This article was first published in U.S. Space Command magazine, APOGEE, on September 22, 2025.
The United States Space Force is taking a multitiered approach as it prepares for a new era in space defense. With an eye toward China and Russia’s growing counterspace capabilities, the service isn’t relying solely on advanced spacecraft to maintain its edge. The force also relies — in addition to collaboration with allies and industry partners — on its ability to field a combat-credible force of specialized, highly trained Guardians, officers and civilians to meet the service’s high-tech demands.
Space Force General B. Chance Saltzman has long prioritized workforce readiness, even before taking on the mantle of chief of Space Operations. “If we have exquisite weapon systems, exquisite systems on orbit to provide joint capabilities, but our Guardians and our operators do not have the skills, the training, the experience they need to make the most out of those systems, then I feel like we are not really fully combat-ready, fully ready to do those critical mission tasks,” he told senators during his September 2022 confirmation hearing.
That call to develop a highly trained fighting force has only escalated since Gen. Saltzman’s confirmation. At a Senate Armed Services committee meeting six months later, the general laid out the force’s long-term vision, including his aim for a multimillion-dollar training platform to sharpen Guardians’ tactical skills.
That platform, called the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure (OTTI), would serve as “the backbone of Space Force readiness as Guardians prepare for a high-intensity fight,” Gen. Saltzman told committee members.
“This infrastructure will allow Guardians to execute realistic training against simulated adversaries to validate their tactics,” he said. In addition to introducing service members to cutting-edge technologies and tactics to defend against on-orbit attacks, the infrastructure would expose Guardians to counterspace strategies, cyberwarfare, and the latest in electronic warfare tactics, including modern signal jamming, which has been used extensively in Ukraine to deflect drone and guided-missile attacks.
Looking long term, the Space Force aims to house much of its training operation in what it calls the National Space Test and Training Complex (NSTTC). Administered by Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM), the NSTTC would consist of a network of simulated and live orbital ranges. The training modules would be designed to mimic satellites on orbit. Guardians, along with members of other armed forces, would receive training in how to control and maneuver satellites, adjust attitude control, perform rendezvous and docking procedures, calculate a satellite’s trajectory, and resolve technical glitches. The training also would include lessons in cybersecurity and how to defend against data link and ground station attacks. The complex would enable testing and evaluation of new spacecraft and related systems.
“We’ve got to train. We’ve got to have the ranges,” Gen. Saltzman said at a 2023 conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We’ve got to develop our tactics, test them, and simulate them. And that means that I’ve got to build new infrastructure.”
Still under development, the NSTTC is operated by the Range and Aggressor Delta, Space Delta 11, and currently housed at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its lineup of training and testing programs is divided into four broad categories, according to a STARCOM description of the training complex:
Electromagnetic Warfare Range, designed to test “developmental and operational space systems and to train/exercise space operations crews of all services in a live, virtual, and constructive environment.”
Orbital Warfare Range, to train operators in on-orbit warfare strategies.
Cyber Warfare Range, to provide the “integration of Computer Network Operations (CNO) with air, space and cyberspace domain planning, execution, feedback and monitoring.”
Digital Warfare Environment, to enable warfighters to “plan and execute space operations in a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment.”
While the Space Force develops the NSTTC, a process likely to take several years, the service is gradually introducing new training modules to support its mission. At the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida, in December 2024, then-STARCOM Commander Major General Timothy A. Sejba said the service is taking a hybrid approach when it comes to technology — combining legacy systems with newer technologies coming onto the commercial market. Maj. Gen. Sejba is now a special assistant to the vice chief of space operations at the Pentagon.
“The only way we’re going to be able to support the joint force and our allies is to partner with industry differently than we have in the past,” he said, according to a DefenseNews report.
To supplement its capabilities, the service is turning to a 10-year, $12 billion Space Enterprise Consortium contract, a purchasing program that enables the force to request orders from more than 750 preapproved companies to get solutions faster than through the traditional acquisition process, the article said.
At the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in February 2024, Gen. Saltzman reiterated the need for a proficient, combat-credible force. Building the right “architectures,” he said, is one of the keys to making that happen. “Looking forward, we know there are substantial organizational, training and equipping challenges that could impact the Space Force’s ability to ensure its systems and operators are ready for full-spectrum combat operations in the space domain,” he said. “Therefore, we must develop and maintain capable, sustainable, adaptive, and collaborative architectures to conduct realistic test and evaluation, full-spectrum training, and tactics validation to ensure maximum warfighting readiness.
“Improved readiness will help us better orient space forces toward the high-end fight and ensure our Guardians can win in the contested space domain,” Gen. Saltzman said.
Developing and maintaining those architectures falls largely to STARCOM, the Space Force’s training command. At the 40th Space Symposium, in April 2025 in Colorado Springs, STARCOM leaders spoke about the command’s goals, the nature of its training, involving officers, enlisted and civilians — and their shared purpose: to secure the nation’s interests in space, as well as those of allies.
“Our officers are our primary joint planners,” Brigadier General Matthew Cantore, deputy commander of STARCOM, said during one of the panel discussions. “Our enlisted are the service’s primary warfighters … and our civilians give us opportunities for longevity [and] increased technical specification where needed.”
That sentiment was echoed during another discussion at the symposium. Maj. Gen. Sejba, addressing attendees, said that with only 15,000 members in the Space Force — the youngest of the armed services — there isn’t much room for overlap. “You have to make sure you’re hiring the right talent and developing them to perform those roles for the service.”
