On Monday, the US Congress passed its annual omnibus bill, giving the new Space Force military branch $15.2 billion dollars in funding. As the Space Force continues to take shape, we can expect new contracting opportunities to arise.

The newest military branch is still in its infant phase. However, after celebrating its first birthday only days ago, the branch has big hopes for 2021, including more than doubling its personnel numbers by the end of the year.

And it looks like the Space Force’s newly named “Guardians” will be well-funded; barring a veto by President Trump of the omnibus bill, the $15.2 billion appropriated for the military branch is divided into $10.5 billion for Research Development Test and Evaluation, $2.4 billion for operations and maintenance, and $2.3 billion for procurement. The funding is meant to last through September.

A ton of defense contracting jobs relating to work with the Space Force are already popping up. Check out Clearance Jobs for a look at those kinds of opportunities. It’s really the beginning of a new era.

As the website notes, procurement opportunities for the Space Force will include “the completion of the advanced extremely high frequency (AEHF) satellite system, which are geostationary spacecraft that relay signals for U.S. and allied military services. Another is the GSIN, or: Global Sensor Integrated on Network, which is used for integrating disparate sensor data for a real-time portrait of what is happening during a “missile event.”

Meanwhile, there’s reason to believe that Space Force acquisitions will not get bottlenecked like other acquisitions for other military branches, which can take up to 10 years or more to come to fruition. As it used to be the case that multiple government agencies were involved in the procurement of space technology, and commercial space innovation obviously moving much faster than regular military acquisition processes, earlier this year the Space Force announced a “Space Systems Command” to streamline the process.

Meanwhile, opportunities for contractors are expected to increase rapidly in the coming months. General John W. “Jay” Raymond, the Chief of Space Operations of the United States Space Force, in an interview with Techcrunch explained: “We think diversity is a strength.” This doesn’t appear just to be lip service. The Space Force has so far received accolades for its gender and racial balance."

The outlet observed further that Space Force will “put money into the coffers of emerging tech companies developing solutions to the most pressing problems the military sees in the skies. He’s trying to pry open the piggy bank so more of the $60 billion he manages flows into the bank accounts of entrepreneurs and startups.”

Keep an eye on Contractor News for updates.