The U.S. Space Force, once maliciously mocked by liberals because it was created by former President Donald Trump, is becoming an increasingly vital tool in America’s national defense.
President Joe Biden seeks a 15% spike in the agency’s budget for 2024.
The total funding request of $30 billion means that Biden has doubled the Space Force’s budget since 2021, Biden’s first year in office and the first year the department was first funded as a stand-alone agency.
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That’s quite a leap since the Space Force’s continuation was once mocked by Biden’s former spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, during a White House press briefing in February 2021.
Space Force seeks additional funding to keep up with Russia and China in the race for space dominance.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the budget would fund “vital space capabilities, resilient architectures, and enhanced space command and control.”
Earlier this month, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told the Senate Armed Services Committee that America’s leading adversaries “continue to develop, field, and deploy a range of weapons aimed at U.S. space capabilities.”
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“The spectrum of threats to U.S. space capabilities includes cyber warfare activities, electronic attack platforms, directed energy lasers designed to blind or damage satellite sensors, ground-to-orbit missiles to destroy satellites, and space-to-space orbital engagement systems that can attack U.S. satellites in space,” Saltzman told lawmakers.
Part of the Space Force budget includes a first-time expense of $350 million for new simulators to better train Guardians, as Space Force troops are called, in managing the equipment they use and monitor, including rocket launchers, satellites, and ground-based communications and sensory equipment.
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