First Batch of Space Marines Are Being Trained By The Army

• “Select Marines” forming the brand new ‘Marine Corps Forces Space Command’ are to begin training at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, by order of Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger. The Marines will learn “situational awareness of space capabilities, space assets, space products, and the impact of space on operations.”

• “We will get them schooled up on certification tables to be fully prepared to bring their space expertise back to whomever is requesting it,” said Maj. Steven Richards with the 2nd Space Company, 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade.

• In plain English, they’ll likely be getting trained on satellite communications and how to ward off enemy missiles (ie: jam enemy communications) under the instruction of experts at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command. After they complete space training, the Marines will embed with Army space support teams that ‘enhance’ intelligence and operation planning capabilities for units in the field.

• “I have a huge affinity for the Marines and now to be able to bring them into our organization and train them on a mission set that not many people truly understand or know is special for me and this organization,” said the commander of the 1st Space Brigade, Army Col. Donald Brooks. “As we execute operations for an exercise or a real-world deployment, having those Marines in the Army together in that connective tissue working hand-in-hand is critical as we fight this future joint fight.”

• While the long-term objective is to establish autonomous ‘Marine Space Support Teams’, there are no plans yet to launch space grunts into orbit. The goal at this point is to get qualified and trained Space Marines on the staff of Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEFs). The Corps wants three MEFs trained and operational by the spring of 2021, said space operations officer Lt. Col. Joseph “Hookah” Horvath. “Right now this is a capability that doesn’t exist in the Marine Corps,” said space operations planner Marine Capt. Jacob Loya. “With the renewed emphasis on space…the Marine Corps needs to have skin in the game.”

The U.S. Army will be training the first batch of Space Marines.

About nine months after Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger ordered the activation of the new Marine Corps Forces Space Command, “select Marines” from the nascent unit will start training at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to an Army news release, which said they’ll learn “situational awareness of space capabilities, space assets, space products, and the impact of space on operations.”

In other words, they’ll learn a lot about space. But in plain English, they’ll likely be getting trained on satellite communications and how to ward off enemy missiles under the instruction of experts at the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command. Then after they complete training, the Marines will embed with Army space support

teams, which enhance “intelligence and operation planning capabilities” for units in the field. Comprised of four enlisted soldiers and two officers, ARSSTs bring a knowledge base of space-based military capabilities like satellite intelligence and communications. They can even jam enemy communications and take part in “navigation warfare,” according to an Army guide

from 2017.

“The Marines will fall in on [Space and Missile Defense Command]’s training,” said Maj. Steven Richards, an ARSST officer-in-charge with 2nd Space Company, 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brigade. “We will get them schooled up on certification tables to be fully prepared to bring their space expertise back to whomever is requesting it.”

After that, the Marines will then build out their first Marine Space Support Teams. And that, my friends, is how Space Marines are born. (No offense to retired Marine colonel and first American to orbit the Earth John Glenn).