The Space Force celebrated the first graduating class of its new Officer Training Course Thursday, marking a new approach to training that ensures the new leaders will have knowledge across key areas.
The year-long course brings together training in space operations, cyber defense, intelligence and acquisitions — traditionally separate specialty areas in the field.
"We can no longer afford to stove pipe our leaders from day one," Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, told 84 graduates and their families who gathered at Peterson Space Force Base. The class included a mix of new officers who commission through the Air Force Academy, Reserve Officers' Training Corps and Officer Training School.
Saltzman explained that with their year of training, those who focus on cyber defense now have the knowledge to ask tough questions of their colleagues in intelligence. Those working in intelligence will be able to provide better information to space and cyber operators, he said.
"I need you to be the big-picture multidisciplinary thinkers," Saltzman said.
Maj. Gen. James Smith, commander of Space Training and Readiness Command, also addressed the class and described the challenges in space he expected the new officers will face in 15 years.
U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites could be tailed by a fleet of enemy satellites with small telescopes to monitor their every move by 2040. It's also possible enemy satellites could disrupt satellite communications and carry nuclear weapons, among other threats, he said.
"It may all sound like science fiction, but quite a bit of it is already happening," Smith said.
In April a Chinese commercial company targeted U.S. warships in the Red Sea and in May Russian hackers replaced TV from a Ukrainian satellite with footage of a military parade as a form of intimidation, he said.
The people attracted to this kind of work are future minded, said Lt. Col. Liam Conley, commander of the 319th Combat Training Squadron.
"They're really on the cutting edge of what the transformation for future warfare looks like," he said.
The new Officer Training Course started last fall and accepts a new class every two months, Conley said. Previously, the training was spread across California, Texas and Mississippi and focused on individual specialties. Now, all Space Force officers will flow through one course in Colorado Springs, he said.
Read Next: Jan. 6 Rioter Fatally Shot by Police Approved for Military Funeral Honors by Air Force
© 2025 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Visit www.gazette.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
