Armed Forces News

Colorado Springs, CO - March 2016: Senior Airman Jae Yu, of the 21st Aerospace Medicine Squadron, monitors pressure in the altitude chamber at the Carter P. Luna Aerospace and Operational Physiology Training Center on Peterson Air Force Base, CO, which will act as the new Space Force headquarters. (Air Force photo Craig Denton)

The newly created Space Force will be organized under three echelons – field commands, deltas and squadrons – under a final structural plan the Air Force unveiled late last month.

The three field commands each will oversee a specific mission focus. Space Systems Command (SSC) and Space Operations Command (SpOC) will be commanded by lieutenant generals, while a major general will be in charge of Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM).

Each delta will fall under the command of a colonel and will serve specific functions, such as operations, training and installation support. Squadrons under each delta will focus their missions on specific tactics. Once the command structure is fully functional, the plan would entail eliminating one general officer echelon and one colonel echelon of command. Other areas of the Space Force would assume the functions the eliminated echelons had previously performed.

Space Operations Command will serve as the “primary force provider,” responsible for maintaining capabilities for combatant commanders, coalition partners, the entire military and the country. Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, will be its headquarters. The existing Space Operations Command at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, will be renamed.

Space Systems Command will serve as the primary provider of lethal capabilities to warfighters. It will oversee testing, launch, on-orbit checkout and sustainment and maintenance of Space Force systems, and oversee science and technology development. Subordinate organizations will include the Space and Missile Systems Center and Commercial Satellite Communications Office, as well as space-systems program offices that would move to the Space Command from other DoD organizations.

Space Training and Readiness Command will oversee the training and education of space professionals and foster development of combat-ready forces. It would begin functioning sometime next year. Until then, the Peterson-based provisional Space Training and Readiness Delta will perform the mission.

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