The Department of Defense (DOD) is a U.S. government agency responsible for military and national security space activities. It acts as a major procurer and operator of space systems, including launch vehicles and satellite systems for reconnaissance, missile launch detection, navigation, and communication. The DOD aims to maintain space superiority, integrate military space power, and ensure space stability, working with commercial firms to integrate space solutions into national security architectures.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The Department of Defense would request $84,000,000 in the fiscal year 2020 budget for U.S. Space Command.
A congressionally mandated Pentagon report in August 2018 stated that a whole-of-government approach would be needed to achieve the president’s vision for a Space Force and recommended improved integration with organizations including the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Christopher Scolese served in the U.S. Navy, worked as a Department of Defense civilian, and has spent most of his government career at NASA.
Prior to joining NASA in 1987, Chris Scolese worked as a civilian at the Department of Defense and at the General Research Corporation.
Air Force Space Command expects U.S. Space Command to be at full operational capability on day one but projects that building it to full capability will take years and require assistance from the Department of Defense and Congress.
The Pentagon reported that Congress provided more than $12,000,000,000 for unclassified space activities for 2019.
The $8,100,000,000 for 2019 was approximately $900,000,000 more than the $7,200,000,000 the Pentagon received for space procurement and R&D in 2018.
Congress provided $8,100,000,000 for Defense Department investments in space systems in the fiscal year 2019 appropriations bill.
Tierney identified about $4,000,000,000 of the Pentagon’s $12,000,000,000 unclassified space total as personnel, operations, and maintenance funds not traceable to public budget documents.
The $8,100,000,000 Congress provided for unclassified military space procurement and R&D for 2019 was about $20,000,000 more than the Pentagon requested.
The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress operates a national security space program that is developing recommendations for how the Pentagon could work better with the commercial space industry.
President Donald Trump issued a 2018-12-18 memo instructing the Pentagon to establish a United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command.
The Pentagon is finalizing a legislative proposal and budget request for fiscal year 2020 to submit to the White House that recommends creating a Space Force with its own four-star chief of staff and a civilian undersecretary of space under the Department of the Air Force.
A draft space policy directive orders the Defense Department to establish a U.S. Space Force as a sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces within the Department of the Air Force.
Congress included a provision in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting the Defense Department from awarding or renewing EELV contracts after 2022 for rockets that use Russian engines.
The CBO characterizes its $77,000,000,000 estimate for future NC3 costs as probably conservative because much remains unknown about Pentagon plans to acquire new satellites and airborne command centers.
The CBO attributes a $19,000,000,000 increase in NC3 costs to the need to replace the Pentagon’s aging fleet of four airborne command centers and to acquire new early warning and communications satellites.
The CBO estimates the Department of Defense will need to budget $77,000,000,000 from 2019 to 2028 to maintain and modernize nuclear command, control, communications, and early warning systems (NC3).
Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund argued that the MDR's call for further study of space-based interceptors indicates the Pentagon is not convinced the technology can work or that deploying such weapons is smart policy.
Appropriators added $73,000,000 to the Department of Defense’s 2019 budget to begin work on a space-based missile defense sensor architecture.