Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein is offering to train and equip his joint force colleagues in space warfare and provide Air Force training venues in an effort to reduce “seams” between the services, he told reporters February 7.
The Air Force is generally looked at as the Defense Department’s space service, but the other services have their own space efforts, such as the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) and the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. Goldfein said he’s tapping into the belief that the business of space has become a joint warfighting domain and that it’s his obligation to provide the best equipped and trained space warfighters, regardless of which service they serve in.
“There are certain missions that I believe we have an obligation to ensure that the joint force has what it needs,” Goldfein said at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. “Organize, train and equip, in the space business, means that I organize, train, equip and present ready space forces to a combatant commander to accomplish his mission.”
Goldfein said since the Air Force has the preponderance of space forces, it also has the preponderance of the training venues. Offering his venues to the joint force, he said, is an effort to optimize its space training pipeline. Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Brooke Brander said Monday in an email that Goldfein’s offering is more about starting a dialogue with the other services and that she was unsure if the dialogue had started.
“No matter where this dialogue goes, if this ends up with me being able to open up more positions in our pipeline to my fellow service chiefs, for that kind of training, (that’s) all to the good,” Goldfein said.