{"id":561945,"date":"2026-04-03T09:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561945\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:57:09","slug":"space-force-plans-to-establish-hq-staff-group-as-surrogate-futures-command","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/561945\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force plans to establish HQ staff group as surrogate Futures Command"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman has signed off on the creation of a new staff organization at service headquarters that would, in effect, take the place of the Space Force\u2019s previously planned Space Futures Command.<\/a><\/p>\n

The new SF\/S9 Force Design and Analysis staff group will be established on April 21 to support the Space Force chief in his \u201cstatutory role as Force Design Architect for Space for the Armed Forces,\u201d according to a March 31 memo signed by Saltzman and obtained by Breaking Defense.<\/p>\n

Asked for comment about the status of the plan, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said: \u201cThe memo speaks for itself. We don\u2019t have any additional information to provide at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SF\/S9 office\u2019s responsibilities include \u201cforecasting\u201d the service\u2019s \u201cFuture Operating Environment,\u201d developing and \u201cvalidating\u201d its operational concepts and doctrine, developing and \u201cmaintaining\u201d its \u201cForce Design,\u201d and prioritizing science and technology efforts,\u201d the memo explains. As such, it will be charged with developing the Space Force\u2019s rolling \u201cObjective Force\u201d<\/a> plan establishing the service\u2019s force structure and capabilities requirements 15 years out.<\/p>\n

It also will coordinate the activities of the following organizations and field commands (all of which will remain intact):<\/p>\n

Space Warfighting and Analysis Center (SWAC)<\/a>;<\/p>\n

Space Security and Defense Program;<\/p>\n

Assigned and detailed personnel of Task Force Future;<\/p>\n

Space Delta 10, Doctrine and Wargaming;<\/p>\n

The Innovation and Prototyping unit of Space Systems Command\u2019s System Delta 89, Space Combat Power<\/a> (with the exception of the Space Safari<\/a> program office for rapid acquisition of US Space Command\u2019s high priority needs); <\/p>\n

The current SF\/S9 Analysis Directorate; and<\/p>\n

Chief Science Officer<\/p>\n

\u201cThe functions of the proposed [Space Futures Command] will be a part of S9. Whatever the name, there is a critical need for out-of-the-box thinking for military space power. Otherwise, we risk falling into the trap described by Henry Ford when he allegedly said, \u2018if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses\u2019,\u201d said Clayton Swope, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n

According to the memo, the next step is for the Space Force to provide Air Force Secretary Troy Meink a \u201cfully coordinated staff package to officially establish the SF\/S9.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Meink who last year tanked<\/a> the Space Force\u2019s plan to set up Space Futures Command, announced by Saltzman in 2024<\/a>. Further, the structure of SF\/S9 mimics that of the newly restructured Air Force\u2019s headquarters staff unit AF\/A5\/7, Air Force Futures.<\/p>\n

The Air Force on Wednesday announced<\/a> it now has consolidated the \u201ccore functions of Integrated Capabilities Command (Provisional)<\/a>,\u201d activated in September 2024, into AF\/A5\/7. The service last October<\/a> announced it planned to kill the command, which was established by the Biden administration as one of several key initiatives under a sweeping Department of the Air Force overhaul dubbed \u201creoptimization\u201d \u2014 an effort rejected by the Trump administration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman has signed off on the creation of a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[129234,100672,79,193,248858,11716,129235,248859,248860],"class_list":["post-561945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-department-of-the-air-force","tag-gen-chance-salty-saltzman","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-delta-9","tag-space-force","tag-space-futures-command","tag-space-warfighting-activities-group","tag-troy-meink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}