Meet the 3-star insiders say will be Space Force’s next top leader

Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess is likely to be nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the Space Force’s next top uniformed leader, Defense One has learned.

Schiess currently serves as the deputy chief of space operations for operations at the Pentagon. If confirmed by the Senate, the three-star general will replace Gen. Chance Saltzman—who was confirmed as the service’s top military leader in September 2022. Two defense insiders confirmed to Defense One that Schiess was the likely nominee.

A Space Force spokesperson declined to comment on the presumptive nominee. White House officials did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday afternoon.

If confirmed, Schiess would be the third Chief of Space Operations in the service’s six-year history. Earlier this month, Saltzman addressed reporters and attendees at the Space Symposium conference in Colorado and acknowledged it would likely be one of his last public engagements ahead of his retirement, which is expected later this year. 

Like both of his predecessors, Scheiss is a career space operator, as distinct from an acquisitions specialist—the service’s other large officer community.. 

Schiess served as the Space Forces–Space commander and U.S. Space Operations Command’s vice commander, according to his biography. Earlier in his career, he directed the space forces component of Air Forces Central Command at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and commanded the 45th Operations Group at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Like Saltzman, he began his career as an Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile operator. 

Saltzman, during his time as the service’s chief of space operations, encouraged the Space Force to embrace a warfighting identity and pushed to expand its mission sets. Under his tenure, the Space Force budget grew from $26 billion to a record-breaking $72 billion funding request this year. It’s also expanded to nearly 11,000 service members today.

“I'm not sad,” Saltzman told reporters. “This is so exciting…We're starting to marry up resourcing and processes and guardian talent; the joint force is recognizing how important this is. I think our messaging is getting through.” The Space Force also received some of its first public recognition from the top Pentagon brass for providing necessary support for joint operations in Iran and Venezuela.