New command senior enlisted leader takes over the space battlefield

New command senior enlisted leader takes over the space battlefield

Time Stamp: July 7, 2023 9:19 AM
Source Node: 2758441

The Office of the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff released new senior enlisted leader assignments on June 26, including the new position that Space Force Chief Master Sgt. Jacob C. Simmons will be assuming.

In the announcement, it was stated that Simmons, who is currently assigned as command senior enlisted leader of the Space Operations Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, will replace Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott H. Stalker as command senior enlisted leader for U.S. Space Command in Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.

In a moderated discussion on Agile Combat Employment and Enlisted Leadership back in October 2022, Simmons discussed the complexities space brings to missions and the unforeseeable climate space imposes.

“You continue to hear that space is congested, contested, [and] competitive, I’ll add that it’s complex. It is extremely complex in space,” Simmons said. “Space is ubiquitous. It is persistently present. It is involved in every mission, it is involved in every capability and it must be intertwined as such… Space is no longer peaceful, permissive or predictable. That is a new condition we find ourselves in.”

Simmons continued on to highlight the present dangers space holds and the importance of exploring the terrain in informed, updated ways.

“Space is a ballistic battlefield. And what I mean by that is things move in space at 17,000 plus miles per hour and with over 50,000 objects in space or nearly 50,000 objects in space, each of those have the potential of colliding at an instant and creating a cascade of long lived shrapnel,” Simmons said. “That is a battlefield that just doesn’t stop. It doesn’t rest. Space is a technical and a tactical terrain. We have to get after a new set of threats and we have to understand what the new thresholds are.”

Simmons emphasized our responsibility to understand and battle space with new, inventive solutions.

“We have to look at getting after things, not only in an innovative way, but being able to iterate those things and integrate them into the fight faster and further in than what’s ever been asked from space before,” Simmons said.

By giving Simmons a new assignment, hopefully his background and extensive knowledge of space can help the U.S. Space Command advance their journey into space and continue to fight on such an incalculable terrain.

“We have to empower at the edges with the authorities to be able to execute at speed,” Simmons said. “That means we have to be able to trust those leaders at the very front end, the very front edge of the space fight.”

With Simmons as one of those leaders at the front of the space fight, the ever-evolving fight in space continues with a new leader.

Georgina DiNardo is an editorial fellow for Military Times and Defense News and a recent graduate of American University, specializing in journalism, psychology, and photography in Washington, D.C.

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