Keynote Address—The Cyber Thread of Space Power: Forging the Guardians Who Secure Our Decision Advantage
September 15, 2026
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CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thank you. Can you hear me? All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. Hope everyone had a good lunch. Not too heavy, not too heavy, I hope, but it’s great to be back. Hey, I just want to give a quick thank you to General Field, Ms. Ferguson, and entire AFA staff. Thank you so much for another phenomenal conference and great opportunity. And to the sponsors who are out there, we know we can’t do this without your help, so thanks for doing that. I really love this week, General Field, because my AFA week really started Sunday. So for those who don’t know, Sunday, there’s a great charity that AFA sponsors for the monument-to-monument ride. It’s a four-day ride. They start down at Kitty Hawk and they take four days and they ride bicycles up to the Air Force Memorial here in DC. And this year we had 335 riders, 33 of them were wounded warriors, and we raised $110,000 to support the Wounded Airmen & Guardians Program that AFA has. So thank you very much for doing that.
Now, I say that because if I’m walking a little funny on stage, my legs are a little tired. 72 miles I did on Sunday. I am not a young man, but I did get intensity minutes. If Ms. Kelly’s in the room, I did get intensity minutes for my HHA, so that’s really good. Hey, General Schiess, Mrs. Schiess, thank you so much. Congratulations again on your first AFA as the Chief of Space Operations. And of course, I have to give thanks to Kathy, my beautiful bride. Thank you, Kathy, for all the support. All right, so you’ve heard me several times talk about our core functions as a service. And this morning you heard General Schiess talk about the combat advantage that as Guardians we bring to the joint and coalition force. And I’ve talked about the core function, the importance of space control, global space operations, assured access to space, and all the underpinning enterprise functions that we do as a service and how that provides combat advantage and lethality to the joint force.
But today, I wanted to talk about and share some of my perspective and how I see the Space Force and how I see Guardians. Kind of my view that it’s been forged over years of experience and service, it’s kind of my Guardian ethos, if you will, and the pride in how I see what we do every single day. In addition to all the amazing things we do with the core functions and the combat lethality, I think there’s another advantage that we as Guardians bring to the Space Force. I think we bring time. We bring time for commanders to understand what is happening, assess options, and act before an adversary can impose their will. And this time gives us decision advantage. Earlier this year, we released our Future Operating Environment 2040, and it describes space as a contested high ground where advantage can be lost in milliseconds and where future conflict is shaped by blurred physical, digital, cognitive and organizational boundaries.
Now, the time that we provide commanders in that decision space, that decision advantage that we provide isn’t only a wartime advantage. It’s an advantage that strengthens readiness. It sharpens deterrence and ensures that if crisis does come, that the joint force does not begin from a position of disadvantage. Imagine, a commander facing a rapidly changing crisis, a missile launches, an adversary spacecraft begins maneuvering, a bomber formation changes course, maritime assets shift location, the strike package is on the move. The question is not simply what our satellites can see. It’s the question is can we provide enough information early enough with enough confidence to help commanders make a better decision first? That is decision advantage. Decision advantage is not just about seeing more, it’s about operating effectively in a contested, congested and degraded and deceptive environment.
Across history, militaries have sought the same advantage, understand the battlefield before the enemy does. What has changed really is speed. Scouts once carried information in hours and days. Telegraph reduced that time to minutes. Radio accelerated that even further and satellites made awareness global. Now, the challenge is sensing, moving, fusing, protecting and acting on all that information before the adversary can do the same. I’d put it this way. We went from seeing first to communicating faster to processing more information and now we’re connecting sensors, network and weapon systems at machine speed. But the core requirements have never changed. We must understand first, decide first and act first. I think that’s what we provide the joint force for lethality. But what has changed to do this on a global scale is the architecture required to do that globally and consistently.
