The Air Force announced last week 250 Space Force guardians with Delta 15, dedicated to protecting and defending operations in space, will be permanently based in Colorado Springs at Schriever Space Force Base.
A Space Force delta is similar to an Air Force wing and in this case houses command and control, intelligence and reconnaissance and cyber squadrons.
Col. Stephen Lyon, leads Delta 15 and the National Space Defense Center, and said shortly after Delta 15 was formed in 2023 he expected it would provide the "core backbone" of Department of Defense staff within the National Space Defense Center at Schriever. The center also works closely with the National Reconnaissance Office.
The Delta also supports Space Forces-Space at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Space Forces-Space, also called S4S, is also a new organization formed in 2023 to plan, conduct, and assess global space operations, working under Space Command.
The National Space Defense Center, formed in 2015, is the oldest of the three, and brings together the military, intelligence agency experts, allies and commercial entities to protect satellites.
Gov. Jared Polis, both Colorado senators, U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, and other Colorado lawmakers all praised the Air Force's basing decision, particularly since a rematch with Alabama over Space Command could be brewing. Alabama lawmakers Rep. Mike Rogers and Sen. Tommy Tuberville both expect President-elect Donald Trump to move the command from Peterson to Red Stone Arsenal in Huntsville. Space Command is a much larger employee with 1,700 people.
All the Colorado lawmakers highlighted the robust space ecosystem in town on Friday and the key role that Delta 15 plays in protecting national space security and the critical services it provides to Space Command.
"Colorado is the epicenter of our national security operations in space. We're proud of the thriving space ecosystem that makes this leadership possible, including the fully operational Space Command," said Sen. John Hickenlooper, in a statement. "Locating Space Force Delta 15 -- which leads command and control for U.S. Space Command -- in Colorado Springs makes all the sense in the world."
The Air Force based its decision on site surveys, community support, infrastructure capacity, and cost, according to the Air Force.
Schriever was the only location to meet the basing requirements for Space Delta 15, according to the news release from the lawmakers.
When it's fully staffed Delta 15 will have 250 employees, according to the Air Force. When it was formed last year, it had 30 to 40, The Gazette reported previously.
Lyon said during a presentation at the Space Symposium in 2023 that keeping track of what's going in space has become much tougher as China's launches have grown. Over the five years prior to his talk, China's satellites with active sensors, such as cameras, had grown 350%, he said.
Part of the center's job is to bring data together from the intelligence community and the Space Force and create a full picture of activity to inform where sensors should be focused, he said.
"If we don't understand what's going on in the domain we can't do anything about it," he said. The big picture is passed up to Space Command, Lyon said.
Lyon noted Delta 15 would bring in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in a different way than the Air Force.
"We believe that integration of operations, cyber and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance happens better when it’s under a single commander," he said.
He also expected lots of growth would happen in the coming years.
"We will be able to go from watch to win in our domain," Lyon said.
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