Testifying on budget matters at a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing on Thursday, Douglass Loverro, the assistant secretary of defense for space policy, warned that US dominance over the final frontier is being challenged, and called for a massive uptick in spending on outer space security.
“We no longer can view space as a sanctuary,” he told lawmakers.
“Potential adversaries understand our reliance on space and want to take it away from us—we won’t let them,” Loverro added, noting that his department’s budget request for space security has increased this year by $5 billion.
Others testifying alongside Loverro cautioned lawmakers against keeping in place spending limits mandated by the Budget Control Act—the so-called sequestration cuts.
The commander of Air Force Space Command, Gen. John Hyten, told the subcommittee that his department “is going to have a difficult time meeting operational requirements,” if spending caps persist.
“Compromises will be made, risk would be increased in any scenario,” he claimed.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon also spoke of the need to increase US intelligence capabilities in space. Adm. Cecil Haney, chief of US Strategic Command, cited a July 2014 Chinese anti-satellite weapons test as the sort of “threat in space” that requires monitoring.
“We have to be ready for any campaign that extends its way into space,” Haney said.
At Thursday’s hearing, Loverro said that despite possible challenges to American authority, the US “leads the world in space on the commercial side, the civil side and the national security side.”
He also claimed the department remains “absolutely committed to ensuring the peaceful use of space for all.”
Last October, however, the US delegation to the UN disarmament committee withheld support for anti-space weaponization resolutions.
One of the initiatives, which urged members “not to be the first to place weapons in space” passed 126-4, with 46 abstentions. Joining the US in opposition were Israel, Georgia, and Ukraine.
