Space National Guard or not, these companies will benefit

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump instructed the Department of Defense to establish a sixth branch of the US Armed Forces—a Space Force separate from the Air Force. Eighteen months later, the US Space Force came into existence when half of the 35,000 civilian and military employees of the US Space Command and the US Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) moved to form the new service.

Since then, this number has grown to approximately 14,500 total “Guardians”, which includes the USSF, of which less than 10,000 are active duty military. But the Space Force might get a little bigger soon. Because as the 2024 campaign season heats up, presidential candidate Donald Trump called for the creation of something new: a National Space Guard.

Image source: Getty Images.

Uncle Sam wants you (to go into space)!

Currently, the Space Force relies on Air National Guard units to fill its ranks. Military times it is estimated that about 10% of the Guardsmen serving in the Space Force are actually drawn from the Air National Guard.

Now, the Air Force doesn’t like this arrangement and has suggested that the Space Force recruit more full-time Rangers rather than get part-time support from the ANG. But speaking at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit last month, Trump proposed an alternative. He argued that it was time to create an independent Space National Guard to complement the Space Force.

This idea is not new. There are actually two bills making their way through Congress that would establish a Space National Guard “as the primary combat reserve component of the Space Force.” But the Biden administration opposes that idea, advocating instead for the Air Force plan to simply expand the Space Force.

But if there’s one thing both political parties already agree on, it’s that the Space Force is destined to grow and will require more resources as time goes on. In a tight national defense budget, growing the Space Force could logically (to some extent) come at the expense of growing the Air Force.