, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs, April 20, 2026
“Pentagon pulls the plug on one of the military’s most troubled space programs” — Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, April 20, 2026
“Space Force scrambles to repair workforce as massive budget increase looms” — Thomas Novelly, Defense One, April 21, 2026
“With eyes on future NASA moon base, Space Force launches cislunar acquisition task force” — Theresa Hitchens, Breaking Defense, April 20, 2026
“Trump taps defense firm execs to lead space acquisition, NRO” — Michael Marrow, Breaking Defense, April 22, 2026
Quick note: There will be no podcast or newsletter covering the week of May 11.
Ad Astra!
Laura
AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT: This text was produced using automated speech recognition. Technical terminology may contain inaccuracies. This is provided for accessibility and is not a verbatim record. Please refer to audio for the definitive version.
