Courtesy Photo | Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense...... read more read more
Subscribe
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Leaders took the high ground as the Army looks to the future of space and missile defense operations.
Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, commanding general of U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command; Brig. Gen. Donald K. Brooks, USASMDC deputy commanding general for operations; and Col. Felix G. Torres, commandant of the Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence; talked on the importance of Army space to the Association of the U.S. Army’s Greater Los Angeles Chapter, or GLAC, May 29 in Long Beach, Calif.
“It’s no secret that right now is a time of great change, in our Army and in our world,” Gainey said. “I’m very fortunate to have a command that’s been called out in both the Department of Defense and the Army transformation initiatives when you’re talking Army space and Army missile defense and what we do for that fight from the DoD perspective.”
Gainey said the Army has moved to enhance its space cadre with the development of military occupational specialty 40D, designed for enlisted personnel who are supporting Army space operations.
Gainey said ultimately, the goal is to develop an Army Space Branch, with trained, ready and deployable Soldiers, capabilities and formations who deliver precise specialized effects within multidomain operations. He added this will ensure the success of Army and joint force operations while denying, disrupting and degrading enemy operations throughout the space domain.
“We are redefining the command and optimizing how we fight and how we move forward,” Gainey said. “Having space professionals and being able to grow future space professionals is incredibly critical as we move forward.”
Gainey said, as commander of Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, the organization will transform to play an optimal role as an operational component of Golden Dome for America.
“We’ll see how all that works out as we move forward, but we are transforming that organization to be able to be responsive to the current and future threats as we move forward. I can’t think of a better Army command than Space and Missile Defense Command to fit inside of the Golden Dome for America’s operational construct in some form or capacity.”
Gainey said none of this happens without an SMDC ‘One Team’ that is unified as it’s working toward future innovations the Army needs.
“These are the type of opportunities I have within Space and Missile Defense Command to not only drive capability but get feedback from Soldiers within my command and multi-domain task force to move fast and to be able to keep pace with the threat,” said Gainey. “We’re incredibly excited about what the future holds and how this command will play an important role moving forward.”
After Gainey’s remarks, Brooks and Torres joined him in an Army Space panel and underscored the importance of Army space to multi-domain operations.
Brooks said the Army adopted multi-domain operations in 2018 to describe how the Army, as a part of a joint team, deters our adversaries and defeats highly capable near-peer adversaries or enemies in the 2025-2050 timeframe.
“Because those warfighting functions are the critical foundation to build lethality in our combat power, it’s important to remember that multi-domain operations are meant to break down those traditional silos and leverage cross-domain synergy to build that lethality and increase our deterrent effect through convergence,” said Brooks. “In multi-domain operations, success in Army space is absolutely critical to fighting and winning our nation’s wars.
“Multi-domain operations provide commanders options for operations using the continuous integration of all domain capabilities, enabling presentation of multiple dilemmas,” he added. “It’s important to remember that MDO is meant to break down traditional silos and leverage cross-domain synergy to build lethality.”
Brooks said with the advantage between us and our near-peer competitors closing and with an increasing reliance on space-based capabilities to essentially shoot, move and communicate with tactical precision, the Army can’t wait until we are contested in every domain to seize the high ground in space. He added that Soldiers are what give us the edge against an enemy in large-scale ground combat operations, and that is really no different with space capabilities.
“The continuous integration of space, counter space and global missile defense capabilities into multi-domain operations creates significant advantages that allow us to dominate in the domain as space is that prerequisite to success,” Brooks said. “Denying adversary access to space capabilities is tremendously important as it increases, once again, our lethality by limiting the adversary’s ability to see, sense, understand, stimulate and strike us in and through those space domains.
“All this is best done in a full joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multi-national environment where we can really create whole of government advantages that disrupt, deny, and degrade what the adversary is trying to do,” he added.
Torres said SMDC’s strength is the ability to train, man, and join forces with both qualified and non-qualified space professionals’ perspectives.
“We train warfighters to provide space expertise to commanders and their staff,” Torres said. “The intent is to ensure Army, joint and co-enforcement partners can leverage space capabilities to gain and maintain initiative to fight from positions of relative advantage in all domains. We are constantly improving our curriculum, transformation and contact perspective, taking the space control systems that were already discussed, and integrating those into our curriculum. We strive to update our doctrine as discussed earlier using lessons learned, taking input from operational forces, and keeping abreast of emerging technologies.
“We’ve covered all bases to ensure we get out to Army space from institutional and operational perspectives,” he added. “The primary strategy is primarily executed by the schoolhouse’s Army Space Training Division.”
Torres said education and training for non-space professionals is arguably the line of effort that is as important as the space professional, based off the volume. He added if SMDC can educate the non-space professionals to act as space enablers, the Army will exponentially increase the impact that space can have on 15,000-plus Soldiers in a division.
“Institutional, operational, and leader development … the Army Space Training Division is organized to directly support these efforts,” Torres said. “We’re embedding foundational space education into curriculum across all the centers of excellence. The bottom line is that the Space and Missile Defense School is ready to support Army, joint and coalition partner needs, current and future, by developing and maintaining a highly skilled workforce, recruiting and maintaining top talent, and cultivating strong leaders with deep expertise in this critical domain.”
| Date Taken: | 05.30.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2025 13:21 |
| Story ID: | 499294 |
| Location: | LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 73 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Leaders excite GLAC about Army space, missile defense, by Jason Cutshaw, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
