The Congressional Budget Office issued a new cost estimate Monday for the House version of a new space command that would total more than $3.6 billion between 2020 and 2024, Breaking Defense reported.
The new estimate, based on the House’s proposed “Space Corps” command in its fiscal 2020 NDAA, includes $2.3 billion in personnel costs and assesses that it would require “between 4,100 and 6,800 additional personnel for new management and support positions,” according to the report.
The CBO’s new cost estimate also came in well above the Trump administration’s earlier low-end estimate of $2 billion in initial start-up costs to establish a new proposed “Space Force.”
In May CBO issued a similar cost estimate calculating that the Trump administration’s original proposal would “increase DOD’s annual costs by $1.1 billion to $1.9 billion, and incur onetime costs of $1.8 billion to $4.7 billion,” according to the report.
The House Armed Services Committee’s space command proposal and the Senate’s approved NDAA proposal both would create a new Air Force space command, similar to the Marine Corps under the Navy. The two proposals differ on the make-up of a separate space command and how DOD would establish a new space acquisition management structure. Both sides of Capitol Hill have expressed deep concerns about costs, according to the report.
Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Zoe Thacker