But the domain of space, once desolate and uncontested, is now crowded and confrontational. As the Defense Intelligence Agency detailed in a recent report, China and Russia are aggressively developing and deploying capabilities — including anti-satellite weapons, airborne lasers, menacing “on-orbit” capabilities and evasive hypersonic missiles — that have transformed space into a war-fighting domain.

While our adversaries have weaponized space, too often we have bureaucratized it. Organizational inefficiencies that plague our space military authorities, war-fighting capabilities, acquisition programs and personnel policies stifle our ability to meet the rapidly evolving threats in space.

Responsibility for our national-security space programs is spread across more than 60 departments and agencies, resulting in a glaring lack of leadership and accountability that undermines our combatant commanders and puts our war-fighters at risk.