Comprised mainly of young Space Force enlisted members, the 76th’s mission is to produce fast, timely and accurate intelligence on threats “in, to and from space,” Katz said.
While the 76th is focused on making sense of what’s happening today, Space Force Lt. Col. Aaron Echols, who commands the 4th Intelligence Analysis Squadron (IAS), leads a more senior unit able to offer insights of greater depth and longer-term analysis.
A lot of IAS members are senior civilians who have been engaged in this this tradecraft and analysis for some time, Echols said. He has about 80% civilians and about 20% uniformed members of the military, many of whom regularly travel to Washington, D.C. to confer with senior leaders.
Together, the 91 members of these two units will work with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) and the National Space Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Katz and Echols told this newspaper in a new interview.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Members will go back and forth between Springfield and Wright-Patterson, as a building on the Springfield base is refurbished, and as a permanent home for the National Space Intelligence Center — of which the IAS is part — is built on Wright-Patterson.
“We’ll have guardians going back and forth in both directions,” Katz said.
Even though the ribbon-cutting is Friday, there has been more than a year of work toward the Space Intelligence Production Cell, Katz said.
“We’re 91 souls at present,” he said. “But we consider that half of the capacity that we need in order to get to 24-7 (operations).”
“We will still be in a growth phase in the years ahead, depending on a couple of variables,” he added.
“We are doing things that are primarily just focused on space, whereas NASIC is doing a lot of, obviously, air-focused things,” Echols said. “They are the service intelligence center for the Air Force. We are the service intelligence center, and support elements of intelligence, for the Space Force.”
One of the chief questions Echols’ unit is trying to answer: “This next environment, this next battleground, if you will: What is the intelligence need for that space?”
A relatively new branch of the U.S. military, Space Force is only approaching its sixth birthday, he noted.
Space touches every dimension of national defense, both terrestrially and in orbit, Echols said. Katz likened space to military aviation during World War I. Leaders were still getting a feel for what was possible.
“Kind of like aviation in the late 19-teens,” Katz said. “Aircraft had been around but ... how can we use it different ways? We are entering a new era for space and how it is part of our society.”
So far, Springfield and these new units have been a good fit, Katz said.
“We have some of the happiest units in the Space Force. We are loving the community and the support,” he said.
Since the 2005 BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) process, the Springfield base has had intelligence as a core mission.
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