The time that we gain only matters if information can be sensed, moved, processed and delivered fast enough to affect the decision. That is why we are arming and growing Guardians with a resilient decision architecture for the joint force. One that can see, connect, understand and decide fast enough so the adversary cannot outpace us. To enable the joint force to sense what is happening, to connect right sensors, understand the situation, decide with confidence and act in time. As the secretary talked about this morning, in addition to these sensors and these programs that you see here, we also have space-based interceptors, space data network, AMTI, all delivering capabilities to the joint force. But don’t think about this as just separate programs. And you see on the slide it says GPS, it says SBIRS. But for the war fighters in a room, we know them as WG-12, NM3, CG5, WT-132. Those are the weapon systems that we operate every single day on behalf of the joint force.
Because don’t think about it’s a decision architecture, not just a grouping of systems. It’s not unrealistic to imagine a future in which regional crisis unfolds amid persistent interference across electromagnetic spectrum, crowded audible regimes and competing narrative designed to create uncertainty rather than open conflict. A dispersed network of military, allied and commercial space systems detect anomalous activity, changing order behavior, disruption to communication pathways and indications of developing threat on the ground. No single sensor alone can provide a decisive answer. The advantage belongs to the side that can rapidly integrate fragmented observations, assess their reliability and deliver a trusted picture to decision makers. Again, referring back to the secretary yesterday, talking about long range kill chains, talking about the command and control and the sensors needed to fight the high end fight of today and tomorrow.
It’s a lot of data, and in short, our future is data dense. The Space Force is building architecture to underpins the lethality of the joint force, sensing what is happening, connecting the right users and sensors, understanding the environment, decide with confidence, act in time. But data only becomes combat power when we collect it, move it, protect it, authenticate it, process it, understand it and act on it in time. Again, I think the CSAF yesterday talked about CCAs and MMAs and all the data associated with it. The secretary said, and I quote, “Millions of data points that we’re going to have to process as a department.” The CSAF talked about enormous amounts of data for its next generation aircraft. The NORTHCOM commander talked yesterday during a Golden Dome presentation about compressing timelines, decision times for missile defense in North America. Underneath all of this data would underpin it.
It has to be trusted data. It has to be resilient networks and we have to have cyber defense. We know this and our adversaries know it too. Earlier this year, you may have seen a few out of character posts coming from my official Instagram page. Yes, I had several phone calls that morning. Personally, I’m honored to be considered a high profile. So when they went through the analysis, they decided, they found out that hackers had used Meta AI powered support chatbot to infiltrate high profile Instagram accounts. So to be in the same article as a former president and Sephora, and by the way, my daughter thought it was really cool that I was in an article with Sephora, although I didn’t get any discounts from them. But I’m also very heartened that the Guardians had the acumen to identify hacking when they saw it and they knew right away and we were able to take care of it. But I use this example to say that networks, data, information risks are not just limited to simple social media systems.
So I’ve talked about the architecture, the decision advantage architecture that we’re building, but architecture alone does not create decision advantage. So the question is, who makes the advantage hold in combat? Who allows us to leverage all of those systems to paint that picture, deliver it to the right time, to the right person on target? That’s where Guardians come in, especially cyber Guardians. As the Space Force fields and integrates a dispersed architecture, interconnected mission systems, software, data, AI, cyber, we’re no longer just enabling an adjacent domain. Cyber is operations. It is part of the operational terrain and is cross-cutting enterprise function for the Space Force to helping commanders ensure that they’re receiving information that is still ours, still true. In order to do that, to ensure their success, we do three things. We train them, we test them, and we trust them. In the space war fighting framework that we put out as a service, we talk about counter space operations, orbital warfare operations, electromagnetic warfare operations, and cyber warfare.
