RAND Report Warns Space Industry Lacks Workers to Rebuild Satellites Lost in War With 19-to-1 Assembler Gap

A RAND Corporation report published August 31, "Breaking Glass, Missing Hands," found the US space defense industrial base could not rebuild military satellites and support systems lost early in a war with China or Russia within a 12-to-24-month benchmark the study set for reconstitution 1. Researchers led by Alexandra Gerber identified three shortfall categories: engineers, where the counted space sector employs only about 3% of roughly 3 million US engineers, translating to about 7,000 of 208,000 annual engineering openings in counted sectors 12; skilled technicians and assemblers, where RAND found about 244,000 annual assembler job openings against just 13,000 credentialed workers, a 19-to-1 gap, alongside a milder shortfall of roughly 30,000 annual technician openings against 11,000 qualified candidates 234; and advanced electro-optical and radiation-hardening specialists, whose training can take 15 years and where foreign nationals earn 70% of relevant doctorates 24. RAND, sponsored by Golden Dome director Gen. Michael Guetlein in his prior role as vice chief of space operations, recommended roughly $5 million annually for scholarships and outreach plus an $800,000 study on retraining workers from other industries 23. Interviewees cited by RAND rarely mentioned automation, robotics or AI as alternatives to hiring-based fixes 34. The report also flagged security-clearance processing as a compounding delay, with FY2024 data showing Secret investigations averaging 87-plus days and Top Secret cases taking nearly six months 4.