§ 490. Space cadre management: biennial report

(a) Requirement.— The Secretary of Defense and each Secretary of a military department shall develop metrics and use these metrics to identify, track, and manage space cadre personnel within the Department of Defense to ensure the Department has sufficient numbers of personnel with the expertise, training, and experience to meet current and future national security space needs.
(b) Biennial Report Required.—
(1) In general.— Not later than July 28 of every even-numbered year, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the congressional defense committees a report on the management of the space cadre.
(2) Matters included.— The report required by paragraph (1) shall include—
(A) the number of active duty, reserve duty, and government civilian space-coded billets that—
(i) are authorized or permitted to be maintained for each military department and defense agency;
(ii) are needed or required for each military department and defense agency for the year in which the submission of the report is required; and
(iii) are needed or required for each military department and defense agency for each of the five years following the date of the submission of the report;
(B) the actual number of active duty, reserve duty, and government civilian personnel that are coded or classified as space cadre personnel within the Department of Defense, including the military departments and defense agencies;
(C) the number of personnel recruited or hired as accessions to serve in billets coded or classified as space cadre personnel for each military department and defense agency;
(D) the number of personnel serving in billets coded or classified as space cadre personnel that discontinued serving each military department and defense agency during the preceding calendar year;
(E) for each of the reporting requirements in subparagraphs (A) through (D), further classification of the number of personnel by—
(i) space operators, acquisition personnel, engineers, scientists, program managers, and other space-related areas identified by the Department;
(ii) expertise or technical specialization area—
(I) such as communications, missile warning, spacelift, and any other space-related specialties identified by the Department or classifications used by the Department; and
(II) consistent with section 1721 of this title for acquisition personnel;
(iii) rank for active duty and reserve duty personnel and grade for government civilian personnel;
(iv) qualification, expertise, or proficiency level consistent with service and agency-defined qualification, expertise, or proficiency levels; and
(v) any other such space-related classification categories used by the Department or military departments; and
(F) any other metrics identified by the Department to improve the identification, tracking, training, and management of space cadre personnel.
(3) Assessments.— The report required by paragraph (1) shall also include the Secretary’s assessment of the state of the Department’s space cadre, the Secretary’s assessment of the space cadres of the military departments, and a description of efforts to ensure the Department has a space cadre sufficient to meet current and future national security space needs.