Part of that cyber warfare in space control and counter space operations is our cyber Guardians protecting our networks and the amount of data we talked about every single day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s what they do for the joint force. So how are we training these high-end war fighters? Cyber Guardians who understand networks and cyber security and also understand space, missions and systems. We spend a lot of time working on illicit cyber operations career field to focus them on cyber defense, warfare. Over the past two years, we’ve done significant work, redesigning the curriculum at the schoolhouses, combining the five Charlie career field, including updating all of the initial skills training through the 533rd training squadron, giving those Guardians the skills and knowledge that they need to make them war fighters. But this is not just limited to enlisted Guardians. In the officer training course, which has been very successful, those officers are getting introduced to cyber operations, understanding cyber defense, understanding the importance of the cyber terrain when we integrate and make operational planning to project space power.
These efforts ensure that our cyber Guardians enter the force with the technical foundation, operational mindset and mission context needed for the environment that they will defend. But once the initial training is done, how are we ensuring they’re getting the reps and sets, figuring out how to block those cyber punches in a realistic environment? We test them. We’re expanding our operational test and training infrastructure, OTTI, to make sure that Guardians can do exactly that. During Red Flag, cyber Guardians identified critical indicators of a compromise and developing situation. They shared algorithms to decode malicious activity, significantly hindering red team actions to ensure air and Space Force mission success. During Space Flag 26-1, cyber Guardians analyzed live threat intelligence across the cyberspace domain, directly guiding crew level tactical engagements in a contested and degraded environment and ensuring defensive critical space weapon systems. And as a result of all that work, Tech Sergeant Jeffrey De Leon earned the Space Flag Professional Performer Award.
We’re also competing our Guardians in DOW and international competitions as well. Guardians participated in the International Department of War Cyber Defense Operations Competition. They took third place in the Cyber Service Cup within the Department of War. They went on to compete in the international competition where they again came in third at the SANS International Service Cup. Specialist 4 Luke Felker, Specialist 4 Liam Hermida, Sergeant Vahe Martirosyan Vehan Martere Rasayan, Lieutenant Grady Phillips and Major Jonathan Hemingway led that team. Now, I am told that in the competition this year that the National Guard did very well and swept, so the team wanted me to pass on to the guard members in the room. We’re coming before you next year, just so you know. We’re going to get after it. We can’t forget about cyber range and aggressors. The squadron of the 33rd, who by the end of fiscal year 26 will have supported over 40 cyber test and training events, putting our Guardians up against a thinking adversary who studies the tactics and techniques being employed against us. Once an aggressor?
Audience:
Always an aggressor.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Always an aggressor. That’s right. And after training and testing have occurred, comes the most important step in a Guardian’s development. We then trust them to execute their mission. Guardians like Sergeant Aliyah Mejia of the 262 Cyber Squadron. She supported NRO Launch 69. She defended five critical networks, nodes against hostile cyber activity while helping maintain the resiliency of the infrastructure supporting the mission. She also developed AI enabled tools that significantly improved her team’s ability to detect and respond to cyber threats. Or individuals like specialist Jacob Bojko from the 68th Cyber Squadron. Bojko is defending protected military SATCOM communications, and today he’s also helping build the cyber force of tomorrow. As an incident responder and crew chief, he’s helped certify six new Guardians. He’s also participating in a pilot program helping us evaluate advanced cyber training for the broader Guardian force.
He has carried that expertise into planning of ultra-focal freedom lens alongside joint and combined partners in Korea, demonstrating that cyber expertise increasingly must travel with the mission across service lines, across coalitions, and across geographic boundaries. And then there’s Master Sergeant David Aguilar from the 64th Cyberspace Squadron. He led defensive cyberspace quick reaction force to protect the upgraded early warning radar. His team deployed within nine hours of initial notification and within 72 hours of their travel and their arrival ruled out malicious cyber activity to ensure immediate restoration of the weapon system. His leadership and expertise validated that rapid response tactics for Delta-wide implementation and set the standard for cyber enabling power projection. I want to add in a quote. “The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple air before the battle is fought.” 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu understood that victory often begins before the forces even meet.
