Officially activated July 10, the “system deltas” (SYDs) include one for missile warning and tracking, and another for space-based sensing and targeting. According to the service, the new structure reorganizes part of SSC’s acquisition efforts to focus on a key mission area instead of a functional specialty such as cyber or intelligence.

“SYDs consolidate SSC program offices that design, develop and deliver mission systems under a force design structure for acquisitions,” the Space Force said in a statement. “The SYDs will ensure mission area analysis is continuous and improves upon mission advocacy with a singular focus on mission sets, unity of effort and properly aligned accountability.”

The move follows a similar restructuring done by Space Operations Command (SpOC) — the service’s arm for conducting daily operations — in 2024, when it stood up a new unit structure known as the integrated mission delta (IMD). Like SSC’s system deltas, SpOC’s integrated units consolidate the personnel, training and sustainment functions for a single mission area under one unit.

To ensure there are no gaps between the Space Force’s procurement programs and the service’s operational requirements, the acquisition-focused system deltas will team up with their corresponding integrated mission delta under SpOC moving forward.

“Through unity of effort, the Space Force’s system delta framework allows us to streamline the work between acquisitions and operations accomplished through intimate collaboration with our mission delta counterparts across the field commands,” SSC Commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said in a statement. 

The new System Delta 84 for missile warning and tracking will be led by Col. Stevie Medeiros and partnered with SpOC’s Mission Delta 4, the service noted in a press release. The unit will be responsible for developing and delivering a number of programs — such as the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking – MEO (MEO MW/MT) effort — that can detect and respond to emerging missile threats, like hypersonic weapons.

Space Delta 810 will oversee space-based sensing and targeting, comprising portfolios that provide environmental monitoring and tactical sensing to warfighters during mission planning and execution, according to the Space Force. It will be led by Col. Dane Bannach and work with SpOC’s Mission Delta 2.

With the activation of the two system deltas, Garrant said in a statement that the Space Force is already working to transition more of SSC’s acquisition deltas into system deltas “in the coming months.”

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Meadowlands is a mobile, ground-based offensive counterspace system that uses radio signals to jam adversary satellite communications. Developed by prime contractor L3Harris, the capability provides a significant upgrade to the Space Force’s current platform — the Counter Communications System (CCS) — by adding a software-defined architecture, drastically reducing weapon size and integrating automation.

L3Harris formally passed system verification review for Meadowlands in April. The Space Force then announced that Meadowlands received fielding approval on May 2 to begin training guardians on the system, with next steps being “upgrading the operating system to fulfill remote operations capabilities and multi-system management in the near future,” according to Space Operations Command.

The contractor has already delivered the first two Meadowlands units to the Space Force and the system is now going through government testing, Erik Ballard, L3Harris’s general manager for space antennas, surveillance systems, space and airborne systems, told DefenseScoop in a recent interview. The milestone was completed about six months ahead of schedule, and the company is now on track to deliver even more units through 2025, he added.

“It is more than just a block upgrade, it’s a step-change in capability,” Ballard said.

The first iteration of CCS became operational in 2004 and has received incremental upgrades over the years. L3Harris completed the final upgrade, known as 10.2, in March 2020 after the company received a development contract in 2019 to deliver five Meadowlands systems to the Space Force by December 2025.

L3Harris also received a production contract for Meadowlands in 2021 that includes over 20 additional units, the first of which is expected to be delivered this year, Ballard noted.

“The software-defined architecture … allows us to upgrade it quickly with the changing threat environment much more affordably and much faster,” he said. “I also think that the footprint size — the analogy I like to use … is, for [CCS 10.2], all your equipment fit in a bus and you hooked up an antenna behind it. Now, all that equipment fits in your SUV.”

Meadowlands also adds a significant amount of automation and remote command-and-control capabilities, meaning that a single guardian can do tasks that would have previously required multiple people. 

Col. Bryon McClain, program executive for space domain awareness and combat power at Space System Command, told reporters in April that the automation capabilities of Meadowlands will give the service a significant amount of flexibility.

