Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, commanding general, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, speaks at a National Space Club-Huntsville Chapter breakfast Dec. 15, 2021, thanking the community for its support to the warfighter and providing an Army space update. (Photo by Lira Frye)

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – According to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s senior leader, air and missile defense, and Army space have never been more relevant than they are now.

Lt. Gen. Daniel L. Karbler, commanding general, USASMDC, spoke at a National Space Club-Huntsville Chapter breakfast, Dec. 15 to provide an Army space update.

“The Army has unique missions that only we can do, and Army space has to be able to support those specific missions,” Karbler said. “In the past two years I have never seen space more relevant than it is today. As space is still contested and congested, the Department of Defense has a big role in making sure we are able to operate in the space domain and that our American way of life is not affected or impacted by anything that our adversaries might do in that domain.”

Karbler said USASMDC delivers satellite communications, space domain awareness, and theater missile warning, as well as trained and ready space forces, to the Army and the joint force.

He said space and missile defense have to be linked and integrated, and that USASMDC is supporting the Army’s Multi-Domain Task Force, which is charting a path to help reshape how the total force fights and wins on future battlefields.

A new space warfighting formation has been stood up, called the theater strike effects group, which Karbler said will use terrestrial-based Army space capabilities to attack adversaries from multiple domains and directions, even in contested environments, to set conditions necessary for land dominance.

The Space and Missile Defense Center of Excellence is also working to ensure the U.S. has a space advantage through space warrior training, ensuring functional alignment with authority equivalent to other Army proponent organizations and U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command centers of excellence.

Since Oct. 1, more than 2,200 students have been trained at the Space and Missile Defense School, and Karbler said that number is just going to continue growing.

Karbler said the command is also increasing their investment in science and technology, and research and development by building a new 163-acre Space and Directed Energy Technology Complex that, once complete, will provide warfighters of the future with the game-changing technologies needed to outpace 21st century threats and deliver overmatch.