Schiess Takes Charge of U.S. Space Force

Gen. Douglas Schiess took charge of the U.S. Space Force today at a Change of Responsibility ceremony outside Washington, D.C. Outgoing Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman praised his successor as the “ideal” person to take on the job because he is an outstanding leader, has the expertise to make wise decisions, and cares deeply for the people who do the work.

Schiess (pronounced schess) was sworn in at Joint Base Andrews, MD this morning by Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink. Schiess is just the third USSF Chief of Space Operations (CSO), following Saltzman and Gen. John “Jay” Raymond (Ret.), who also was in attendance.

The U.S. Space Force was established in December 2019 following enactment of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act. It’s the first new military service since the U.S. Air Force was created in 1947. Both the Space Force and the Air Force are part of the Department of the Air Force. Space Force military personnel are called “Guardians.”

Schiess has been serving as the Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Operations and was confirmed by the Senate for promotion to General and to serve as the new CSO on August 6.

Schiess emphasized today that the Space Force’s goal is deterrence, not confrontation, and that means building combat credibility and increasing the options available to the President and military leadership.

“Our way of life, our economy, and our national security all depend on our ability to achieve space superiority. Every day, our potential adversaries advance their efforts to disrupt, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities, and they try to add to their own capacity to exploit space to their advantage. We cannot, we will not let that happen.

As CSO, I want to be clear: our purpose is not confrontation, but deterrence, ensuring no adversary believes aggression against the United States will succeed. To meet that purpose, we must build on our combat credibility and increase the number of options we provide to the President, the Chairman [of the Joint Chiefs of Staff], and the Joint Force.” — Gen. Douglas Schiess

The Space Force’s mantra is to secure the nation’s interests “in, from, and to space.”  That gets more complicated every day, Schiess said, with Guardians standing watch on the “invisible front line,” providing early warning, enabling precision strike, connecting warfighters around the globe, and denying sanctuary to adversaries.

“I will be relentless in my efforts to ensure our Guardians are ready, our capabilities are resilient, our partnerships are strong, and our service is worthy of the trust placed in us by the American people. No other space warfighting force in the world compares to the Guardians of the United States Space Force.” — Gen. Schiess

The Space Force budget for FY2026 is $32 billion, with a FY2027 request of $71 billion. An analysis by the Aerospace Corporation concludes it’s the highest proposed budget increase for any military service in 75 years.

This ceremony was designated as Change of Responsibility instead of Change of Command when Gen. Raymond handed the reins to Saltzman in 2022. The distinction is because the CSO is in charge of organizing, training, and equipping Guardians, not having operational command over them. That responsibility falls to the 11 Unified Combatant Commands, including the Commander of U.S. Space Command.