A most interesting news story from the online infosite, Breaking Defense, authored by By Colin Clark, offers the opener — Buried in the minutiae of the Senate Armed Service’s Committee’s space hearing is an important shift for space warfighting and acquisition.

Here it is: “… AFSPC/CC has been elevated to the Joint Force Component Commander for Space (JFCC Space) … in essence a 4-star Air Force commander focused on the joint fight.” Now, I think what they really meant to say is that the three-star joint component commander is being elevated to a four-star position. However the language is revealing since, to someone in uniform, any time you get to command combat troops is an “elevation” from a staff job.

The response Breaking Defense received got  morning from Strategic Command (STRATCOM), where the JFCC Space resides, muddies the water a bit...

“The commander of Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) has not been elevated to the commander of Joint Functional Component Command for Space (JFCC Space). Gen. Raymond is still the commander of AFSPC and Lt. Gen. Buck is still the commander of our JFCC Space,” STRATCOM spokesman Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell says in an email. “However, one of the things U.S. Strategic Command USSTRATCOM is exploring as part of an organizational restructure is the creation of a four-star joint force space component command (not JFCC Space). This restructure is in its nascent stage and is intended to build a more streamlined organization, enabling cleaner command and control of forces and lines of authority.”

Clearly, there’s still some discussion underway between the combatant command and the Air Force, but I understand the bottom line is that Raymond will be the joint component commander for space, even if he isn’t the JFCC Space…

To read the remainder of this interesting story,
please visit this direct Breaking Defense infolink...