“Having a system that we can reduce the number of people that are physically sitting by the antenna — turning knobs and pushing buttons — the farther we can separate that,” McClain said during a media roundtable at Space Symposium. “It gives us the ability to centralize how we do business.”

After years of keeping its offensive and defensive counterspace capabilities behind closed doors, the Space Force has recently entered a new era of openly talking about its plans to weaponize the domain against adversaries. In April, the service published a new warfighting framework that outlines three mission areas — orbital, electromagnetic and cyberspace warfare — for counterspace operations.

As the Space Force has conducted operational training on Meadowlands with guardians, Ballard said the process has been “night and day” compared to previous CCS platforms. L3Harris partnered with the Space Force early in the system’s development to ensure military personnel could easily and quickly train on the new Meadowlands platforms, he said.

“Over the last couple of months as we’ve went through government testing, [the training aspect] has really resonated with the users,” Ballard said. “That’s something that’s been in the process for a number of years. And now to hear it in feedback from users — we did the right thing there by starting that earlier.”

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Under development by L3Harris, ATLAS is the Pentagon’s latest attempt to modernize antiquated systems used by the Space Force to track satellites, spacecraft and other objects on orbit. The software-based platform is the foundation for a broader effort to replace the 1980s-era Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) computer system.

“ATLAS is going very well, we expect to go into operational acceptance testing this year,” Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of Space Systems Command (SSC), told reporters last week during a media roundtable at the annual Space Symposium.

ATLAS is designed to integrate and disseminate a range of data types — including space domain awareness, command and control, and intelligence — with the help of automation capabilities to give operators a complete picture of the space domain. The system is one piece of the service’s Space Command and Control initiative, started after the previous SPADOC replacement known as the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System (JMS) was terminated in 2018 due to poor performance.

Although it’s now on track, ATLAS was considered one of the service’s most beleaguered programs by former space acquisition lead Frank Calvelli. The Space Force initially wanted the system operational by 2022, but software integration challenges and lack of trained operators have plagued ATLAS during its development, forcing the service to delay decommissioning of SPADOC.

Furthermore, the program has notched multiple Category 1 deficiencies — designated for problems that could cause serious harm or damage — as well as less severe Category 2 deficiencies.

To tackle some of ATLAS’s key challenges, Calvelli last year directed that the program be moved from SSC — the service’s acquisition arm — to Mission Delta 2-Space Domain Awareness. The organization is one of the newest integrated mission deltas under Space Operations Command (SpOC) and brings the mission area’s personnel, training elements and acquisition professionals for maintenance and sustainment under one commander.

Garrant commended the decision, as it allowed guardians to better understand the complexities of the system and put urgency on developers to deliver capabilities on time.

“The connective tissue with the operators and getting them early time on the system, and even closer connections at low echelons of command between the developer and the operator — that’s probably the biggest success we’ve seen in all of our mission deltas and all of our sustainment squadrons,” he said. “It’s been incredibly successful, I think you’re going to see more of that.”

The new approach was also key for L3Harris in its work to get ATLAS across the finish line, because the company is now working closely with operators to test and integrate capabilities through an agile development cycle, Charles Clarkson, vice president and general manager for the company’s space superiority and imaging division, told DefenseScoop.

To prepare for IOC this year, SpOC is conducting quarterly capability integration tests (SCITs) where test squadrons, space operators and L3Harris work together to analyze ATLAS and deliver additional capability. The service recently completed its tenth SCIT in March.

“We test it in a development environment, and then we also test it in an operational environment, with the operators then being able to provide that real-time feedback to the software development team,” Clarkson said in an interview on the sidelines of Space Symposium. “It’s all about creating closeness to the mission, and then being able to incorporate those requirements to keep pace with the threat.”

L3Harris received a $53 million indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract to develop ATLAS in 2018. Since then, the company has received multiple extension awards from the Space Force for the program — including a $90 million follow-on contract in January to “meet ATLAS initial operational capability and achieve software stability,” according to the Defense Department.

The contract extension will also give L3Harris the opportunity to improve ATLAS with additional tools and technologies, Clarkson added.

