The U.S. Space Force (USSF) plans to establish a Space Futures Command to develop and validate innovative concepts to meet today’s security challenges, said a senior official for the military branch.
Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Chance Saltzman, announced the creation of the command at the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium. The new field command will ensure the Space Force stays ahead of emerging threats and maintains its competitive edge in the space domain.
“We’ve focused on some of the systems, we’ve focused on maybe a resilient architecture and the kinds of systems we thought were going to be necessary for space superiority, but … we didn’t really have the mechanisms to evaluate all the other components that have to be in place,” Saltzman said during his speech. “That is what a futures command can provide for you.”
The new command will be the service’s fourth field command, following the Space Operations Command, Space Systems Command, and Space Training and Readiness Command.
The Space Force Futures Command—similar to the Army Futures Command—will include three centers to develop concepts and conduct experimentation and wargames:
- The Space Warfighting Analysis Center, currently a direct reporting unit, will leverage advanced analytics and modeling to inform decision-making and shape where the Space Force needs to be in the future;
- The Wargaming Center will allow the service to evaluate and experiment with emerging technologies; and
- The Concepts and Technology Center will enable the Space Force to evaluate the future operating environment, assess adversary technologies, and devise operational concepts it needs to respond to future threats.
The Space Force’s plan for a Futures Command is part of a larger strategy by the Department of the Air Force to “[reshape, refocus, and reoptimize] the Air Force and Space Force to ensure continued supremacy in those domains while also better posturing the services to deter and, if necessary, prevail in an era of Great Power Competition.”
“I’m extremely proud of the Space Force and all the good it has accomplished,” Saltzman said “But, as good as we are, as much as we’ve done, as far as we’ve come, it’s not enough. We are not yet optimized for Great Power Competition.”
Preparing Guardians for the ‘Great Power Competition’
As part of this new strategy, the Space Force also plans to refine the way it trains officers.
The goal is to “create joint-minded warfighters who understand the battlefield context of the space domain and who are well equipped to act within it,” Saltzman said.
He explained that the Space Force faces substantial organizational, training, and equipping challenges.
“The Space Force inherited a variety of operational cultures, disparate organizational structures, and differing training requirements when we stood up four years ago. These conditions had evolved over the past couple of decades – driven by the pursuit to have optimal efficiency to the point that we lost focus on effectiveness – effectiveness across organizational structures, workforce roles, and training requirements, among other things. This has to be corrected,” Saltzman said.
Improved readiness, according to Saltzman, will better orient Space Force toward the “high-end fight” and ensure “Guardians can win the contested space domain.”
The service plans to create a series of exercises with an increase in scope, tempo, and complexity to fit within a broader Department-level framework. The assessment results from these trainings will shape force design and development.
Additionally, he said the service will “reorient” its focus from primarily supplying services that combatant commanders in all domains must have to defining “our readiness by our ability to deter and defeat rival powers.”
Space Force will also establish a novel personnel management system that provides flexibility and efficiencies that will help the service attract and retain the highly specialized skills it desperately needs, Saltzman said.
