The next likely leader of the Space Force, Lt. Gen. Doug Schiess faced a short, nonconfrontational hearing Thursday morning in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

Schiess is expected to succeed chief of space operations Gen. Chance Saltzman as the top leader of the young military branch, which maintains a large footprint in Colorado Springs. 

The hearing was less than an hour long and touched briefly on the Space Force’s proposal to more than double its budget and add thousands of members, and did not draw many members of the large and powerful committee. 

“The fact that we didn’t have a large turnout is an indication, I believe, of the committee’s confidence in you. This is a rare case where a small audience is probably better,” said Sen. Angus King, I-Maine. 

If confirmed, Schiess could oversee a major expansion of the Space Force’s budget and personnel.

The Trump administration has proposed a $71.1 billion Space Force budget, more than double its current spending allotment.

Schiess explained the budget increase is necessary because threats in space have changed. 

“We have to have the ability to counter someone else’s ability to hold our satellites at risk,” he said. 

Most of the budget increase would support new weapons systems, training, and facilities, he said. Colorado Springs could see a new $250 million for a new space operations center on Schriever Space Force Base if the proposed budget is passed. 

The coming year could also see a significant rise in staffing with 2,800 new uniformed positions and 2,000 new civilians, Schiess said. The Space Force employs about 10,000 uniformed staff. 

Over the next five years, the total number of guardians is set to double. 

All of the support personnel on Space Force bases, such as security and medical staff, are members of the Air Force. 

A hiring push in the service is already underway within Space Systems Command, charged with purchasing new technology. The command is working to hire 100 positions a month and it is seeing success, he said. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., questioned the proposal to eliminate the Space Development Agency, which was started to accelerate the purchasing of new satellites and other equipment for the Space Force. 

The Space Development Agency was established in 2019 and it was leading the charge to build constellations of smaller satellites that could be more easily modernized than large specialized satellites common in previous decades that took many years to design and build.  

The new portfolio acquisition executives are expected to adopt the best qualities of the Space Development Agency, Schiess said. 

The executives will have a great deal of autonomy to make purchasing decisions and will help acquisitions move faster, The Gazette reported previously. One of those executives is expected to be based at Peterson Space Force Base. 

Schiess would bring extensive experience to the position. He started his career in 1993 as an intercontinental ballistic missile commander and later served as a GPS system crew commander in 2000. He most recently served as the commander of Space Forces-Space in California. The unit is in charge of combat forces more than 62 miles above the Earth and delivers space capability, such as intelligence and missile warning, to the joint force.