H.R. 2042 — Space National Guard Establishment Act of 2025

This section establishes the Space National Guard as a federally recognized space force and the sole reserve component of the U.S. Space Force within the organized militia of seven specified states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, New York, and Ohio). (As background, the U.S. Space Force is the sixth armed service, responsible for space warfare operations; a National Guard reserve component would enable state-federal dual missions such as space domain awareness and electromagnetic warfare.) The section (1) transfers the Director of Space Operations for the National Guard Bureau to serve as Director of the Space National Guard (Brigadier General, reporting to the Director of the Air National Guard); (2) transfers National Guard Bureau space operations staff and 14 specified Air National Guard units—213th Space Warning Squadron (Alaska), 148th Space Operations Squadron and 216th/234th Electromagnetic Warfare/Intelligence Squadrons (California), 137th Space Warning/138th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadrons/233d Space Group and Communications Squadron/Det-1 (Colorado), 114th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron (Florida), 150th/109th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadrons (Hawaii), 126th Intelligence Squadron (Ohio), and 222nd Command and Control Squadron (New York)—to the Space National Guard; and (3) prohibits assignment of any additional personnel, general officers, or staff to the Space National Guard, with units organized under each state's existing Assistant Adjutant General for the Air Force. (Thus, the Space National Guard operates solely with transferred existing personnel and units.)

This section requires the Space National Guard to use facilities, infrastructure, and installations employed by the Air National Guard for space operations as of the day before enactment. It prohibits constructing or modifying any additional facilities, infrastructure, or installations to accommodate the Space National Guard.

This section directs the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau to implement this Act and its amendments not later than one year after the date of enactment (except as specifically provided by this Act). It further requires those officials, jointly with the Chief of the Space Force, to provide briefings to the congressional defense committees on the status of Space National Guard implementation—covering missions, operations and activities, personnel requirements and status, and budget and funding requirements and status—not later than 90 days after enactment and annually thereafter for five years.

This section amends definitions in 10 U.S.C. §101 and 32 U.S.C. §101 to include the Space National Guard and Space National Guard of the United States alongside the Army National Guard and Air National Guard (previously limited to Army and Air components). It defines the Space National Guard as that part of the organized militia of specified states, active and inactive, that is a space force, trained and with officers appointed under clause 16 of section 8, Article I of the Constitution, organized, armed, and equipped wholly or partly at federal expense, and federally recognized; and defines the Space National Guard of the United States as the reserve component of the Space Force consisting of Space National Guard members. (As background, the National Guard maintains a dual state-federal role, with federally recognized units available for both state missions and federal activation; these changes extend that structure to space operations.) The section further adds to 10 U.S.C. Chapter 1003: (1) §10115 establishing the Space National Guard of the United States as the reserve component of the Space Force consisting of federally recognized Space National Guard units and members; (2) §10116 providing that the Space National Guard in federal service is a component of the Space Force; and (3) §10117 requiring that members not on active duty be administered, armed, equipped, and trained in their Space National Guard status.