“It’s also looking at then, how do we build on [and] augment capability on top of that foundational layer that was primarily giving operators and warfighters a modern toolset, and just scaling so that we could keep pace with the exponential launches in space,” he said.

Clarkson emphasized that even with the delays, L3Harris did not have to pare back any of the capabilities for ATLAS. The company is also resolving the remaining deficiencies identified during SCITs, he said. An SSC spokesperson confirmed to DefenseScoop that all of the program’s Category 1 deficiencies will be resolved “prior to trial period entry.”

“I don’t look at it and say, ‘Hey, we had a dozen, two dozen, three dozen [Category 1 deficiencies] coming out of a SCIT,’ as a negative thing. What that really means is we’ve actually seen an increase in recent SCITS, and that’s really driven by the fact that it’s becoming very, very real,” Clarkson said. “That’s exactly what we want to see in agile software development, is you identify those deficiencies and you burn them down over the next sprint.”

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Over the last five months, the Space Force has been experimenting with two Integrated Mission Deltas: one focused on positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and a second on electromagnetic warfare (EW). The model brings a single mission area’s personnel, training elements and sustainment function under one commander while also incorporating additional cybersecurity and intelligence professionals.

When Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman announced the new pilot units in September, he explained the goal was to improve the readiness of the Space Force in selected mission areas. Now the service is looking at how to replicate the model with other parts of the force, SpOC Chief Lt. Gen. David Miller said Tuesday during his first call with reporters since taking the helm of the field command in January.

“I will tell you that my recommendations are in. We are having conversations about that with the service chief. He will decide what are the next candidates to do that,” Miller said. “Many of you know me, I’m pretty aggressive. You can imagine that my recommendations are pretty aggressive. We’re gonna go with whatever the service chief and [the Secretary of the Air Force] decide, and I think you’ll hear something about that in the coming weeks.”

Currently, the Space Force allocates operations and training functions to various SpOC deltas — essentially the service’s version of numbered units and commands — while sustainment and acquisition responsibilities are held by Space Systems Command (SSC). Under the IMD model, a SpOC delta commander gains acquisition professionals responsible for sustainment who will also collaborate with their counterparts at SSC — which is still the deciding authority on acquiring new capabilities.

While Miller did not go into much detail about his recommendations, he did outline some successes the Space Force has seen with the IMDs so far that have influenced his guidance.

For example, both the PNT and EW integrated deltas have been able to finish testing milestones at an “unprecedented rate by taking almost 10 to 15 percent of the total time that was anticipated to accomplish the milestones,” he said.

There have also been improvements in how the Space Force fields capabilities to U.S. Space Command, as well as in the service’s ability to rapidly fix, repair or address issues with space systems “by virtue of a commander having authority over all the sustainment and maintenance that previously were split between two commands,” he added.

Despite the early wins, Miller emphasized that the IMD construct isn’t one that can be applied across the Space Force. Rather, the model is best for mission areas that require forces to be presented to Spacecom, he explained.

“We have to centralize authority over both the manpower, the weapons system and the sustainment and training of those guardians and airmen to get the job done,” he said. “That’s just a core requirement when we’re presenting combat power to a combatant command, so I think it’s absolutely necessary in those cases.”

In others where a delta provides services specific to the Space Force or has a more tailored mission, it wouldn’t be necessary to transition those to an IMD model, Miller said.

“I just don’t think that in every case and in every situation you’ll see the … Integrated Mission Delta be a requirement,” he said. “Some of those deltas don’t need that. They still need to be part of Space Operations Command, they just don’t necessarily need to be integrating all those capabilities under one single commander.”

Updated on March 4, 2024 at 5:20 PM: This story has been updated to clarify sustainment and acquisition roles under the IMD model.

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The 16th Air Force announced in January that it is partnering with Space Operations Command (SpOC) in order to integrate space-based capabilities into all of its warfighting operations. Through the agreement — which will see Space Force personnel embedded with 16th Air Force — the two organizations are seeking a greater understanding of how to defend space assets from cyber attacks. 