The commander who understands the environment, understands the adversary, anticipates what will come next, fights with advantage. The ancient requirement remains the same. Understand first, decide first, act first. Guardians simply allow us to do it globally and at the speed of modern warfare. Space Force doctrine is clear that without space, kill chains do not close. Operations are less synchronized and indications and warnings are constrained. Our core and enterprise functions are not abstract categories. They are how we preserve the joint force’s ability to operate at a time and place of their choosing. And in this contested environment, our cyber Guardians are not simply defending static systems. They will help maneuver the digital terrain, identifying threats, isolating compromise, rerouting data, reporting mission pathways, rerouting mission pathways, reporting anomalies, ensuring commanders can act with confidence even when the network is under pressure.
The stories of Sergeant Mejia, Specialist Bojko, Master Sergeant Aguilar, and so many others demonstrate that this is not a future capability waiting to arrive. Today, we train them, trust them, and we test them. Technology alone does not create decision advantage. Guardians do. Guardians operate the systems. They interpret the data. They protect the networks. They understand the domain. They integrate Guardian power at scale. We do not simply operate satellites. We do not simply just move data or protect networks. We build and defend the architecture that helps the joint force see sooner, understand better, decide faster and act with confidence. Guardians, this is decision advantage. This is space power. Thank you. Okay, so I think we’re about to have some time to take some questions from the audience. So I’m open to… Anyone wants to talk about what I chatted about? Man, I must have been really good.
Emcee:
There are mic stands in the middle of the room, please, in front of the tables at the center. Please don’t be shy.
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
Hello, Chief. How are you doing today?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Hello.
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
I’m Staff Sergeant Audrey Jackson. I’m stationed at Peterson Space Force Base. My question for you is, what do you think Airmen need to better understand about the Space Force to be more effective joint partners?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So you’re at Peterson Space Force Base?
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
Yes, sir.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
And your question was, how do Airmen understand space better?
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
Yes, Chief.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So can I ask, what do you do at Peterson?
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
I work under Combat Forces Command.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Okay. So you didn’t think I’d be asking you questions, did you?
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
No, Chief.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah. We talk quite a bit, Chief Wolfe and I all the time talk about the importance and criticality of the Airmen who support the Space Force. We often refer to our installations as our power projection platforms, which is absolutely true. And every time I get a chance to go out and visit and engage with individuals that are on those installations, being particularly Airmen, I do encourage them. It’s a power projection platform. So no matter where you work, whether you’re in FSS, whether you’re in contracting, whether you’re civil engineering or security forces, I absolutely encourage you to make sure you understand the mission that you’re helping execute every single day.
And some of that is, and I’ve met several of the Space Base Delta commanders and launch space commanders, always very much interested in talking about the criticality importance of the mission that’s executing there. But as Airmen integrated into the Space Force like that, every single day, you’re part of the mission. You’re not a tenant unit. You are the mission that allows us to execute every single day. So I encourage you to ask the questions, get out there, get the briefings, understand exactly when you come work every single day, what is your specific role doing to impact lethality and the effectiveness of the Guardians that you’re working with every single day?
SSgt. Audrey Jackson:
Thank you, Chief.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thank you.
Maj. Alex Roberts:
Afternoon, Chief. Major Alex Roberts. I’m the DO for the 52nd Combat Com. Wanted to get your take on comments made earlier about assets we have to secure SATCOM, knowing that SATCOM is a huge link for combat comm and a huge service that the Space Force provides the joint environment.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah. So when you think about SATCOM, and you know more than ever, there’s never enough SATCOM. We always need more bandwidth, but this is also one of them. We talk about resiliency, whether it be resiliency because we’re partnering with industry, what bandwidth can we lease? What information are we willing or able to put on commercial comm for expansion to be able to do that? Where do we leverage and work with international partners and allies to leverage their bandwidth to do the same? Proliferated constellations, cross-link, when you think about the proliferated architecture we’re putting up is all to build in resiliency to the SATCOM network that we rely upon every single day. But also a lot of it is, and going back to talking about the aggressors, is that what are our TTPs to make sure that from a combat comm unit, we’re not just a sitting target for someone to try and be able to, through the EM spectrum, take that away from you.
