WASHINGTON – Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema helped introduce the Space National Guard Establishment Act with U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) – bipartisan legislation forming a Space National Guard as a reserve component of the U.S. Space Force, increasing efficiency of troop mobilization and strengthening national defense.
The legislation comes as intelligence became public on the Russian military’s intention to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space.
“Establishing a Space National Guard strengthens our defense readiness and helps keep Arizona families safe and secure now and into the future,” said Sinema, Chair of the Space & Science Subcommittee and Co-Chair of the Space Force Caucus.
The Sinema-backed Space National Guard Establishment Act realigns more than 1,000 servicemembers within the Air National Guard to establish a Space National Guard, which would serve as a separate reserve component of the U.S. Space Force. The Space National Guard would continue performing missions in support of the Space Force as the Air National Guard has proudly done for the Air Force since 1996.
Currently, more than 1,000 members of the National Guard are supporting the space mission from within the Air National Guard. Those Guardsmen constitute 28% of all Department of the Air Force unit-equipped Space Operations Squadrons. Those squadrons comprise 60% of our nation’s Offensive Space Electromagnetic Warfare Capability, 50% of the communications requirement for National Command Authority, 33% of the nation’s strategic missile warning system, space intelligence capability, and the nation’s only survivable mobile missile warning system and nuclear detection system. The realignment of those squadrons under the Space Force through Sinema’s bipartisan Space National Guard Establishment Act increases troop mobilization efficiency, retains vital capability, and supports a balanced budget.