The Space Force wants to create its own tailor-made boot camp for aspiring guardians, top officials said at a conference in Florida this week.
“We’re trying to figure out what the right scope is, what the right scale is, what the right evolution is, away from the Air Force training our inductees, and toward a more guardian-oriented environment,” Chief of Space Operations Gene. Chance Saltzman said Tuesday at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida.
Since 2020, the new Space Force recruits have trained at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas, where Air Force recruits also train.
Along the way, Saltzman said, the Space Force has “opened up pockets” within the Air Force’s basic military training program to teach future Guardsmen information specific to their service.
But the time has come for the Space Force to put its own stamp on BMT, Saltzman said in a roundtable with reporters.
“At some point we say, we have to train and educate our own people,” Saltzman said. “It’s a natural part of evolution. When you join the Space Force…we want you to be focused on being a Guardian from day one.”
Creating a Space Force-specific boot camp requires a lot of effort and investment, Saltzman said, which is one reason the service has piggybacked on the Air Force’s BMT so far. The Space Force plans to continue using the Air Force’s training infrastructure as it builds out its new training so it can move as quickly as possible, he said.
Space Force Chief Master Sergeant John Bentivegna told reporters that the Space Force recently created its own BMT curriculum at Lackland, rather than using a slightly modified version of the Air Force’s plan. That Space Force curriculum is taught by MTIs, he said, and Space Force recruits have their own formations and flights. It also lasts 7.5 weeks — the same as the Air Force curriculum — so guardian training is better integrated with the “ecosystem” in Lackland, Bentivegna said.
But a tailored Space Force training curriculum may need to be a little shorter or longer to best train aspiring Guardsmen, Bentivegna said.
“Let’s figure out what to do,” Bentivegna said. “It’s about first defining, without any barriers, what do we need to do so that the nation can develop the guards we need? And we’ll go from there.”
Bentivegna said it has not yet been decided where a potential Space Force boot camp will be held.
Courtney Albon of C4ISRNET contributed to this report.
