Mike Rogers and Gary Palmer return from Europe as part of a bipartisan national security space delegation

On Monday Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Saks) announced that he and Congressman Adam Smith (D-Washington), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee have just returned from a congressional delegation trip to Europe to discuss national security threats from space.

Congressman Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) was a part of the bipartisan congressional delegation to Luxembourg, France, and Italy. There they discussed allied cooperation on National Security Space.

Joining Rogers, Smith, and Palmer on the delegation were Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-Oklahoma), Donald Norcross (D-New Jersey), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Jimmy Panetta (D-California). This was the first international delegation to focus primarily on National Security Space issues.

"The House Armed Services Committee was one of the first to recognize the growing threats we face in space from malicious actors like the Chinese Communist Party and Russia, and that because of their actions space has now become a warfighting domain," said Rogers and Smith in a joint statement. "Our work to address this new reality led to the creation of the U.S. Space Force in 2019 as a separate military service. Since then, the threats to U.S. and allied satellites have only increased, as demonstrated by nearly daily attacks from Russia on government and commercial satellites as they wage their unjust war against Ukraine."

"If we are going to counter this increasing threat, we must work with like-minded allies and partners," said Rogers and Smith. "In our engagements with Luxembourg, France, and Italy, we were encouraged to find partners who not only openly acknowledge the threat but have started to realign their own organizations and industrial base to respond. Ultimately our success is going to depend on how well we work together via bilateral agreements and multilateral alliances, like NATO, to build resiliency and support deterrence in space. Capabilities like space situational awareness will be foundational and should be coordinated."

The delegation met with U.S. Space Force personnel who are forward deployed to Europe.

"While in Italy, we had the honor of meeting U.S. Space Force Guardians from the 163rd Electromagnetic Warfare Combat Detachment who are working around the clock in support of the joint force," said Rogers and Smith. "It was especially heartening to meet such smart and passionate members of our newest service and see their enthusiasm in executing a critical mission for the Commander of U.S. European Command."

Defending space assets like satellites has become an increasing part of modern warfare.

"Our visit comes as the U.S. and our NATO allies face unprecedented threats, we reiterated the need for a strong and capable NATO," said Rogers and Smith. "In order to ensure NATO remains strong, we continued to urge our allies to take real action to meet or exceed their 2% defense spending commitments."

Congress appropriated $28.9 billion for the Space Force in the FY 2024 budget year.

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