And through those training, the reps and sets that I talked about earlier is passing on so that it’s harder for you to be impacted by whatever interference our adversaries are trying to do to impact your comms. And that’s one of the reasons that we have within Delta 3, we have the bounty hunter system that does us that monitors, the EM spectrum for all our protected comm, all the comm that we have that we want to monitor for the combatant commands. But it is, it’s a challenge, but part of it is us developing and delivering the resilient constellation, but also the TTPs and how you go about the con-ops and execute relying on SATCOM. And it’s not just Air Force, all the services rely on it, but it definitely is something we have to work through as a joint force.
Maj. Alex Roberts:
Thanks, Chief.
Cadet Moreno:
Good morning, sir. Cadet Moreno, Georgia Tech. I was wondering how could we as leaders help inspire Guardians into joining the Space Force, whether it’s ROTC or through the enlistment pathway?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Hey, thanks for question. First, I would say I encourage anyone who wants to serve, wear any uniform, right? I mean, when you talk about less than 1%, wear the uniform and defend the nation and raise the right hand to swear an oath to protect and defend the constitution of the United States. At the end of the day, if you’re willing to do that, you’re a citizen of character, come on a team. I don’t care what uniform you’re wearing. Now, I have a bias to the Space Force. I mean, I think the uniforms are kind of cool. I think our mission’s kind of cool, but really when you think about the power of the joint force, Chief Wolfe and I talk about this often, man, I love air minded Airmen, space minded Guardians, every Marine’s a rifleman. I mean, all of us have our own culture and our own role within the joint force.
So some of it is, if the Space Force specifically, it’s bragging about the amazing mission that we have. I talked a lot about war fighting in this discussion and what we bring to the joint force, but let’s think about what we do for the nation as a whole. We all know that our daily lives, not only how we fight our wars, but how we live our lives every single day is impacted by space. General Schiess asked this morning, everyone stand up who is actually in the Space Force or was part of Space Force or uses space every single day. Every single person stood up. So one of the things when you’re trying to talk to somebody about, “Hey, what does the Space Force do?” Protect and defend the nation’s interests in, from, and to space.
Man, that’s a wide mission set to be able to do that. If you get somebody excited about all the things we do, exploration, commerce, the financial sector, they’re going to be really interested in the missions that we do. But at the end of the day, I’m just looking for good teammates to serve, whatever uniform they’re wearing, but you want to come join the Space Force. It’s an exciting mission and it’s growing. It’s growing. So thank you first… Where are you going to commission into?
Cadet Moreno:
I’m commissioning into the Space Force, sir.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
All right. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for your dedication. I wish you the best of luck, and I can’t wait to see you wearing one of these really nice uniforms.
Cadet Moreno:
Thank you, Chief.
Cadet Tristan Price:
Hey, good afternoon, Chief. Thanks for taking the time to come and talk to us today. I’m Cadet Tristan Price from Virginia Tech, and my question for you focuses on the mission of the Space Force. You talk a lot in your speech about how our mission is really supporting, giving that decision advantage. In the future, like General Schiess said in his brief today, we have weapons on orbit and those are going to become more prominent, more important. How in the future, especially in how we train and prepare, can we make sure that we are preparing for the fight that’s going to change from supporting capabilities to actually delivering that advantage ourself?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, thanks for the question. So one thing I would say is, and if I gave this perception, we are part of the joint force. We don’t support the joint force. As Guardians, we are part of the joint force. But what I talked about specifically was because talking about the data intense environment, the architecture that we’re building, it’s just one part of the mission. So we think about our ability as a joint force. Yes, there are capabilities absolutely every single day that combatant commanders rely upon space power that Guardians are delivering today. Some of it is in global space operations as a core function that we do, that there is some supporting role in that, but at the end of the day, we do provide independent options to decision makers. Make no mistake about it. The Space Force and Guardians do that. But with the growth of the force and what General Schiess talked about and the secretary talked about, there are emerging systems and capabilities that we will continue to grow.
