EL SEGUNDO, Calif. –
Key leadership from Space Systems Command (SSC) and the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) – U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific (SFI) team converged on October 29-30, 2024, for the first-ever Space Warfighter Days (SWFD) conference hosted by The Aerospace Corporation at its El Segundo campus.
The two-day event paired USINDOPACOM, the nation’s largest and oldest combatant command, with the U.S. Space Force, the nation’s newest – and smallest – military branch, for the purpose of bringing game-changing capabilities to bear in defense of our Nation, Allies, and strategic interests.
More than one hundred military, government civilian, and contractor personnel from USINDOPACOM, SSC Program Executive Offices (PEOs), and other DoD and government agencies attended the conference, making it the broadest reaching combatant command engagement with Space Systems Command to date.
USSF Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir, commander of U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific, opened the event by underscoring the size and scope of USINDOPACOM’s mission and area of responsibility (AOR), and the criticality of rapid deployment of space capabilities to offset America’s adversaries. He then highlighted “protecting the joint force from space-enabled attack” as a key tenet for Space Force and USINDOPACOM teaming.
Mastalir went on to describe the collaboration between SFI and SSC as a bridge for continuing the Nation’s defense in an increasingly complex technological future, stating “The post-World War II construct that lasted 80 years is at risk and needs Guardians to answer the Nation’s call, just as generations of Americans before us answered the call to protect and serve.”
USSF Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, SSC commander, spoke on the second day, describing key advancements in space command and control (C2) systems and the delivery timelines required to meet the needs of combatant commanders.
Garrant discussed SSC’s role in context with the guiding principles for USINDOPACOM laid out by Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of USINDOPACOM, placing special emphasis on Paparo’s third guiding principle: “Enable the Warfighter,” which ensures fielded warriors are enabled to “lead, plan, and execute successfully at the operational level…[with] capstone guidance, facilitated decision-making processes, and…effective command and control.”
SSC team leaders from the Space Sensing (SN), Space Domain Awareness & Combat Power (SDACP), and Battle Management, Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3) Program Executive Offices provided updates on current and evolving capabilities as well as future space architectures critical to the Joint Force in the Indo-Pacific AOR.
The conference discussions ranged from operational and campaign-level planning to space capabilities and concepts, key requirements, commercial services integration and international affairs considerations. Besides critical teaming and cross-mission understanding, the engagements laid the groundwork for capability prioritization, future system integration, and joint exercising/wargaming.
At the end of each day, the SFI team had the opportunity to discuss priority issues with PEO teams from SN, SDACP, and BMC3 to gain insight on future C2 and effects capabilities relevant to their most pressing mission areas.
Also attending was Dr. Claire Leon, director of SSC’s Space Systems Integration Office with responsibility for uniting the Systems-of-Systems integration effort across all SSC PEO portfolios and mission partners in the National Security Space enterprise. After the event, Dr. Leon noted that the SWFD conference “was an outstanding opportunity to establish relationships and align priorities in order to deliver capabilities and innovative approaches to outpace the threat.”
“Aerospace is a full partner across all of the SSC Program Offices and elements…our combined team looks forward to the next SSC-Combatant Command conferences to focus our support on the warfighter,” said Mike Baxter, Aerospace principal director of Enterprise Interoperability.
SSC’s Warfighter Integration Office Team will be looking to host similar events with other combatant commands in the next calendar year to help bringing future space capabilities in addressing the nation’s global security challenges.