Pictured is a Department of the Air Force photo of Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink addressing the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Fla. on Dec. 11, 2025.

Nearly all of the Department of the Air Force's fiscal 2027 procurement and research and development (R&D) budget for space-based air moving target indication (SB-AMTI) and the Space Data Network Backbone is in dollars attached to a future reconciliation bill. Yet, some congressional Republican leaders are calling such a bill into question, as they prefer the oversight and programmatic base-lining afforded by the regular discretionary bill process. If that reconciliation bill does not come to pass or the funding for…