I talked earlier, I think, and Dave, you talked about the modernization for air superiority. A lot of things for the Space Force, the legacy systems that we have, we’re modernizing, but a lot of these capabilities and missions didn’t exist five years ago. We’re still building them today as a service. And that’s why it’s so important for anyone in the audience that can help us with a budget in ’27. It’s so vitally important that we get the funding we need so we can continue to deliver on those capabilities on behalf of the nation. So that’s extremely important. But to answer your question, yeah, there are absolutely… We are part of the joint force. Some of that is as a supporting role, but also some of that is we are supported by other services as well as we execute the missions. It’s just, we don’t talk about it as much.
Cadet Tristan Price:
Thanks, Chief.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
All right.
Lt. Gen. Greg Gagnon:
Chief. Greg Gagnon from Peterson.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Sir, have we met before, sir?
Lt. Gen. Greg Gagnon:
I don’t know. Two part question. Part one, what was your average moving speed on Sunday?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
So sir, on the 72 miles and I think we had almost a 4,000-foot elevation gain, I think it might’ve been like 13 miles an hour.
Lt. Gen. Greg Gagnon:
Okay, that’s outstanding. Part two, I know you and Kathy are super busy. How do you prioritize fitness and holistic health into what you do every week for the Space Force and for the nation? Because there’s no way you just woke up and said, “Hey, I can ride 70 plus miles.”
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah, sir, thanks for that. One of the routines that Kathy and I have is making smart decisions about the time that we do have where we’re not working or we’re not spending time with Guardians and families. So for me personally, Kathy and I, on the weekends, we try to stay active and mobile, sir, to get out there and kind of burn some high intensity minutes, if you will. But normally my routine is I’ll get up early in the morning because I have the Peloton at the house and I’m a bike rider, but it’s really making deliberate decisions so that you have time for yourself. That’s my time to personally get myself right, pour into my own cup so that I can pour into others when I get to work, but there’s also some accountability to it.
Chief PC Norris is sitting right here in the audience and he’s my teammate from the office. And when I walk in, PC will ask me, “Hey did you hit the gym today? Did you do your workout this morning?” And if my answer is no, I have to explain why. And then I’m not allowed to have any M&Ms in the office the entire day. But if I do have my workout, then I’m in a better place with PC and he doesn’t give me the side eye. But a lot of variety is just focusing and understanding the importance of it. Me personally, and General Gagnon, we’ve talked a little bit about this. When I don’t take care of me, when I don’t give myself the time, I feel it. I’m ornery. Kathy will yell at me because she’ll tell me to go out and go running and burn some sweat because it’s just part of my identity.
It’s part of what allows me to maybe go as far and as hard I want to do every single day. I want to be the best husband. I want to be the best teammate. I want to be the best chief master in the space force that I could possibly be. In order to do that, some of that is I got to have time for myself so that I can give back full force when the time is there. It’s not easy. There are some mornings I wake up and I can’t do it, but I absolutely try to do it every single day, sir, because it’s investing in helping me be the best version of myself that I can be. And Kathy has really high standards, really high standards. So thanks for the question, sir. Yes, sir.
Sergeant Wahe:
Good afternoon, Chief. Chief Rozneck’s exec at headquarters CFC, Sergeant Wahe.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Sir, I’m sorry. Blink. Blink if you need help.
