Among some of the things I was wondering about the U.S. Space Force; Do they have local recruiters yet like the other branches of the service or must one go through the USAF Recruiters? Do the enlisted personnel have their own Space Force boot camp? Have all the enlisted ranks been filled yet? (Has the U.S. Space Force been around long enough for anyone to make it to E-9 or have these positions been filled by transfers from the other service branches?)
How many Space Force bases are there? Is the Space Force divided up into squadrons and if so, what kind of squadrons are they? Are Space Force personnel primarily technicians or do they have their own support personnel like the other branches do? (For example, are there Space Force supply personnel, cooks, truck drivers, clerks, medical corps personnel, etc.?) Are there any Space Force Veterans in the American Legion yet? Are there any astronauts in the U.S. Space Force?
I believe that in large part, the Space Force was formed by basically taking the existing USAF Space Command and calling it the Space Force, bases and all.
Right now, the Space Force is still sort of piggybacking off the Air Force in a lot of ways due to the colossal size differential (8600 miltary personnel vs. 495,000). For example, USAFA cadets choose Space Force or Air Force and Space Force basic enlisted training is held at Lackland AFB in San Antonio with the Air Force basic training. Some bases are straight up SFBs, while others are co-located on AFBs.
Both services are part of the Department of the Air Force in the DoD, and I think the whole idea was that space operations are sufficiently different than air operations now, that they ought to have their own seat at the planning table, just like the Air Force got during WWII and its independence shortly thereafter. But in terms of how it works, it seems to be following the early US Navy/US Marine Corps model, where the Marines were essentially part of the Navy for a long time, and even now retain some links to the Navy for some things, like medical support, etc.
I have a suspicion that, after a while, the Space Force is just going to be folded back into the Air Force. Too redundant.
The son of a family friend wanted to join the Space Force last summer. He was told it would take 6 months to a year to complete the testing requirements then he would be placed on a wait list if he qualified. He went into the Air Force instead. Last December he found out he couldn’t go home for Christmas so he went AWOL He turned himself in a few weeks ago and is now cooling his heels at a military detention center. My wife talked to his mother a few days ago, he has been assigned an attorney so I think he is facing more than the slap on the wrist he thought he was going to get.
This is all essentially true. However, it should be noted that prior to the USAF being the primary responsible party for space systems under USSTRATCOM, the space element was represented as a Unified Combatant Command (UCC) as USSPACECOM where it integrated elements from all services, which worked pretty well as all of the services have increasing need capabilities provided by space assets. The decision to move it into its own distinct branch was a political one which comes with additional service bureaucracy and a separate acquisition segment but doesn’t actually get them more budget or priority as their funding line still comes straight through the USAF. Most of their non-acquisition support services are still provided through and by the USAF, and the most significant changes are different uniforms, the ability to create unique acceptance and training standards, and having a handful of bases redesignated as “Space Force Bases” all at the taxpayers’ considerable expense. There is no USSF astronaut corps or any intention of doing anything that wasn’t already being done under the previous STRATCOM or SPACECOM strutures.
The Marines are still a subordinate service under the Department of the Navy, and dependent upon the Navy for much of their non-combat support. As an aside, there are rumblings that the US Navy is now pressing for its own “US Navy Space Force” (presumably USNSPACECOM, because what is really needed is yet another confusing acronym in this stew) because they are unhappy about the USSF acquisition focus. So, look forward to more dumb uniforms trying and failing to look “futuristic”, and more money spent on standing up a new service that does nothing to address growing threats.
“Too redundant” is not a term that any entrenched bureaucracy will recognize. The only way the Space Force gets disestablished is if there is a massive reduction in military budget that would make BRAC look like a minor staffing “adjustment”. Space Force is here to stay (cancellation of the dull Netflix series notwithstanding) and while it does have a legitimate mission, it would have best been served as being established as being a UCC that directly supported all services rather than a distaff branch of the USAF.
Stranger
That degree of unexcused absence potentially makes the charge Desertion, not AWOL.
Desertion is a significantly greater charge.
And even if not charged as Desertion, that absence duration can aggravate the charge of Absent Without Leave towards its maximum penalty.
I’m not sure what “separate acquisition segment” means.
Space Systems Command is literally USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (a component of Air Force Materiel Command) rebadged and given higher echelon in their new force. As a contractor working on USSF contracts, and a former Air Force engineer in AFMC closely familiar with SMC, I can detect exactly zero difference in mission, resources, priorities, run rules, or anything besides uniforms and base names.