“In order to perform the different capabilities within Information Warfare, the forces are dependent on and need space-based assets,” Lt. Col. Theresa Kopecky, 16th Air Force and Space Force liaison officer, said in a statement. “A key partnership between the 16th Air Force and the Space Force is essential to understand the combatant commander’s requirements for effects during strategic and operational planning that is done together.” 

Space Operations Command and its mission deltas are responsible for a range of warfighting functions, including space domain awareness, missile warning and satellite communications. The organization is the Space Force’s service component for U.S. Space Command, which carries out military operations across the space domain.

Specifically, SpOC’s Delta 6 unit has multiple cyberspace squadrons that are tasked with defensive cyberspace ops in support of the Space Force’s other mission deltas. Other units within Delta 6 are also responsible for operating the Satellite Control Network — a global network of antennas and links that communicate with and control both Pentagon and non-military satellites.

16th Air Force is the Air Force’s information warfare organization housing cyber, electronic warfare, information operations, intelligence and weather units all under one commander. 

Increasingly, space and space-based capabilities are falling into the fold of information warfare within the Department of Defense, with some services, such as the Navy and Marine Corps, including space in their cyber and information warfare commands.

Additionally, Space Command created a new position specifically dedicated to information warfare within the last year. 

A 16th Air Force spokesperson told DefenseScoop that integrating mission support between their organization and SpOC is part of an effort to maximize resources in order to generate the desired information warfare outcomes for combatant commanders and air components. 

As part of the agreement, the two organizations are looking to ensure the Pentagon’s on-orbit systems and the links connecting them are protected against adversary cyber effects, the release stated.

A Space Force spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email that liaison officers working with the 16th Air Force will facilitate collaboration between the two organizations “across the strategic, operational, and tactical level.” The SpOC liaisons — embedded within the 616th Operations Center, which is described as the “glue” holding 16th Air Force’s capabilities together — will share technical expertise about the Space Force’s systems and operations with the 16th Air Force.

“Creating synergy amongst all cyberspace operations elements within the Department of the Air Force, including setting foundations with our Delta endeavors, allows for seamless integration across all echelons of our persistent defensive mission,” a 16th Air Force spokesperson said. “This opens the door for enabling mutually supporting functions across enterprise-scale cyber operations, converging cybersecurity service provider capabilities, and evolving our Defensive Cyber Operations approach for the strongest, collective defense in cyberspace.”

Officials also said the partnership creates a stronger link when it comes to cyber support to Space Command. Cyber operations, on behalf of U.S. Cyber Command, are conducted through a construct known as Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber, which provides planning, targeting, intelligence and cyber capabilities to assigned combatant commands. Each service cyber component commander also serves as their respective JFHQ-C commander.

16th Air Force, through JFHQ-C Air Force, supports Space Command.

 “This partnership enables a better mutual understanding of the defensive cyber operations for space-based systems. As such, JFHQ-C(AF) and SpOC can more effectively plan and execute defensive operations and more efficiently employ our forces,” the spokesperson said.

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Each military service besides Space Force currently has a service cyber component to Cybercom — just as they do for all combatant commands — and has requirements to provide Cybercom a set number of personnel and teams to the joint cyber mission force, which conducts offensive and defensive cyber operations.

Since the creation of Space Force in 2019, there was speculation as to if and when it would supply a service cyber component to Cybercom. However, to date, there were no formal or concrete plans to do so.

“We are in process of working with Cyber Command of what does their service component to Cyber Command, the Space Force service component to Cyber Command look like,” Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber and nuclear, said at the annual DAFITC conference Wednesday.

“Partnering with 16th Air Force [the Air Force’s service cyber component], with our own mission analysis team, [officials are discussing] what do we see that footprint for Cyber Command to make that connection as a Space Force service component in the future … [and] when do we get to our own cyber mission teams?” Burt added.

According to a Space Force spokesperson, coordination to establish a formal service component has been ongoing since early 2023, but there isn’t a confirmed date for activation and efforts are still in a preliminary phase.

There are currently two guardians from Space Operations Command that are members of the Air Force’s cyber mission force, a SpOC spokesperson told DefenseScoop in August. Burt on Wednesday raised the prospect that in the future, Space Force cyber mission force teams would directly support U.S. Space Command and its cyber needs.

