U.S. Representative Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, delivered the following opening remarks at a hearing on the Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget request for space programming related to U.S. national security.
Rep. Lamborn’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
The Strategic Forces subcommittee meets today to review the fiscal year 2025 budget request for national security space programs.
Good afternoon to our witnesses – Dr. Plumb, Mr. Calvelli, Dr. Meink, and Ms. Wilkerson.
Thank you all for being here today and thank you for your service.
Today is Dr. Plumb’s last appearance before this subcommittee and maybe even his last public appearance as the first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy. We thank you for your service.
I want to thank you personally for your efforts over the years to normalize the way the department handles the space domain.
Your work on the Space Strategic Review and space classification guidance will serve as policy foundation for those who succeed you. As you stated in your Space Policy Review last year, our national security space posture considers “space as a distinct operational domain of national military power.”
Long ago, our adversaries determined that space is vital to the joint force’s operation, and they have spent the last several years developing counter-space weapons to threaten our troops.
Both China and Russia have weaponized space, and we must catch up to contend with this new reality.
Unfortunately, our governance structures present many hurdles to maintaining space superiority. We have redefined the space domain from a support function to a distinct operational domain, and the policies and directives that underpin who does what have not kept pace.
Many of these internal documents were last updated a decade ago. A decade ago, we didn’t have a Space Force, and SpaceX hadn’t yet demonstrated a first-stage landing. Technology and how we think about space has grown by leaps and bounds over the previous decade.
For example, I am concerned about how we get space-based information into the hands of the warfighters on a tactically relevant timeline. Given the retirement of the JSTARS platform beginning in the mid-2020s, the Department decided in the FY23 budget request to transition Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) from an air platform to a space-based capability.
Since the NRO is procuring this new system, does that mean NGA should serve its traditional role as clearinghouse for joint force request of scarce national assets? Or, as you, Mr. Calvelli, have argued, is this a purely Title 10 mission that needs to be tasked, owned, and operated by the Department of Defense?
This is not a trivial bureaucratic turf war. What we decide here will set the pattern for how we handle the transition to space from other previously air-based missions.
It won’t surprise anyone to hear that this committee believes that the GMTI mission – and any future systems to follow – must be tasked and controlled by the Department of Defense. Last year's bill established the Moving Target Indication Working Group, co-chaired by the Space Force and the Joint Staff.
I look forward to hearing all your perspectives on this esoteric but essential issue.
Further, many of the technological advancements that are driving us to shift these missions to space are being developed by a cutting-edge commercial space industry. We now have companies that want to provide not only launch services and communications but imagery and, rendezvous and proximity operations.
This committee has long been a proponent of taking as much advantage of these commercial capabilities as possible. I was glad to see your office, Dr. Plumb, and the Space Force released strategies to take advantage of these commercial developments last month.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses about how they are thinking about these commercial capabilities and, specifically, how they plan to integrate them with the existing government architecture.
In a world of limited budgets, it will become even more critical for the entire national security space enterprise to figure out how they leverage these commercial companies to improve.
