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STARCOM to bring more than 450 military and civilian jobs to Patrick Space Force Base

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STARCOM to bring more than 450 military and civilian jobs to Patrick Space Force Base

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The first cohort of dozens of STARCOM guardians are on scene at at Patrick Space Force Base, working to establish the fledgling military branch’s space-warfighting training hub by late 2025.

In terms of economic impact, STARCOM — a major Space Force command — will bring in about 350 personnel from across the nation to Patrick by 2026, Col. Mandi Fuller told the crowd during a panel discussion at last month’s Space Coast Symposium at the Astronauts Memorial Foundation.

“Over the coming years, STARCOM will steadily transition a force of more than 450 personnel as it completes its move. These personnel consist of a mix of uniformed Guardians and Airmen, federal civilians, and contractors,” Ethan Johnson, STARCOM spokesperson, said in an email.

“STARCOM is proud to call Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, home, and is eager to forge partnerships amongst industry, academia, and other military organizations,” Johnson said.

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The average Brevard County household has 2.33 people, University of Florida research shows. With 450 personnel, that projects to STARCOM households encompassing 1,049 residents. By comparison, Palm Shores has about 1,200 residents.

The Space Force was established in December 2019 and organized under Air Force leadership. STARCOM — an acronym for Space Training and Readiness Command headquarters — will transition into the Space Force’s training hub for “space warfighting doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures.”

For comparison’s sake, the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command plays a similar training-educational role for that military branch at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

“Generally, what they’re looking at is, what are the methods by which the Space Force is going to vary on its mission to protect and defend military activities in space? You can imagine the satellites that are providing all sorts of capabilities. How do you go about protecting those, and ensuring that they’re available to support warfighters across the globe?” Space Florida President and CEO Rob Long said.

In May 2023, Space Force officials announced Brevard County would host STARCOM. Florida leaders cheered the highly anticipated move — the military’s other five candidate locations were in California (Los Angeles Air Force Base and Vandenberg Space Force Base) and Colorado (Buckley, Schriever and Peterson Space Force bases).

As of the past fiscal year, the Space Force had more than 14,500 military and civilian guardians. Basic training takes place at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, while officer training occurs at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs.

Long is a retired Space Force colonel who commanded Space Launch Delta 30 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

“There’s no question that our space capabilities are truly a game-changer, in terms of national security needs and how the military operates. But when you look specifically with STARCOM, you’re really going to have a center of excellence, in terms of thought, in the future on how we best do that,” Long said.

“When you look out in the future, you can really see this area on the Space Coast become kind of an epicenter for thought leadership on all things related to — not just the military side of space — but that’s going to extend to other aspects of the space industry as well,” he said.

Space Force officials declined to release exact numbers of STARCOM personnel now working at Patrick Space Force Base, citing longstanding Department of Defense policy.

In an August change-of-command ceremony, Space Delta 10, a key STARCOM unit, moved from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to the Space Coast.

“I’m humbled and grateful for the opportunity to join this talented team of professionals as we put down roots at Patrick Space Force Base,” said Col. Shannon DaSilva during her inaugural address commanding Space Delta 10.

“I look forward to partnering with the talent in the Florida modeling and simulation community to lead the Space Force’s wargames, lessons learned, and doctrine, tactics and concept development into the future to make a difference for our service and our nation in the era of great power competition,” DaSilva said.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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