Training is comprehensive and starts early, Maj. Gen. Sejba said. He pointed to a program launched in September 2024, the Space Force’s yearlong Officer Training Course (OTC) at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado Springs. During OTC, every new officer cycles through four months each of space operations, intelligence and cyber instruction. The first cohort is currently wrapping up the intelligence portion and preparing to begin cyber instruction.
“They’re going to understand the threat, not just for space but for cyber as well,” Maj. Ge. Sejba told the symposium. “They’re going to understand how that threat materializes … both against the space segment from a space operations standpoint, but also from a cyber operations standpoint and against the ground infrastructure.”
Separately, STARCOM offers both intermediate-level education and senior-level education (ILE/SLE) programs for field grade officers to hone their strategic expertise. The Space Force’s main partner in the effort is Johns Hopkins University.
“Our ILE/SLE programs that we have for our majors and our lieutenant colonels … that Johns Hopkins University model is what I think we need to scale,” Maj. Gen. Sejba said. Through a partnership with the university’s School of Advanced International Studies, STARCOM offers a graduate-level alternative to traditional military education, combining joint warfighting concepts with deeper exposure to global strategy and security policy. “I was just talking to a colonel yesterday who, on the Air Force side, said there are folks fighting to get into that school because of how unique it is,” Maj. Gen. Sejba said.
Academic institutions have long supported the nation’s space enterprise, particularly those based near major launch and research hubs. Maj. Gen. Sejba said that such institutions offer the type of infrastructure the Space Force can leverage to help produce technically proficient Guardians.
Brig. Gen. Cantore, addressing enlisted development, pointed to the Vosler Academy Fellowship program as an example of a traditional leadership platform that has been overhauled to fit the service’s needs. The program’s courses have been “completely rebuilt, retooled, giving a unique experience for our NCOs and specialists … and the results thus far have been fantastic,” he said.
“We need to make sure Guardians have the opportunity to interface with leaders at various levels … so they can make this not just a short-term experience, but a long-term career dedicated to supporting our nation,” Brig. Gen. Cantore said. “And we will.” Assigned to STARCOM and based at Peterson Space Force Base, the Forrest L. Vosler Non-Commissioned Officer Academy is responsible for training and educating midtier noncommissioned officers E-6 and above.
Such programs are equipping Guardians with substantial technical skills, Maj. Gen. Sejba said. “They’re going to perform roles on an ops floor that maybe in the past would have been done by an officer.”
Another way that STARCOM sharpens Guardians is through war games. These include Space Flag 25-1, the Space Force’s premier training exercise and the largest in its history; the Chalkydri training series; and Schriever Wargame 2025 (SW25).
Maj. Gen. Sejba touted SW25 as a signature training vehicle not only for Guardians but also for service members across the U.S. military and allies. SW25 had almost 500 participants, almost 200 of those from allied partners, he said.
Developed by STARCOM, the Chalkydri training series consists of three war-gaming events, each building on the previous one to refine and validate battle management concepts. The first one, Chalkydri 1, held in February 2025, served as an evaluation phase. The event occurred over three days and involved 30 participants from various operational areas of the Space Force:
Day 1. Tabletop Seminar: Participants engaged in an open discussion to refine battle management functions and information flows.
Day 2. Role-Based Tabletop Simulation: Participants worked through scenario-based decision-making exercises.
Day 3. Distributed Operations Simulation: A full simulation using secure chat networks, replicating how Space Force units communicate in real-world command and control environments.
“Our goal is to ensure the Space Force has a data-informed answer on how we approach battle management as a service,” Lieutenant Colonel Amber Dawson, commander of the 10th Force Development Squadron, one of four units that comprise Delta 10, said in a STARCOM report about the event. “We’re evaluating different approaches in a structured way so we can make informed recommendations to senior leaders.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve done a series of battle management-focused wargames like this,” Lt. Col. Dawson said. “It’s a historic effort for the Space Force — one that we hope will define how we operate in the contested space domain for years to come.”
The Space Force’s most consequential training effort is yet to come, though: a dedicated boot camp for enlisted Guardians. Guardians currently receive their basic military training (BMT) alongside Air Force recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas. At a point during the 7½-week program, the Guardian recruits diverge from their Air Force peers to focus on Space Force skills. The first seven recruits completed BMT in October 2020. The service now graduates about 800 Guardians a year. That compares to the tens of thousands who complete BMT in the other armed services.
For years after the Space Force’s creation in December 2019, it drew the bulk of its Guardians from enlisted ranks of other services. That paradigm shifted during the past couple of years as more Guardians entered the Space Force directly from civilian life. The same goes for officers.
“Now, most of our service members are coming directly into the Space Force program, so whether they’re officers coming out of college, or whether they’re enlisted, they are coming out of whatever they did prior to joining the Space Force,” Brig. Gen. Cantore told Apogee.
Still unknown is when the Space Force will have its own boot camp. As part of a wish list for 2025, Gen. Saltzman said he hoped a boot camp location would be identified this year.
In a media roundtable in December 2024, he told Air & Space Forces Magazine that creating a separate, specialized boot camp is “a natural part of the evolution” of any armed service. “At some point you say, ‘Well, we’ve got to train and educate our own people.’”
But when that happens, and where, still needs to be determined, he said. “We’re trying to figure out what’s the right scope, what’s the right scale, what’s the right evolution away from [having] the Air Force training our inductees and getting to a more Guardian-focused environment.”
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the U.S. government, Diálogo magazine, or its members.
