COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.— Space Operations Command (SPOC) continues to grow its Space Delta element that is focused on intelligence to inform space operations for the U.S. Space Force having recently added an analysis squadron last fall and plans to stand up to more squadrons within the next year, the command’s chief said on Wednesday.
The new squadrons are part of Space Delta 7, which is focused on tactical and operational intelligence for the detection, characterization and targeting of adversary space capabilities.
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) Squadron 74, which was created last fall, is focused on analysis, Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of SPOC, said during a media briefing as part of the annual Space Symposium. ISR Squadrons 75 and 76 are coming within a year and will be focused on targeting and exploitation, respectively, he said.
Space Delta 7 was activated in July 2020 and also includes ISR Squadron 71, which performs command and control operations for the Delta and direct ISR support to other U.S. Space Force Deltas. ISR Squadron 72 does ISR operations “to drive space control effects” for U.S. Space Command, the Space Force and joint force commanders and ISR Squadron 73 performs operations in support of research, development and acquisition of future space capabilities, according to Space Delta 7’s fact sheet.
Space Operations Command, which has adopted the motto “Via Vincimus,” Latin for “the way we win,” ensures that “United States and allied interests are protected in space,” Whiting said.
“So, for us the way we win, what that looks like is number one, we have to be intelligence led, given the threats we now see on orbit and the domain, ground-based threats that also threaten our space systems,” he said. “Everything we do in Space Operations Command must be done relative to that threat and so we have to have a robust intelligence enterprise well integrated with our operating forces that explains that threat to us.”
Space Operations Command is also growing its larger organization and capabilities, Whiting said. In June 2022 Space Delta 18 stood up and is the National Space Intelligence Center, serving as the Space Force’s “foundational intelligence center,” he said.
In March, Space Delta 15 was established as Space Force’s core of the National Space Defense Center in partnership with U.S. Space Command, “the service command and control element at the core,” Whiting said.
Also, in the last year, Space Operations Command has onboarded the Army’s and Navy’s satellite communications enterprises, as well as two Navy satellite constellations, into the Space Force, “so now for the first time all DoD satellite communications are resident in one service inside the U.S. Space Force,” he said.
In fiscal year 2024, the Army’s joint tactical ground stations used for missile warning will be lodged in the Space Force, he said.