Expanding on successes so far with two nascent organizations that integrate mission readiness around electronic warfare (EW) systems, and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT), the Space Force this summer plans to stand up Integration Mission Deltas (IMDs) for missile warning and space domain awareness, a senior service official said on Tuesday.
A progress review is wrapping up of the EW and PNT IMDs but they “have done really well” since their creation last fall and so “we’re expanding the concept this summer,” Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, commander of U.S. Space Systems Command, said during an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute. He added that “fundamentally, IMDs are about readiness.”
Garrant said that he and Lt. Gen. David Miller, commander of Space Operations Command, will provide the review to Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein “in a couple of weeks.” The Space Force is also “doing the mission analysis to expand on the missile warning mission area as well as the space domain awareness,” he said.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman in September 2023 announced the formation of the provisional EW and PNT IMDs, saying they would minimize gaps between roles and responsibilities related to mission performance (Defense Daily, Sept. 12, 2023).
Garrant said that with the IMDs, “For the first time we have a single mission commander in charge of the four components: people, training, equipment, and sustainment.” Typically, an acquisition organization oversees sustainment and equipment while people and training were managed by operational entities, he said.
Commanders of the IMDs are either someone from acquisition or operations and vice versa for their deputies, Garrant said.
Last December, the Space Force stood up two prototype Systems Deltas (SYDs) that are counterparts to the EW and PNT IMDs. The SYDs consolidate the acquisition program offices within Space Systems Command and are “a natural connection” with the IMDs between operations and acquisitions, Saltzman said at the time.
Acquisition authority still flows from the program managers to the program executive officers and up to Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, but now with the IMDs “we have tighter cohesion in weapons system sustainment and the ability to execute rapidly to field upgrades and address urgent discrepancies in those capabilities,” Garrant said. “We’re pretty pleased with it.”
The IMDs are organized within Space Operations Command and the SYDs withing Space Systems Command.
Over the next 18 months, the Space Force plans additional IMDs including for satellite communications and orbital warfare, Garrant said. “It is a pretty significant lift,” he said.