“Who better to defend on behalf of U.S. Space Command their key cyber terrain, or to go after the enemy’s key cyber terrain in space than guardians,” she said. “Our goal is to grow to those cyber mission teams, so that first relationship with Cyber Command and the service component will help us grow to that structure in the future to then go at the enemy face-on.”

Currently, the Air Force’s cyber component through its Joint Force Headquarters-Cyber Air Force, is the coordinating authority for planning and synchronizing cyber support and operations for Spacecom.

During his confirmation to be chief of space operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman said it would take significantly more resources to create a Space Force service cyber component for Cybercom.

“Since all other Services provide teams to the Cyber Mission Force (CMF), it is reasonable for some to assume that the Space Force should also provide teams. However, the analysis of manpower required to standup the USSF did not include cyber manpower requirements to provide teams to the CMF,” he told lawmakers. “[A]ny requirement to support the CMF … would require a commensurate increase to USSF manpower to support this new mission area.”

Cybercom owns the authorities to conduct offensive cyber operations around the globe, which are conducted by the joint cyber mission force, mostly by combat mission teams. Thus, the services — and in this case, Space Force — would not have offensive teams to conduct offensive cyber operations outside of a Cybercom contribution.

The Space Force does have cyber personnel, mostly in its Delta 6, that perform cyber defense of Space Force assets such as ground terminals.

“We are more focused as a service. And what we brought to the Space Force were our cyber operators and our cyber squadrons to defend our mission systems and our key cyber terrain in both ground, space and the receivers in order to defend against China and Russia coming into those — because it is our soft underbelly,” Burt said.

“We also have our own [cybersecurity service providers] within the Space Force, again, looking at how do we defend across our installations, because we are employed in place, so we depend on our infrastructure on the installation because we do fight from our installations 24/7, 365. How do we have that right infrastructure support, the right guardians in the loop to get after defending those systems?” she said.

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Whiting currently serves as the first-ever head of Space Operations Command (SpOC) — the Space Force field command that acts as the Space Force’s primary service component to Spacecom. As an organization, SpOC is responsible for generating and sustaining much of the service’s space, cyber and intelligence capabilities.

A former space operations officer in the Air Force, Whiting previously served as deputy commander of the Air Force Space Command before it was restructured as the Space Force. He’s also previously held a number of positions at Space Command, Strategic Command and the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Whiting would become the second four-star general to lead Space Command if confirmed by lawmakers, succeeding Gen. James Dickinson, who has served as Spacecom commander since 2020.

In addition to Whiting’s nomination, Biden picked Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein to serve as the next vice chief of space operations at the Space Force. Guetlein is currently leading the service’s acquisition field command, called Space Systems Command (SSC). Guetlein would take the helm from current Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. D.T. Thompson, if confirmed by lawmakers.

The White House also submitted a nomination for Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, deputy chief of space operations, strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, to succeed Guetlein as head of SSC. 

The trio of Space Force officers must be confirmed by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In recent months, committee member Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has put a blanket hold on top-level military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s abortion policies. The blockade has put a halt to a number of key military appointments, most recently including Gen. Eric Smith, nominee to be Marine Corps commandant, leaving the service without a Senate-confirmed leader for the first time since 1859.

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The list, which was obtained by DefenseScoop, was first mentioned by SpOC Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting on May 24 during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute. 

“It does seem to me that over the last year that AI/ML has stopped being something that happens somewhere else that might affect you, and it is a practical application that we need to be driving across all of our operations and business practices,” Whiting said. “We’ve established a ‘top 10 AI/ML needs list’ across our operational missions. And working with partners like Space Systems Command and the Air Force Research Lab, we’re working to actually field capability.”

For years, organizations across the Department of Defense have hailed artificial intelligence and machine learning as key decision aids for next-generation conflicts. But as the technology continues to rapidly advance within the commercial sector, many in the department are still grappling with how to best implement AI and ML to improve operations. 

