The decision has been a year in the making, but the Space Coast will officially become the home of STARCOM, the training headquarters for Space Force.
Patrick Space Force Base and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, both former Air Force facilities, were named in May 2023 the presumptive home for STARCOM, which stands for Space Training and Readiness Command. It’s one of three Space Force field command units, similar to an Air Force air command.
Sen. Marco Rubio confirmed the decision was made final posting congratulations on X.
“Great news for Florida! Patrick Space Force Base has received final approval to become the permanent headquarters for STARCOM, bolstering Florida’s growing leadership in space,” Rubio posted on Tuesday.
The Space Coast lost out on getting the Department of Defense’s U.S. Space Command headquarters in 2022, but STARCOM would bring a major addition to Space Force’s already sizable presence as the launch capital of the world.
STARCOM is “responsible for the deliberate development, education and training of space professionals in addition to the development of space warfighting doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures, and the operational test and evaluation of Space Force systems,” according to an Air Force press release.
Space Florida CEO Rob Long said the decision was “not unexpected by any means … but good to see” after last year’s narrowing of the field of site candidates. The retired Space Force colonel took over the leadership role with state’s aerospace finance and development authority in 2023, and said basing STARCOM on the Space Coast made the most sense.
“The fact that [STARCOM] is going to be headquartered here does speak to the ecosystem that’s here in Central Florida, specifically, but across the entire state, to support such an activity.”
Under each field command are several smaller groups known as deltas, similar to Air Force wings. One of STARCOM’s five deltas — Space Delta 10: Doctrine and Wargaming — was also tapped in 2023 to make its way to Brevard County.
Patrick was named the “sole candidate location being considered to host this mission because of its proximity to a Department of Defense modeling and simulation capability with resident space.”
Space Delta 10’s job will be to develop Space Force doctrine and tactics, conduct its Lessons Learned Program, and run war games.
“We’ve definitely had interest from companies trying to just understand exactly what the organizations are and trying to get some background specifically,” Long said.
He noted the support systems in Central Florida for these would likely include the already strong modeling and simulation capabilities such as can be found in Orlando.
“You’ll see some close ties develop pretty quickly between the new command coming and those universities that are working in that space, the companies that are in that area as well,” he said. “There is definitely a lot of interest in how this will grow together in this area.”
Both Patrick and Canaveral were among the first to be converted to the Space Force. They are already home to Space Launch Delta 45, which supports all launches from Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center. SLD 45, though, falls under a different field command for the Space Force called Space Systems Command.
The history of STARCOM actually dates back to 1959 when it was the 6555 Guided Missiles Group, which was based at what was then Patrick Air Force Base before it was deactivated in 1992 after a series of name changes. It was reactivated as part of Space Force in 2021.
“It just speaks to the to the strong history that the space industry in general has, and the aerospace industry maybe even larger, for a long time here in the state of Florida,” Long said.
STARCOM for now is run out of Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado while the Space Force’s overall headquarters is based in Washington at the Pentagon along with other HQs of the nation’s armed forces.
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The Orlando Sentinel reached out to STARCOM for details about the timeline and personnel planned for the headquarters’ move to Brevard County, but has yet to hear back.
In a 2021 interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine, after being named STARCOM’s commander, not Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton said he expected the headquarters to grow to about 250 personnel overseeing about 1,500 under all of its deltas.
Essentially becoming boot camp for the Space Force, Bratton told the magazine he envisioned a future with “on-orbit training where we’re live-flying satellites in a training environment, where we can test and train things that we haven’t done before, I think that would be a huge step forward for us.”
Bratton has since moved on to other duties at the Pentagon and STARCOM’s commander since July 2023 has been Maj. Gen. Timothy Sejba.
