U.S. Space Force got a boost when thousands of March applications for transfer arrived from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, but other bureaucratic slowdowns may prevent it from keeping pace with adversaries, experts say.

Former President Donald Trump created the newest armed service to focus exclusively on protecting the country’s space assets as adversaries, including China and Russia, field platforms intended to disable and destroy U.S. satellites from Earth or space. While folding Air Force assets and personnel into the service, Space Force invited space professionals from other services to join in March, but experts say the bureaucracy is still moving too slow.