Maybe you mean only that their acquisition org has been freed from Air Force oversight, except that everything that matters is decided at the level of the Department of the Air Force. The presence of an independent Space Staff only kicks the Hunger Games up to the level of the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.
As you yourself point out, this reorganization doesn’t improve their leverage from any funding or priority perspective.
The only real benefit seems to be an increase in the number of general officer billets.
Scroll down to Structure and particular the Acquisition “System Deltas”.
Agreed for certain definitions of “benefit”.
Stranger
I am not a military lawyer but I agree that this kid fucked up extremely badly. If all he gets out of this is a dishonorable discharge he should consider himself lucky.
As for the Space Force, I think it’s a scam meant to grease a few military/contractor palms by moving them from inside the Air Force hierarchy to alongside it. There’s nothing Space Force is doing that the Air Force wasn’t doing just fine before.
The description of those reads like an old-school Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation wing.
Which would probably be necessary since the Space Force acq org didn’t inherit any organic Air Force OT&E assets, AFAIR. That is something that did get overlooked in the transition, I guess.
Sure, for the definition of “benefit” the generals themselves use.
From their web page, 28 general officer billets including four full 4-stars, for 8600 total uniformed personnel. Sweet.
When it got spun off it got a full set of appropriate NCOs laterally from the other branches as the aforementioned Commands were folded into Space Force. For example I see in his bio the current Senior Enlisted Advisor of the SF was already a USAF E9 since at least 2015 and at Space Ops since 2019. By now there seem to have been several rounds of NCO promotions in all grades, but there has been no time for anyone to make Senior NCO from scratch all within the Space Force.
…
On their webpage I observe that the Operations Command is acronymed as “SPOC” so I expect a lot of Vulcan jokes/memes to circulate, and their Training And Readiness Command has been done as STARCOM and on their logo/patch/whatziz graphic it appears as “STAR Command” so it’s gonna be Buzz Lightyear for them.
Welp. NASA is recruiting a new class of astronauts.
If you want the space stuff without the extra burden of military duty.
It’s easy. Just apply.
Of course you’ll need a STEM degree. Be physically fit, able to with stand rigorous training.
And be good with people/aliens. A team player.
Good luck.
I’m not sure that’s the metric by which a service gets created.
I mean, the USAAF was doing fine as a nominal part of the Army, but it was recognized during WWII that air operations were not merely an adjunct to land or sea warfare, but were rather something separate and equal to both. The de-facto ways of doing business during WWII already reflected that.
I suppose the big question is whether or not space operations are prominent enough and unique enough to warrant being their own separate service, or whether they should just have stayed as USAF Space Command, or being spun off into a separate UCC (Unified Combatant Command) dedicated to space operations.
My personal suspicion is that eventually space operations will indeed warrant their own seat at the table, but right now maybe a UCC would be the right approach, and then when/if a separate service is needed, that could be tackled at that point. Right now, I don’t think space operations are quite unique enough. Then again, there were probably people saying the same thing in the 1920s about the separate air forces coming into being at that point.
It depends upon how quickly we develop warp drive without a fixed undercarriage.
He doesn’t sound like a potential rocket scientist.
You don’t understand the purpose of the Space Force. There are no rocket scientists in the Space Force, it is the military division developed to protect the US interests in space and support ground troops from space. He is a very bright young man that does not have complete control of what is expected from him with faces negative situations. He is being allowed to continue his enlistment in the Air Force and is back at air traffic controller school.
I was using poetic license in using the term “rocket scientist” to refer to the Space Force because “no rocket scientist” is a phrase to describe someone who is very stupid. Like someone who joins the military thinking he gets Christmas off, then just leaves when he finds out that he doesn’t.
The military is facing a major recruitment shortage, and reenlistments are down as well. It’s not dissimilar to the “nobody wants to work (for shitty bosses) in the Gen Z workforce. It’s not a bunch of winy kids who expect the military to close for the holidays. It’s more likely cadre who make the troops do pointless, redundant chicken shit just because they can.
…How could they not have any rocket scientists? You can’t protect the US interests in space or support the ground from space without actually, you know, launching things into space. At some point, you’re going to need rockets.
And I still think that the new branch we actually needed was a Cyber Force. Space operations have at least some similarities to air operations, but cyber operations have nothing in common with any traditional military role.
They board the Space X starship. When they get to Venus, they act like regular marines.