Space Force reorganizes former Air Force space wings into Deltas and Garrisons

Publish date: 2024-05-18

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force announced on July 24 that three former U.S. Air Force space wings have been deactivated and replaced with “Space Deltas” and “Garrison” commands.

This latest realignment follows the June 30 rollout of a plan to organize the Space Force field units into three major commands. Under each command will be deltas and garrisons, with squadrons under them. Compared to Air Force organizations, the Space Force structure is flatter, eliminating one general officer echelon and one colonel-level echelon of command.

Of the Air Force’s five space wings, the three that were based in Colorado — the 21st Space Wing at Peterson Air Force Base; the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base; and the 460th Space Wing at Buckley Air Force Base — have been deactivated and new units have been stood up in their place.

The new units are known as Space Deltas and Garrisons. Deltas are commanded by colonels and are trained for specific missions and operations. The Space Force views Deltas as the equivalent of Army brigades. Garrisons are responsible for providing support functions to Deltas assigned to their installations such as base security, civil engineering, public affairs, physicians and chaplains. Garrisons do not oversee space Deltas, they are peer organizations.

The operations of the three deactivated wings have been realigned as follows:

Training Delta

The Space Force has also stood up a Space Training and Readiness (STAR) Delta Provisional at Peterson Air Force Base as the precursor organization to one of its major field command, the Space Training and Readiness Command.

The other two field commands will be Space Operations Command and the Space Systems Command.

The eight mission-focused Space Deltas that were just stood up will report to the Space Operations Command. That command, to be run by a three-star general, has not yet been established.

“Until such time the planned U.S. Space Force field commands are activated, the nine Deltas and two Garrison commands established July 24 report to Gen. John “Jay” Raymond,” Lynn Kirby, U.S. Space Force spokesperson, told SpaceNews.

There are two other Air Force space wings — the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the 45th Space Wing at Patrick Air Force, Florida — that have not yet been reorganized but eventually will be realigned.

The 30th and the 45th Space Wings operate the nation’s largest space launch ranges and oversee military, civil and commercial space launches. The Space Force has not yet announced its plans to reorganize these two wings. A likely scenario is that the launch mission will be moved to a Space Delta under Space Systems Command, and the base and range support will be assigned to an existing or a new Garrison.

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