At the top of SpOC’s priorities list for applying the technology is “data” — a priority shared by many Defense Department components, like the Air Force and the Navy.

Second on the list is “situational awareness,” or the basic knowledge and characterization of objects in space and the environment. The Space Force uses both space- and ground-based sensors for this mission.

Space Force officials have recently pointed to the need for better situational awareness in space due to the growing number of spacecraft and debris on orbit, noting that AI could be used to improve the service’s understanding of the space domain.

Next on SpOC’s list is using artificial intelligence for “cyber defense.” Specifically, the organization is looking to leverage machine learning to develop “novel waveforms and receivers” in order to “improve performance and provide authentication capability,” a Space Operations Command spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email. Novel waveforms and receivers are innovative methods to transmit and process communications data aimed at enhancing efficiency and reliability.

The list also includes a number of the Space Force’s core mission areas — including missile warning, “defensive counterspace,” space domain awareness and “space electronic warfare.”

For space domain awareness, SpOC is parsing out how AI and ML could conduct “space threat assessment for mission assurance needs, automate space-environment anomaly prediction and course-of-action recommendations,” according to the spokesperson.

Meanwhile, for electronic warfare, the service is developing an “autonomous on-board satellite radio frequency jamming/interference detection, assessment and response system,” they said.

And for defensive counterspace capabilities, the Space Force is using AI to create “opponents for contested space,” the spokesperson said. The spokesperson didn’t provide any additional information about this focus area.

Finally, SpOC wants AI and ML for automation, “predictive sustainment” and “characterization of new foreign launches.”

During the Mitchell Institute’s webinar, Whiting noted that some progress has already been made in implementing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.

“Some of that’s in our space domain awareness system, where we have a lot of data, and AI/ML can help us parse through that data. We’ve also seen it in some predictive maintenance activity [and] predictive maneuver-type capability,” he said. “We really are working hard to put practical instantiations of AI/ML across all of our mission sets right now.”

Whiting also noted that Brig. Gen. Kyle Paul, deputy commanding general for transformation at SPoC, is working through how to incorporate a “generative AI-like capability” that can assist in business practices at its headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Generative AI is an emerging subfield of artificial intelligence that uses large language models to turn prompts from humans into AI-generated audio, code, text, images, videos and other types of media. Platforms that use generative AI have gone viral this year, prompting both excitement and concern over the technology’s rapid advancement and applications.

Many in the Defense Department have expressed interest in generative AI for military applications, and the Pentagon plans to host a conference in June to understand how it can best leverage the technology and recognize its shortcomings.

As the Space Force moves forward with implementing artificial intelligence as a powerful new tool, Whiting emphasized that it’s also crucial to understand the technology’s vulnerabilities.

“We need to have insights into how the AI/ML is architected and how it’s coming to its answers. We still need to have humans in the loop while we are figuring out and testing that AI/ML capability to prove to ourselves that it’s working appropriately. And then … making sure that once we have demonstrated to ourselves that this AI/ML capability works, that it’s not being corrupted,” he said. ”I think we’re going to have to work multilayers as we become more comfortable and convince ourselves that this capability works.”

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Currently, not all of the service’s career cyber personnel are providing capabilities that are directly related to the Space Force’s core missions. Instead, they’re monitoring networks like emails and telephone communications, said SpOC Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting.

But soon that work will be tasked to the 16th Air Force, which is responsible for the service’s information and cyber warfare activities, freeing up cyber guardians for new roles, he said.

“We are pivoting all of our cyber guardians onto defending our mission systems or they’re executing core cyber missions, like [satellite communications], you know, helping us maintain and point the antennas where they need to go and maintaining those networks,” Whiting said during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute. “They’re doing core business for the Space Force, not doing base-level installation business — and that’s vital to us.”

Whiting called cyber the “soft underbelly” of the service’s enterprise. While China and Russia have tested advanced anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities, cyberattacks are often easier and harder to detect — opening another avenue for enemy counterspace actions.

“We have these global networks — think GPS, satellite communications, missile warning — that not only wrap around the planet and touch every continent, but they extend up to 22,000 miles above the Earth’s surface out to geosynchronous orbit where our satellites are,” Whiting said. “That creates a lot of novel cyber attack surface, and so we have to defend that cyber terrain.”

