There is a new push for a Space Force National Guard – a proposal that has failed to pass Congress and has been so far rejected by the Pentagon and White House. But as the Space Force nears its fourth birthday in December, the challenges of not having a separate Space Force National Guard continues to be a topic of discussion and debate. And there are more and more stories sharing why having a separate Space Force National Guard is not only a good idea but necessary to ensure the military continues moving forward in its mission of maintaining Space dominance.
The biggest pushback from Congress and the Pentagon has been the potential cost of creating a Space Force National Guard. In 2020, the Congressional Budget Office did a study: Cost of Creating A Space Force National Guard stating it could cost up to $500 million annually to create and maintain a Space Force National Guard equivalent to the Air Force National Guard. Currently, the CBO is not working to update the 2020 report.
The Space Force was created in 2019 to help streamline Space and ensure that all of the Space assets were under one mission focus. With the growing threat posed by strategic competitors in space, it became clear that there was a need for a military service focused solely on pursuing superiority in the space domain. And while space has been a military focus for over 60 years, pulling space assets out of each branch of the military and putting them under the control of one branch was pivotal. But that creation of a new branch did not extend to the Reserve and National Guard. There are a number of space assets still located under the Air Force through the National Guard and Reserve, leaving these Airmen under the control of the Air Force and not the Space Force.
This arrangement has made it difficult for these Air National Guard personnel to get the appropriate training. They are overseen by the Air Force while completing a Space Force mission. Lt Gen Michael Loh, head of the Air National Guard and former Colorado adjutant general said, “I can’t right now send them to basic military training with the Space Force [the service] they would actually be going off to combat with.”
There is a disconnect between those serving in the Air National Guard while working on space assets. Sen Diana Feinstein (D) who is working on a bipartisan effort to create a Space Force National Guard with Sen Marco Rubio (R) said, “The National Guard’s space units serve under the Air Force, which no longer has responsibility for the space mission, they should serve under the Space Force with the rest of our space units and fix the organizational disconnect that is undermining their training, resourcing, and recruiting. Leaving the Guard’s space units under the Air Force is shortsighted and undermines our national security.”
The common sense of creating a Space Force National Guard seems to only have one major opposition and it is the cost stemming from the CBO study mentioned earlier. But proponents of the National Guard Bureau say that the CBO study is flawed. It bases the assumption that a Space Force National Guard would need to be stood up in every state.
But in actuality what leaders are trying to achieve is simply grandfather in the existing states and territories that have Space Guard and reserve components into a National Guard. They are not trying to create a Space Force National Guard infrastructure in every state. The National Guard Bureau estimates it will cost $250,000 to transfer approximately 1,000 space technicians from sixteen Air National Guard units across eight states.
And it seems that all the advocacy and voices demanding a Space Force National Guard are having their voices heard. The draft fiscal 2024 defense policy bill includes a separate Space Force National Guard and also incorporates the hybrid Space Force Component proposed by Space Force leaders that would be composed of Space Force full and part-time Guardians in lieu of a separate Space Force Reserve.
This is a huge win for advocates who have been working since the creation of the Space Force in December 2019 for a separate Space Force National Guard.
