Army establishes new branch dedicated to space operations
The Army announced Thursday that it has officially created a branch for soldiers specializing in space operations.
The new Space Operations Branch will consolidate the service’s space professionals — including Army Space Operations Officers and enlisted Tactical Space Operations Specialists under the military occupational specialty (MOS) 40D created in 2025. The decision elevates space ops from a functional area to basic branch, formalizing the career within the service.
“Establishing the Space Operations Branch is an important step in the Army’s continuous transformation,” Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement. “It provides the Army with the professional structure to deliver space-based effects directly to our soldiers and units at the tactical edge enabling commanders to fight and win in a contested, multidomain environment.”
Since the creation of the Space Force in 2019, the Army has been redefining its mission in that realm to provide expeditionary equipment designed for large-scale, multi-domain operations. Along with modernizing its capabilities, the service has worked to create dedicated career opportunities for soldiers specializing in space-based capabilities.
While the Space Force focuses on on-orbit missions such as missile warning and satellite communications, the Army’s space soldiers support ground troops with space-based capabilities and protect them from adversary attacks.
To that end, the soldiers under the new Space Operations Branch will be “equipped to deliver specialized capabilities to enable successful Army and joint force operations while effectively denying, disrupting and degrading adversary operations within the space domain,” the Army said in a statement.
The organization will also take operational burdens from other Army branches — including the Air Defense Artillery, Military Intelligence and Signal branches that used to send its enlisted personnel to temporarily tour with SMDC and provide space capabilities, according to the service.
“This structural transformation ensures the service keeps pace with the growing space operations force structure required across the joint force, particularly within its modern multidomain task forces and theater strike effects groups,” the Army said in a news release. “The Space Operations Branch will produce well-rounded experts to deliver close space support and space interdiction capabilities that maneuver commanders depend on to gain and maintain the initiative.”
