The Space Force Protects Americans by Operating Satellites, Sensors, and Launch Vehicles
The pioneers who’ve just begun to join the United States’ newest military service are known as Guardians, and they have to be prepared to do just that: protect Americans and America’s interests from startlingly close by and remarkably far away. Stationed in the U.S. and in 22 different time zones around the globe, they provide combat support to their fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and Airmen from a frontline that “starts at 100 kilometers (62 miles) above our heads,” says Chief Master Sgt. John “B-9” Bentivegna. “That’s 100 kilometers over every point on the globe. There are no national boundaries.”
Bentivegna is the Senior Enlisted Leader of Space Operations Command, the first Field Command within the United States Space Force. (The new service was formally established at the end of 2019, and the first class of dedicated USSF officers graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy last year; the first enlisted personnel to join the service took their oath of enlistment in October 2020).
It’s a small force, just over 5,000 uniformed members at present, taking up less than three percent of the national defense budget. But it’s also a big deal because the Space Force is a new kind of military branch, composed of highly specialized, highly technical people; while they're not going into space just yet, they provide space-focused expertise and systems to defend the country. Rather than carry rifles into combat, they operate satellites, sensors, and launch vehicles, some of which are hundreds to tens of thousands of miles away, up above Earth.
Why Do We Need a Space Force?
Guardians are part of America’s military because, in a sense, space is no longer just a new frontier to be explored. Like the Wild West of old, it’s an emerging free range of communications, commerce, and conflict. About 78 countries worldwide now own or participate in a space-based system to meet national and commercial objectives. Each of us interacts with space-borne systems multiple times a day, every day, from the GPS satellites that give us turn-by-turn driving directions to communications sats which bring us televised sports and news from around the world. (In fact, according to a study by the Rand Corporation, the fledgling global space economy will continue to grow from today’s $450 billion to an estimated $1 trillion by 2040.)
“A lot of people in the U.S. aren’t aware that every time they slide their credit card at a gas pump to buy gas, they’re utilizing space capabilities to make sure that transaction goes forward,” says Lt. Col. Jeffrey Weisler, director of the Commander’s Action Group in the USSF’s Space Operations Command. “The space domain has changed in the last 20 years,” he adds. Because, these days, Russia, China, and others can physically destroy or remotely disrupt American military or commercial space systems with ground-based anti-satellite missiles, cyber-attacks, and jamming, or with space-based lasers, jammers, and grappling satellites.
Who Are The Guardians, Exactly?
The new Space Force is pretty firmly rooted in the U.S. Air Force. When the USAF was created from the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1947, its visionaries saw an American role in space even though the country had no spacecraft at the time. An independent space service was discussed as far back as the 1980s, but it wasn’t until the President signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act in December 2019, that a Space Force truly existed.
Just about all of the new USSF personnel have transitioned from the Air Force—though the Space Force’s structure is more simplified than the USAF’s. It was purposely designed “to make us a little more agile and more mission-driven,” Lt. Col. Weisler says. In place of its predecessor’s major commands, numbered Air Forces, Wings, Groups, and more, the Space Force has a three-tiered structure. A Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John W. "Jay" Raymond, oversees Field Commands (Space Operations, Space Systems, Space Training & Readiness), Deltas (akin to Wings or Groups) and Squadrons.
From bases in various locations, Guardians operate, design, acquire, and develop training for a variety of space-based and ground systems, from missile warning to communications to weather. If you aim to become one, you’ll be expected to train in a digital technical discipline and acquire expertise in an area like engineering, cyberspace, intelligence, space operations, or software design. USSF is continuously developing this cadre of professionals, not just for daily operations but also to advise others within the U.S. military and sometimes its Allies. (Today’s freshly minted Guardian officer or enlisted might someday be a space advisor to a Marine Corps unit in the Middle East, for example.)
Guardians are also pioneering a culture. For now, USSF personnel wear the same camouflage-pattern duty fatigues as their USAF counterparts, only with different patches and name tags. In the future, Space Force will have its own distinct Class A uniforms (like the familiar blue USAF uniforms) and an independent identity to go with them. “If you’re a Marine, you know what it means to be a Marine. The Space Force will have the same type of culture,” Lt. Col. Weisler explains. “You will know what your values are, what your mission set is, how you integrate into the fight with Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors. We’re going through that iteration right now.”
What Does Space Force Actually Own (and Use)?
In short, USSF owns both ground systems and space-based satellite constellations. Many of these—like the global GPS constellation, Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) communications satellites, ground-based “Space Fence” object detection, and phased-array radar missile warning systems—used to be in Air Force hands. This branch also manages space access for the nation, as well as timing, monitoring, and launching military and commercial payloads to space. In late May, Space Launch Delta 45 at Patrick SFB launched America’s newest space-based infrared (SBIRS) missile warning/battlespace awareness satellite (Geo-5).
The Space Force provides the operational capabilities of these systems, and the expertise and training of its people, to the American military’s warfighting combatant commands, from the familiar CENTCOM (Central Command), EUCOM (European Command), and NORTHCOM (Northern Command) to the newly re-established Space Command led by Army Gen. James H. Dickinson. And not unlike the traditional Navy or Air Force roles on earth, USSF preserves freedom of action, navigation, and commerce in space. It provides American leadership with independent intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance options, and enables lethality for earth/atmospheric-based commanders and weapons systems.
To put it simply, Guardians guard the space-based assets on which we rely. Some are as close as a drive from Colorado Springs to Denver, and others are at the most distant reaches of earth’s orbit; in the future, they may even extend to the moon. Whatever the distance (near or far), they require the Space Force’s constant vigilance, which is why the agency’s formal motto, Semper Supra, is especially fitting—it translates from Latin to “always above.”
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