Sergeant Wahe:
I’m blinking very rapidly right now, sir. So my question is, now that it’s been a year since you’ve introduced the World Class Master Sergeant Framework, I wanted to know what are the next steps in developing the enlisted framework at the Space Force?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah. So I think it was several months ago we released the enlisted framework that went from E-1 up to E-7. We talked about the world-class master sergeant. And in that framework, the world-class master sergeant was the pinnacle because as we sat down and looked at the enlisted core and where is it that we felt we had to focus the development and the investment and where were those individuals who say that this is the pinnacle, we really have one of the greatest impacts on the execution of the mission and on the Guardians that are in the formations. And we said master sergeant is it. If we can develop and grow world-class master sergeants, then we can safely say that the tech sergeants, the sergeants, the specialists, the missions that they’re responsible for executing will be taken care of every single day. So we put that model out.
I know that Chief Emerson is in a room in S1D, so working on what that framework would look like for the E8s and E9s as we’re through that. Now, some of it is, once we figured out for the master sergeants we’re going to do, working with the team on. We’ve done a lot of discussion on officer responsibilities, enlisted responsibilities, civilians roles and responsibilities. So some of the journey has been as we build out OTC, the captain’s leadership course, how the leaders of the Space Force are going to be developed, then what is the process to develop their counterpart, that teammate, whether it be that tech sergeant that’s paired with a captain on a combat crew or that senior master sergeant who’s going to be an SEL with a squadron commander or a chief who’s going to be working with a Delta commander. So learning how General Schiess and the service was going to build officers within the service really informed the journey we’re on right now, particularly on our E-8s and E-9s.
And they’re working that and we’re going to see that coming out soon. But just like Chief Wolfe talked about yesterday and similar philosophy we talked about this, that development pathway doesn’t have to be three or four touch points. It’s got to be continuous. Some of them may be a few weeks, some of them may be a few days. But I think it’s going to be on time and on target. When is it in your career and the roles and responsibilities that we’re putting on your shoulders, when is the right time to expose you and deliver you that development so you’re most successful right then and there? It’s not late to need. It’s not too early. How do we work through that? And that’s a journey that we’re on right now. Thanks for the question. And again, if you need help, just come see us. Is Ross in the room? Is he even here? What’s up, Ross?
Ross:
How are you doing, sir?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
How you doing?
Ross:
Doing good, sir.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yes, sir.
Sam Luke:
Hey Chief. Sam Luke, SSES 1. Good to see you.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Hey Sam, good to see you.
Sam Luke:
Hey, I’ve been out to Vandenberg. I’ve been out to Patrick quite a bit over the last several months. And one of the questions that constantly comes up from commanders is when we’re going to get some support for our boss positions that have been funded, I’d just like to hear from your perspective what some of those conversations are between you and Chief Wolfe and advocating to get some of those positions funded so our enlisted Airmen have the right kind of support in their squadrons.
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Thanks, Sam. That’s a constant discussion, especially currently as we talk about doubling the size of the Space Force over the next five years. I talked earlier talking about the importance of power projection platforms, the infrastructure in which we project space power from is really provided by the Airmen that are supporting, especially in the BOS-I perspective. And that partnership between the Air Force and the Space Force is extremely critical. But we’re growing at scale and at speed and the CSAF and Chief Wolfe, they also got to develop and grow the Air Force. So there’s constant discussions about, hey, what are the functions as we grow as a service that maybe have become so core to executing the Space Force mission at scale that maybe asking the Air Force to continue to do that isn’t the right answer? How do we articulate the demand signal and when isn’t we say maybe there’s a better and different way to do it? So we constantly have those discussions.
There’s a committee or a team, it’s called SMART. It’s a servicing MAJCOM assessment review team between AFMC and the Space Force. And this is where those important discussions and dialogue happen every single day. As we bring up requirements from all the bases and Delta commanders and the squadron commanders about the growth of the service, bring that back to the Air Force and say, “This is where we think we’re going. Can you support it?” And then if not, where do we go? Where do we see opportunities to maybe do things smarter or just more efficient or effective to be able to do that? Because there’s needs across the whole department as we get through that. But the SMART team is where all that comes to head and the senior leaders of this department walk through what that looks like every single day. If you think about, we use launch as an example. Any defenders in the room from the space launch deltas? They’re here? Yeah, but you know.
