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Capt. Malik McCoy, a Space Force student at Air University's Squadron Officer School, listens to a peer brief during his SPEAR Track experience, December 8, 2023. The program is designed to provide Space Force officers their own specialized training needed for Guardian leadership development. (U.S. Air Force photo by Billy Blankenship)

Training of Space Professionals

Published April 13, 2026
By 50 OSS

TOPIC SPONSOR: 50 OSS

Development of space professionals from the Space Race to current times. What were the training methods and proficiency of space-based career fields before and after the creation of Air Force Space Command? (50 OSS) Should the USSF establish its own Space Intel tech school?

Gunther, Maj. Brianne E., "Training Cannot Wait Ten Years--The Critical Experience Gap in USSF Officers Planning and Executing Space C2," AFGC thesis, 2024, 69 pgs.
- What were the training methods and proficiency of space-based career fields before and after the creation of Air Force Space Command? Gunther answers this by detailing how historical United States Air Force (USAF) training methods, which were inherited by the USSF, created stove-piped officers proficient only in singular tactical systems rather than operational planning. She demonstrates that both past and present Initial Skills Training (IST) and Undergraduate Space Training (UST) courses provide only a superficial survey of joint concepts, leaving a significant proficiency gap that is not formally addressed until an officer reaches mid-career Professional Military Education. To immediately correct this training deficiency in space-based career fields, she recommends that the USSF stop waiting for future long-term development programs to mature and instead leverage existing Department of the Air Force courses—such as the Joint Air Operations Planning Course and Joint Task Force Staff Basic Course—to rapidly build the proficiency needed for modern space operations..
Reis, Capt. Christopher, "A Distributed Test and Training Range for Space," SOS AUAR paper, 2020, 8 pgs.