US Space Force Stands up STAR Delta Provisional
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (U.S. Space Force PR) — The U.S. Space Force stood up a provisional Space Training and Readiness command at Peterson Air Force Base during a pre-recorded virtual ceremony today.
The stand-up of STAR Delta Provisional is a critical step to building a lean, agile and future-focused Space Force.
The Delta will be led by Col. Pete Flores and will serve as the parent organization for a number of education, training, test and evaluation units for the Space Force.
“Today we take action, an important and significant step, towards the development of a 21st century service purpose-built to achieve speed, agility and unity of effort,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. John “Jay” Raymond in the video. “This ceremony highlights the most significant restructure of space units since the establishment of the Air Force Space Command in 1982.”
STAR Delta Provisional will serve as the precursor organization to the eventual Space Training and Readiness Command field command, or STARCOM. STARCOM will build lethality by developing combat-ready space forces and space warfighting capabilities in order to innovate and dominate in all domains – air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace. STAR Delta Provisional will serve as the interim parent organization for a number of education, training, and operational test and evaluation units.
“Today’s activation of STAR Delta is a crucial first step in the command taking its place at the forefront of delivering a ready space force that is prepared to meet the challenges of defending the nation’s interests in space” said Flores.
Concurrent to today’s ceremony, some space-related units were re-aligned to the USSF under STAR Delta Provisional. Until now, these units belonged to other USAF major commands rather than the former AFSPC, meaning they were not assigned to USSF upon establishment of the new service.
Units realigned from the USAF to the USSF, effective today, include:
- National Security Space Institute
- U.S. Air Force Warfare Center Detachment 1
- 705th Combat Training Squadron Operating Location Alpha
- 25th Space Range Squadron
- 527th Space Aggressor Squadron
Additional unit transfers will be announced as they are finalized.
As these units and mission sets realign to the USSF, military and civilian personnel in those units will also be assigned to the service. This realignment will not result in any immediate changes to personnel assignment or physical location.
No jobs will be lost with the creation of STAR Delta although there is a possibility some roles and responsibilities may change. The enduring STARCOM is ultimately expected to stand up in 2021 and requires a basing decision to determine its final location.
3 responses to “US Space Force Stands up STAR Delta Provisional”
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It’s really hard to take this space command seriously, likely more of a way to attract new recruits. I cant imagine what they will do other then play with monitors. Even if they had a thousand rockets for troops where would they go? Are they going to lie and say Russia and china have space based weapons so they can weaponize earth orbit? Bottom line it’s just another way to spend tax dollars.
A great deal of military endeavor these days involves “playing with monitors” including UAV operation and many kinds of watchstanding and combat ops aboard ships and submarines. Don’t sell it short.
And just as those older services have weapons at their disposal as well as surveillance assets, so will Space Force – and quite soon one hopes.
Both Russia and China are known to have direct-ascent ASAT weapons as well as large ground-based lasers capable of inflicting damage on American space-based assets. Both may also have weapons already deployed in space. It isn’t like either nation would admit this and I don’t think the U.S. has any technology that would unambiguously allow such to be identified.
So long as we have space-capable adversaries, our space-based assets will be at serious risk absent affirmative measures taken to prevent their prompt destruction. Among the more reasonable such measures are kinetic and energy weapons in orbit. The land, the seas and the skies have been “weaponized” for millennia and a century, respectively. Weapons in space are inevitable.
That being true, it is incumbent upon us to use our advantages in lift cost and spacecraft mass production to insure the vast majority of such deployed weaponry is ours.
Fair enough, but everyone already has great respect for the USAF. Splitting it up just seems to take away from what has been the gold standard. I mistakenly thought they had an agreement not to weaponize space. I guess that means more space based weapons.