Trump job cuts may blind US Space Force to China’s moves in the sky, mission chief warns

Federal workforce cuts by the Trump administration are jeopardising American tracking of China’s satellite surveillance network, a US Space Force officer in charge of such operations has warned.

The warning from Kelly Hammett, director of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office (SRCO), comes at a time of rapidly expanding space activities by China, including satellite communications and space-based surveillance.

Addressing an Air and Space Forces Association warfare symposium in Colorado on Wednesday, Hammett said his team had been gathering intelligence on China’s Space Observation Surveillance and Identification System (SOSI) with “quasi-operational success”.

But staffing cuts – as outlined in a hiring freeze memorandum issued by the US defence secretary earlier this week – were straining his office’s ability to function and monitor foreign threats in orbit, he cautioned.

SOSI is seen as China’s answer to the US Space Surveillance Network (SSN).

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The SRCO is a small, 200-strong unit overseeing billion-dollar space programmes, including a secretive mission launched aboard a Northrop Grumman spacecraft in 2023.