WASHINGTON — Amid the growing pains that include being a brand new military branch, the U.S. Space Force is trying to determine its brand and construct an identity.
“The quantity of labor that we’ve done in three years is totally eye-watering to me, but we’re still attempting to work out how one can navigate” inside the large military bureaucracy, said Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, deputy chief of the U.S. Space Force for operations, cyber and nuclear.
In an interview with , Burt said service leaders are being challenged on multiple fronts. Because the smallest branch, the Space Force has a flatter structure and senior officers wear several hats. As a brand new organization lower than 4 years old, the Space Force also desires to innovate, and has pushed changes in personnel policies, fitness tests and uniform design.
The Space Force is answerable for organizing, training and equipping forces to conduct operations within the space domain, similar to flying satellites and ensuring these assets are at all times available.
The service today has greater than 12,900 members, often called guardians. That features about 8,409 uniformed military and 4,519 civilians. By comparison, the Space Force’s parent service, the U.S. Air Force, has about 328,820 lively duty personnel and 152,231 civilians.
Even inside the strict rules and deeply rooted norms of the Defense Department, “we would like to attempt to do things otherwise,” said Burt, “whether that be talent management, give attention to diversity and inclusion, being a digital service and flattening the organization.”
For this to work, Burt said, “now we have to seek out that balance of doing things in a brand new way, but in addition being a part of the joint force.”
Uniforms, physical fitness tests
An example is a move by the Space Force to reinvent the annual physical fitness tests required for military members. As an alternative it’s using a holistic approach where guardians volunteer to share fitness assessment data from wearable trackers. Participants are exempted from taking the standard Air Force fitness test for 2 years.
“That is going thoroughly,” Burt said. “It’s the concept that holistic health just isn’t just a couple of once-a-year test. It’s about being healthy on a regular basis.”
“All of the services are watching this,” she said. “Initially there was a bit pushback but now it’s in an excellent place.”
One other area where the Space Force has sought changes is women’s uniforms.
The service was pilloried on social media in 2021 when a female guardian wore a prototype dress uniform with ill-fitting pants.
Within the Air Force all of the uniforms were designed by men, said Burt. The Space Force now has a male designer for the male uniform and a female designer for the feminine uniform. Space Force Director of Staff Lt. Gen. Nina Armagno offered a sneak peak of the brand new dress uniform on the Space Symposium in April.
The design specs and details of the Space Force female uniform are transferable to the Air Force, said Burt. “So I believe in the long run, the Air Force women’s uniforms are going to improve in consequence of the work the Space Force is doing.”
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No problems recruiting to date
While the Army and the Air Force face shortfalls in recruiting, the Space Force attracts more applicants than it has slots to fill.
Officials said that is attributable to the Space Force’s small size and growing enthusiasm within the U.S. about space profession opportunities. The Space Force brought in 564 recent active-duty guardians in Fiscal 12 months 2022.
“We’re very selective” each within the number of officers and enlisted personnel, said Burt. Having a big pool of candidates also allows the Space Force to “construct diversity and inclusion from the bottom up, so the force reflects the population we’re defending.”
In accordance with self-reported guardian racial demographics, the service is 63% White, 14% Hispanic or Latino and seven.5% Black or African American and 6.3% Asian. The rest includes a combination of American Indian/Native Alaskan, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and others.
Personnel initiatives similar to providing opportunities to get advanced degrees and exchange programs with the private sector are intended to assist retain expert people, Burt said. A priority going forward is losing guardians to the higher-paying private sector.
Unlike within the larger military branches, younger officers within the Space Force have significant responsibilities because there are far fewer generals. Within the Pentagon people have recognized that “I actually have colonels that I actually have to empower to send to meetings,” Burt said. “They usually’re punching above their weight class they usually’re doing great work,” she said. “They feel very empowered by the indisputable fact that they’re provided that level of responsibility.”
Burt herself manages areas that within the Air Force are overseen by five different general officers: Operations and logistics, cybersecurity, wargaming, nuclear command and control. She can be certainly one of the rare three-star female generals overseeing operations.
“I inform you that always I’m the one woman on the table,” said Burt. That’s something she hopes will change as more female junior officers move up the ranks. “It’s still interesting how few female general officers are on this constructing.”
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Latest chief’s priorities
The Space Force chief of space operations Gen. Likelihood Saltzman earlier this yr rolled out a list of priorities, the primary of which is to field “combat ready forces.”
Having a talented workforce versed in advanced technology is essential to meeting this goal, Burt said. “We now have to supply probably the most exquisite space capabilities we are able to to the joint force and defend those capabilities in order that they will proceed to deliver.”
Saltzman also desires to define the “guardian spirit.” This implies answering central questions similar to “What can we expect of our guardians? And the way can we evaluate talent and construct talent based on our core values?”
The third priority, “partnering to win,” is about forging ties with foreign allies and with the industrial industry.
Saltzman also wants the Space Force to turn out to be higher known by the American public. “All of us must be spending time talking about what we’re doing and the way we’re doing it,” said Burt. “Since it helps the American people understand where their tax dollars are going.”
Most individuals will not be aware of their reliance on satellites for routine each day activities like using GPS or trading stocks, and what could occur if satellites in orbit were taken out of service. “We’d like to speak about it as much as we are able to,” said Burt.
In accordance with a memo Saltzman issued June 8, “Our effectiveness as a military organization relies on an unassailable relationship with the society we serve.”