WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense is asking for $14.1 billion to fund space operations in the fiscal 2020 budget, and the Air Force is behind the bulk of the requests.

The $14.1 billion would allocate funding to several national security programs, from satellites to missile warning systems. Of the total, about $1.6 billion will fund improvements to space-based missile warning capabilities, a missing link in America's layered missile defense system.

"We have to defend what we have in space, because it's going to be there for a while and we all depend on it," U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told members of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Monday.

"Space has been a benign domain, and so we have a lot of efforts going forward in the Air Force to make sure we are developing the cadre of space warriors to be able to do what the nation requires us to do," he added.