Space Operations Command is also building out mission defense teams and has already stood up cyber security service providers (CSSPs), Whiting noted. Those entities belong in the Space Force’s Delta 6 — its cyber delta — and are responsible for providing organic defensive cyberspace operations for the service.

In the next couple of years as it grows its cyber workforce, the Space Force will build out a service component to U.S. Cyber Command, Whiting said.

In the meantime, the Space Force’s CSSPs have been given the green light to operate alongside U.S. Cyber Command’s Joint Force Headquarters–Department of Defense Information Network (JFHQ-DODIN), which defends all of the Pentagon’s networks. 

“They’ve come in, they’ve simply certified that we’re ready to operate. And then we have relationships with them where they share information and we share information, and that helps us better defend our capability,” Whiting said.

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Although much of the service’s efforts have been focused on simulations that better suit digital warfighting operations in the space domain, the mission still demands that guardians be trained in live scenarios, such as how to operate spacecraft and work ground control systems, said Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton, commander of Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM).

“I think a big change — certainly from when I came up, but even more in recent years — is we’re shifting back a little bit more into live training,” Bratton said Wednesday during a webinar hosted by the Mitchell Institute. 

He noted that training for live space ops in the past has been primarily done in a classroom setting where warfighters would discuss missions and potential outcomes, with just some simulation training available.

“Now the discussion is, ‘Why aren’t we flying a spacecraft in training? Why aren’t we getting some sort of reps and sets … in the training environment?’” he said. “If we can move that back into the training pipeline, I think there will be value added.”

Adding those physical training elements within STARCOM’s purview will alleviate some training responsibilities for Space Operations Command (SPoC), he noted.

Since its creation in 2019, the Space Force has been on a campaign to build tools and infrastructure that will help guardians hone their digital warfighting skills in the space and cyber domains. Much of those efforts are directed at high-fidelity simulators that virtually connect guardians to a simulated space environment.

While digital skills are key for the Space Force, guardians should also be able to receive training on the physical aspects of the space domain, Bratton said. He pointed to programs at the Air Force Academy that give students experience in building and flying spacecraft as an example.

“They’re on crew, they understand ground systems, how to schedule the antenna pass times — all of these sort of fundamental concepts that apply, regardless of what spacecraft you end up flying in your career. We think we can bring that back into training through simulation, but also with some live activity,” he said.

STARCOM plans to build out a National Space Test and Training Complex (NSTTC) that will act as “the gym to go work out the force,” and it has already hosted the first of the service’s Skies exercises, Bratton said. The complex will have scalable training capabilities for both synthetic and live environments that support the service’s mission areas: electronic warfare, orbital warfare, cyber operations and digital connectivity. 

“The NSTTC is the broad label that we put on the range that we’re building, but it’s not a physical piece of real estate that we own,” Bratton explained. “It’s those on-orbit capabilities, the ground sensors and then the infrastructure that ties it all together for command and control and gathering data.”

As STARCOM continues to scale the training complex, it’s looking for industry’s help in ensuring its four mission areas are integrated and able to be trained on together, Bratton said. 

“How do I bring capabilities together and then let it unfold in a live-virtual-constructive way? And so, we haven’t quite cracked the code on that completely,” he said. “We have some simulation capability, [but] I think that’s an area where we need more help. We have some underlying infrastructure and we have a vision of where we want to go … but it’s an area where we’re going to need industry’s help.”

Also to help with integration, the Space Force is on the cusp of publishing a new vision and roadmap that will outline how the service will bring together how it trains its space, cyber and intelligence teams, Bratton said. Right now those three groups of operators are trained separately, but that isn’t how real-world missions would be carried out, he noted.

“Right now we tend to train them in individual groups — especially space, cyber and intel. We don’t operate that way though. Usually there’s representative space, cyber and intel on the crew force,” Bratton said. “And so again, I’ve shifted training burden inadvertently to SPoC. I think STARCOM needs to do a better job.”

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