by 1st Lt. Lucas Ritter 30th Space Wing Public Affairs
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) — Joint warfighters worldwide will soon reap the benefits from the Joint Space Operations Center, which opened here May 18.
“This (center) really is the culmination of a number of years of evolutionary thinking about space power and its applications,” said Maj. Gen. Michael A. Hamel, 14th Air Force commander. “We now understand how deeply space assets are embedded within all military forces. This center provides global space coordinating authority for those assets.”
Joint-space assets now will be controlled by a single entity for the first time. The center will be responsible for coordinating and delivering joint-space effects, officials said.
The center integrates various joint-space capabilities and focuses them to improve warfighting capabilities. It provides shared situational awareness to commanders and troops on the ground. It will direct, plan and respond to theater commander and user needs and requirements.
The center will fall under the joint functional component commander for space and global strike, as delegated by U.S. Strategic Command officials. This responsibility is further delegated to the Joint Space Operations commander who, at this time, is also the 14th Air Force commander.
“We want to be able to deliver the right capabilities and effects when they are needed and where they are needed before the theater commander asks for them; that is how we will measure success,” General Hamel said.
At this time, the center is controlled mostly by Airmen, but that will likely change. Other branches of the military will begin staffing the center to provide true joint operations and give those in the field a common site picture of all space assets.
“Space assets are inherently joint and are not just an Air Force capability,” said Gen. Lance W. Lord, commander of Air Force Space Command. “We have said that we cannot operate successfully without space in our military today. What we have witnessed here codifies that space has become an equal partner with land, sea and air forces.” (Courtesy of AFSPC News Service)
