CSO unveils Future Operating Environment and Objective Force at 41st Space Symposium

Gen. Chance Saltzman on April 15 laid out a 15-year blueprint for the U.S. Space Force, unveiling a Future Operating Environment for 2040 and an “Objective Force” construct he said will guide how the service fields and organizes capabilities in a more contested domain.

Speaking at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium, the chief of space operations said the service is already demonstrating combat credibility, citing Guardians’ contributions to Operations Midnight Hammer, Absolute Resolve and Epic Fury over the past year. “The truths we hold close as space professionals – that space is foundational to our way of life, and vital to our modern way of war – well, they’re starting to catch on,” Saltzman said.

The Future Operating Environment is intended to drive planning and debate about how space warfare could evolve by 2040. Saltzman emphasized it is not a threat list or intelligence estimate but a thinking tool. “An expert team of Guardian strategists put together the Future Operating Environment, a document to spur complex thought, provoke debate, and ultimately put us on a trajectory to secure the nation’s interests in space,” he said. “It will serve as our point of departure, and a catalyst for the growth and change that the future of space warfighting will demand.” He urged allies, partners and industry to engage with the analysis and, “read it critically, debate our assumptions, and then offer suggestions to help us build a stronger Space Force for the future.”

Insights from that work underpin the Objective Force through 2040, which Saltzman described as the service’s “North Star” for what to field, when, and at what scale to ensure resilience and responsiveness. “I’ve been talking about this for some time, and it’s been a long campaign of learning and discovery,” he said. The approach re-architects key mission areas:

– Navigation warfare: Future GPS capabilities would be buttressed by allied and commercial positioning, navigation and timing services; a dedicated NAVWAR squadron would be created; and receivers across the joint force would be upgraded to exploit a more resilient mix of signals.

– Satellite communications: Rather than rely on a handful of vulnerable spacecraft, Space Force aims to build a hybrid, self-healing SATCOM enterprise that blends proliferated constellations, leased bandwidth and commercial services to keep forces connected and give combatant commanders assured control.

Saltzman said delivering the Objective Force will require faster, less risk-averse procurement. “The Department of War is implementing new initiatives to unshackle our industry partners and continue putting our space industrial base on a wartime footing,” he said, pointing to moves that consolidate authority under Portfolio Acquisition Executives and prioritize rapid delivery of minimum viable capabilities.

Building the workforce to match those ambitions will also demand growth in infrastructure and personnel. Saltzman highlighted new training pipelines — including the Officer Training Course, the Acquisitions Initial Qualification Training course, and the advanced Galaxy program — as key to developing a cadre that “embraces change, takes calculated risks, learns rapidly from failure, and innovates at every level.”

Additional details on the Future Operating Environment and Objective Force were discussed in a recent Space Force Association podcast.

“This is the architecture we must build to enable the Joint Force and secure the domain,” Saltzman said. “As I prepare to hand over the watch I’m not worried … because I know the Guardians from the operations floors to the program offices have the skills, knowledge, and grit to fight – and win – in our domain every day.”