WASHINGTON: Space Force’s new training and readiness unit, called STARCOM, is working from the ground up to figure out what doctrine, skills and tech space professionals will need for orbital warfare.
“What we are really bringing to the fight is focus. Focus on space,” Col. Peter Flores, commander of the Space Training and Readiness (STAR) Delta Provisional at Space Operations Command, said in an interview today. (STAR Delta is the predecessor to a brand new training and readiness field command, that will be called STARCOM. It will be led by a two-star and is expected to be up and running sometime next year.)
“We’ve decided that the topic is important enough and unique enough that we need a group of people who understand it down to its most fundamental levels,” Flores added.
Currently, Flores is overseeing 900 personnel, shifted over from a mishmash of former Air Force units. Those units include:
- 3d Space Experimentation Squadron, Schriever AFB
- 17th Test Squadron, Schriever AFB
- 25th Space Range Squadron, Schriever AFB
- 319th Combat Training Squadron, Peterson AFB
- 328th Weapons Squadron, Nellis AFB, Nevada
- 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, Schriever AFB
- 533d Training Squadron, Vandenberg AFB, California
- USAF Warfare Center Detachment 1, Schriever AFB
- 705th Combat Training Squadron Operating Location Alpha, Schriever AFB
- Air Force Operational Test & Evaluation Center Detachment 4, Peterson AFB
- National Security Space Institute, Peterson AFB
- Vosler Noncommissioned Officer Academy, Peterson AFB
As is obvious from the list, much of the past training for space operators within the Air Force was located in Colorado — so the location has required little by way of personnel or budget reshuffling. Indeed, Flores explained, each of those units came with their own funding and budgets intact.
But, because it will be a new command, a basing decision will be required to determine where STARCOM’s HQ will stand. And, Flores said, he expects STARCOM will reorganize, and grow, as the Space Force turns its gaze from legacy missions to new ones.
“I hate to speculate on the size, but I think as the Space Force across the board right-sizes its field commands … we’ll see some transition billets here and there, and I think we’ll grow a little bit over time,” he said.
Flores says his team has four goals. The first is simply taking care of today’s space professionals, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, it ensures that current training missions and endeabors are able to continue “unabated.” Third is to bring together the disparate training and readiness units into a more cohesive structure to “make a better whole.” And, fourth, preparing for the transition to STARCOM.
The primary difference between the training regime being developed by STARCOM from past practices is that it is focused on space as a domain of warfare.
They are preparing the Space Force “to prevail in a contested, degraded, and operationally-limited environment,” a Space Force press release explains. That entails developing space warfighting doctrine and tactics, techniques, and procedures, as well as the testing and evaluation of Space Force capabilities,.
This is a bigger task than it might seem at first glance, precisely because there isn’t a well-established body of space warfighting doctrine available to build space-mission education and training regimes from.
Flores said Space Force will continue to look to legacy doctrine — such as Joint Doctrine 3-14 Space Operations — as well as warfighting doctrine from other domains, because there are still lessons to be learned from them. “The essential nature of war hasn’t changed,” he said.
On the other hand, Flores noted, there also is a need for new thinking that more closely reflects the differences (such as the effects of the laws of physics) between operating in space and operating in other domains. “Anybody who’s been in the domain, so to speak, for a while, recognizes some of the limitations of trying to translate doctrine from other domains into what happens in space,” he said. “Now, as we go through this process, we’ve got this amazing opportunity here to write our own book to decide what does really work for space.”
The Spacepower Capstone Doctrine released by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond on Aug. 10 begins that process of creating more specific warfighting concepts for space and building “combat ready space forces.”
The doctrine explains that Space Force personnel will be trained in a set of five core competencies that define how “spacepower” is employed, as well as one or more narrower “spacepower disciplines.”
The core competencies are: Space Security; Combat Power Projection; Space Mobility & Logistics; Information Mobility; and Space Domain Awareness.
The seven specialized “disciplines” are:
- Orbital Warfare
- Space Electromagnetic Warfare
- Space Battle Management
- Space Access & Sustainment
- Military Intelligence
- Cyber Operations
- Engineering / Acquisition
The follow-on CSO Planning Guidance released early this month specifies that STARCOM “will develop the unique curricula required by the first four disciplines of Orbital Warfare, Space Electromagnetic Warfare, Space Battle Management, and Space Access and Sustainment. In addition, STARCOM will facilitate inclusion of space-unique content for Military Intelligence, Cyber Operations, and Engineering and Acquisition career fields for individuals intending to join or support Space Force units.”
Flores said that his team already is looking to establish training in the first three areas, but has yet to really figure out what should be in the broader category of Space Access and Sustainment. Further, he explained, the weapons school course that formerly concentrated on “space superiority” now has been split into the three more specific subjects of “orbital warfare, electronic warfare and space battle management.”
One thing is clear, Flores said, and that is that space professionals from will have to have a much higher-fidelity understanding of the technical aspects of how space systems operate from now on.
“I think Gen. Raymond has been pretty clear about that,” he said. “Everybody involved in the enterprise is going to expect that, as a ticket to get on the ride, you’re going to have to know a little bit more about the space domain than maybe you did in the past.”
The CSO Planning Guidance also puts a premium on empowering personnel, from the bottom up, to think “boldly,” to innovate, and be willing to take “prudent risks.”
“Empowerment is a key component of agility, innovation, and boldness. Leaders must continually develop and empower teams capable of seizing the initiative, pursuing innovation, and taking responsibility for their actions. Training, education, and mission-type orders are the foundation of empowerment; however, empowered teams are built through active practice,” the document says.
“How to inculcate boldness is a tricky question, right?” said Flores. “I think what you need to do is you need to celebrate those attempts, even when they don’t go great. Do we learn something from it? Was it was grand failure that we got something from? Or maybe we didn’t get something from, we just identified that ‘hey, that’s not the way to work,’ but that’s okay, learn from that and we can move on.”
