Schiess succeeds Gen. Chance Saltzman as the service’s top uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has served as the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations since late 2025.<\/p>\n
The six-year-old service is seeking a major increase in resources to support new missile warning and tracking satellites, resilient communications networks and other classified space programs. Schiess assumes the role as the Space Force reorganizes its acquisition enterprise around mission-focused Portfolio Acquisition Executives and increases its reliance on commercial space capabilities while fielding larger constellations of military satellites.<\/p>\n
During his confirmation hearing last month, Schiess argued that the Space Force has completed its initial institution building phase but must now rapidly expand its workforce, infrastructure and operational capabilities to keep pace with China, which he described as developing military space capabilities at a “breathtakingly fast” rate. “It will be the honor of my professional career to lead the Guardians of the United States Space Force,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said he would work to ensure Guardians are ready, capabilities are resilient and partnerships remain strong.<\/p>\n
Schiess told senators the service must organize, train and equip forces to defend U.S. satellites, protect the joint force from space-enabled attacks and provide capabilities for military operations worldwide. “We must defend our nation’s space capabilities so that the Joint Force can project power; we must protect the Joint Force from space-enabled attack; and we must deliver the capabilities that the Joint Force needs to prosecute the full range of its missions,” he said. He endorsed the shift toward commercial space services but argued that spacecraft capable of offensive military operations should remain under government ownership and control.<\/p>\n
A 34-year military veteran, Schiess began his career as an Air Force missile officer before moving into military launch, GPS and satellite communications. He has commanded the 45th Space Wing at Cape Canaveral, the missile-warning-focused 21st Space Wing and U.S. Space Forces\u2013Space, the service component responsible for providing operational forces to U.S. Space Command.<\/p>\n
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Schiess would lead the service as it accelerates the delivery of next-generation military space capabilities. “I am incredibly pleased with the Senate’s confirmation of Lieutenant General Doug Schiess as our next Chief of Space Operations,” Meink said. Saltzman, who is retiring after 35 years of military service, called Schiess “an exceptional leader” and said he had the experience needed to guide the Space Force into its next phase.<\/p>\n
Schiess now assumes command of a service pressing for growth across workforce, infrastructure and operational capabilities. His stated priorities include defending U.S. satellites, protecting the joint force from space-enabled attacks and delivering the capabilities the joint force needs for its missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Schiess succeeds Gen. Chance Saltzman as the service’s top uniformed officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has served as the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations since late 2025. The six-year-old service is seeking a major increase in resources to support new missile warning and tracking satellites, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}