WASHINGTON ― The loss of Space Force capabilities during Operation Epic Fury in Iran has highlighted the need for the service to invest in disaggregating its ground-based space operations centers and new “tactical” electronic warfare (EW) centers both at home and abroad, according to one of the service’s top budget planners.
“We’ve seen in Operation Epic Fury, for the first time, that our space capabilities have been targeted and destroyed,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Fernengel, told the State of Space Industrial Base (SSIB) conference in New Mexico today. “We expect that to happen more, whether that be OCONUS [outside the continental US] or targeted kinetically or through cyberspace activity [inside] CONUS.”
Fernengel, as the director of plans and programs in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, is responsible for implementing service programs across the five-year Future Years Defense Program.
As first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine, the Air Force’s fiscal 2027 budget includes $1 billion to build four space operations centers in the US at: Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.; Redstone Arsenal, Ala.; Schriever Space Force Base, Colo.; and Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. (The Space Force does not have a separate military construction budget, instead relying on the Air Force.)
In addition, Fernengel said that “there is a significant investment in several space EW tactical operations centers” that is “kind of buried in the budget.”
While he didn’t elaborate on the cost or schedule, he said the plan is to stand those EW centers both domestically and abroad as the Space Force moves to “build out many of those space electromagnetic warfare capabilities and do the battle management of that.”
In his wide-ranging talk, Fernengel also discussed the new missions the service is taking on and investing in during the FY27-FY31 budget cycle ― many of which revolve around enabling the joint force “to close long-range kill chains,” such as airborne moving target indication and the new Space Data Network.
This includes, he teased, the new missions funded in the service’s classified budget request, which in FY27 hits a historic high of $17.3 billion.
“If you were to take a peek under the hood of the classified budget proposal, the words that I would say strike me are decisive and war-winning. They are new missions that people have read about, that people have thought about certainly, but it’s exciting, and that accounts for a lot of the mission growth in those classified programs,” he said.
Finally, Fernengel said that all the investment in new weapon systems is by necessity accompanied by planned growth in the Space Force’s personnel.
“You’ll see an increase of 2,800 military in 2027 and a little north of 2,000 civilians in 2027 to account for that mission growth, and that is on a road to get to 25,000 military by 2031 and 12,500 civilians by 2031,” he said. “Again, this is all predicated on the mission growth and what you need to be successful for that additional kit to actually be lethal and employ properly.”