The U.S. Space Force is preparing for its most ambitious expansion since the branch was established in 2019, and for the first time, senior leadership is explicitly naming cislunar space, on-orbit servicing, and space commerce as core military domains. Speaking February 23 at the Air and Space Forces Association's Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, both Air Force Secretary Troy Meink and Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman outlined a sweeping vision for a transformed force by 2040. The vehicle for that transformation is the Objective Force study , a year-long internal analysis led by the Space Warfighting Analysis Center that has produced draft assessments across every major space mission area. What emerged from that study puts cislunar operations squarely inside the military's future threat calculus for the first time in a formal, publicly articulated way. AI-generated image Space Force command analysts monitoring cislunar orbital tracks and satellite constellations. Credit: AI-generated / Cislunar News The Objective Force Study: A Blueprint for 2040 For the past year, a small team of analysts and strategists at the Space Warfighting Analysis Center has been building the most comprehensive picture of the Space Force's future that the service has ever attempted. The work, described publicly by Saltzman on February 23, examines not just what satellites to procure, but every element of what a future force needs: systems, units, personnel counts, facilities, training pipelines, and timelines for when each capability must be operational. "It's a comprehensive accounting of systems, units, personnel, numbers, facilities, all of the support requirements needed and the timelines of when we need them," Saltzman told the symposium audience. "It is intended to guide recruiting, training, exercises and readiness, as well as budget and acquisition priorities." That scope sets the Objective Force study apart from previous Space Force planning documents, which tended to focus on specific acquisition programs or threat responses. This is a whole-of-force architectural review, informed by both classified intelligence and publicly available information about adversary capabilities, commercial technology trends, and emerging mission demands. Key Objective Force Study Domains Draft assessments have been completed in space-based navigation warfare , space domain awareness , and satellite communications . Scenarios were tested through workshops with military, industry, commercial space operators, and allied experts over the past year. The study's scenario testing involved outside voices, including commercial space operators, which is notable given the Space Force's growing reliance on commercial satellite capacity for communications, imagery, and domain awareness. That commercial integration is no longer incidental to the mission, it is baked into the force design itself. Cislunar Space Enters the Military Calculus AI-generated image Autonomous spacecraft conducting proximity operations in the Earth-Moon system, a capability class that U.S. Space Force leadership now identifies as a future military domain. Credit: AI-generated / Cislunar News The most significant element of Saltzman's remarks for the cislunar industry was a list of "new centers of gravity" that the Objective Force study identified as defining the 2040 threat environment. The general named three explicitly: on-orbit servicing, space commerce, and cyber capabilities . On-orbit servicing, which encompasses refueling, repair, inspection, and life extension of satellites, has historically been framed as a purely commercial and civil opportunity. Its inclusion in a military strategic assessment signals that the Space Force now views the servicing domain as having direct national security implications. A nation that can refuel a satellite can also reposition it or disable it. A nation that can inspect a satellite can also surveil it or jam it. Space commerce as a center of gravity is an even broader acknowledgment. Lunar resource extraction, in-space manufacturing, and cislunar logistics operations are all forms of space commerce. If the Space Force views commerce as a strategic domain, that means the assets supporting it, including lunar landers, propellant depots, cargo tugs, and relay satellites, are effectively dual-use infrastructure with military significance. 2040 Target Year for Force Redesign 15,000 Current Space Force Personnel 30:1 Air Force to Space Force Personnel Ratio 2x Projected Workforce Growth (Next Decade) 1.3M Joint Force Members the Space Force Supports FY2026 Budget Debate Key for Expansion Funding Proximity operations, another domain named in the Objective Force scenarios, is the capability that makes all of this concrete. A spacecraft that can maneuver to within meters of another object in cislunar space can perform inspection, servicing, docking, or, if that's the mission, interference. The Space Force sees a 2040 environment where autonomous systems perform these functions with minimal human oversight, which creates a security dynamic that does not yet have established norms or rules of engagement. Autonomous Constellations: The New Operational Reality Meink did not spend his remarks exclusively on growth numbers. He focused substantially on how the Space Force must change how it operates, and the central answer is automation. The current model of human operators managing satellites through manual command sequences is not sustainable at the scale and speed that future constellations will require. "The old manual ways are not going to cut it," Meink said. "We need to automate virtually all aspects of operating and orchestrating satellite constellations." This is partly about scale. The proliferated low Earth orbit constellations of the 2030s will include hundreds or thousands of satellites, far beyond the capacity of even a much larger Space Force to manage individually. But it's also about speed. Adversary actions in space, whether kinetic or electronic, can unfold faster than human decision cycles. Autonomous systems that can detect, assess, and respond without waiting for human authorization are not optional, they're a requirement for effective deterrence. AI-generated image Conceptual visualization of the Space Force's Objective Force 2040 architecture, spanning low Earth orbit through cislunar space. Credit: AI-generated / Cislunar News Saltzman's explicit mention of artificial intelligence operating on orbit in the 2040 scenarios is the logical endpoint of that trajectory. Satellites that can reason about their environment, assess threats, and take actions autonomously are a qualitative leap from anything currently operational. The Space Force is publicly committing to that future, which means it's building acquisition programs and training pipelines around systems that don't fully exist yet. The DAF Battle Network, an initiative Meink described as an integrated digital command-and-control architecture linking sensors, decision tools, and weapons across both Air Force and Space Force, provides the connective tissue for this autonomous future. The goal is a seamless data environment where satellite telemetry, radar tracks, cyber system outputs, and aircraft sensor feeds can be fused and delivered to decision-makers in near-real time. Key Technology Transitions Named in Objective Force Scenarios • On-orbit AI: Autonomous reasoning and decision-making by satellites without ground-loop delays. • Autonomous proximity ops: Spacecraft capable of proximity maneuvers with minimal human authorization. • Constellation orchestration: Software-driven management of hundreds or thousands of satellites simultaneously. • Cross-domain data fusion: Real-time integration of space, air, cyber, and ground sensor feeds via DAF Battle Network. • Cislunar domain awareness: Persistent tracking of activity from GEO through lunar orbit and beyond. Growth Requires Congress, and the Math Is S