So last year, I think out of Patrick, we had what, 105, 104 launches? How many? 109 last year or this year? Yeah. So over 100 launches. Now, that’s only launches that actually launched. How many launches you prepare for to get scrubbed that don’t go off? And every single launch, the base has to prepare. We got to close roads. We got to secure the area. I mean, that’s a lot of demand signal on security forces just as one example in civil engineering are trying to make sure that the launch complex, a launch port as a weapon system, if you will, is ready to go. And when the president says, “Hey, we want 1,000 launches within the United States by 2030,” I think. How do you scale that up? So these discussions have to happen quite often. So thanks for the question, Sam, but thank you very much for the Airmen in the room working through it. I really do appreciate it because I know it’s difficult. All right, one last one and then I got to close up.
Steve Bonner:
Real quick, going to pull on the thread about the BOS. My name is Steve Bonner. I work in the nexus between Vandenberg and the city of Lompoc, California. And local governments, communities have a huge role in supporting your mission. 70 to 80% of your folks live outside the gate. So can you maybe pull on that thread a little bit about the thinking about how are we going to incorporate better with the communities that host our bases?
CMSSF John Bentivegna:
Yeah. All of us know, especially those in uniform who move around, the support of the local community is extremely important because that’s where our spouses work. That’s where our children go to school. That’s where we shop and that’s where many of us live, like you said. So that demand and talking to local communities about what are the needs of the installations, what are the growth plans of the installations so that local government officials can plan accordingly to be able to do that. And we all know that all the answers for some of these are not necessarily department of war driven. It’s going to be local government partnering with us to provide childcare, healthcare, improve the schools, make sure there’s safe, affordable housing. You’re absolutely right. So thank you very much for the question. And I’ve been to Vandenberg, so I know that the command team there is very much integrated and works very well with the local communities, but that’s not isolated to Vandenberg.
That should be every single installation. And I think Dave would agree, whether it’s an Air Force installation or a Space Force installation, that relationship with the local community is extremely important to be able to provide for our family members and our service members. So thank you for the question. Okay.
So I had a chance to brag about Cyber Guardians and talk about the amount of data that every single day we provide to the joint force to ensure that we have decision advantage. So I also have an opportunity to highlight a Cyber Guardian today in person. So if I could please have Chief Wolfe come on up to the stage, General Field and Ms. Ferguson, please come on up. And if Sergeant Atkinson, please come up to the stage. Hi, brother. Thanks.
Emcee:
Attention to citation. From the 68th Cyberspace Squadron at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado, Sergeant Momomi Atkinson is a mission planning cell threat hunter who consistently performs beyond her grade. She coordinates unit exercises and mission execution while authoring the readiness documentation for 10 major joint and coalition cyber exercises. Her efforts strengthened Delta wide preparedness, enhanced operational integration, and directly contributed to mission readiness across her organization and the US Space Force. During a large scale Pacific Command exercise, she was recognized by the deputy commander of Pacific Air Forces as a top performer, ranking in the top 1% of more than 900 augmentees, a distinction that reflects her technical expertise, professionalism, and ability to deliver exceptional results in high tempo operational environments.
Her superior performance earned her a below the zone promotion, a further demonstration of her exceptional potential as a Guardian leader. Sergeant Atkinson’s commitment to service extends well beyond her primary duties. Off duty, Sergeant Atkinson has given back in equal measure, helping raise $36,000 for the Space Force Ball, serving on the AFA Sijan Chapter Board and mentoring cadets, a consistent high performer. She’s a dean’s list student compiling a 3.8 GPA while completing 75 credit hours toward a bachelor of science degree in cyber operations.
For these and still more reasons, Sergeant Atkinson embodies the values of AFA’s Pitsenbarger Full Measure Award. The Air & Space Forces Association is proud to present the 2026 William Pitsenbarger Full Measure Award to Sergeant Momomi Atkinson.