TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — There’s an important new mission for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Davis-Monthan has been sending people into the air to protect our nation’s interests for almost a hundred years now. Now, the activities extend into space.
There was a ceremony on base Wednesday activating a new unit within Space Force and welcoming it to the mix of units at Davis-Monthan.
Space Forces-Southern will provide space resources like satellite data and electronic warfare abilities to the US Southern Command—SOUTHCOM for short.
Southern Command is a joint command that involves all the military services. Its area of responsibility —-the military calls that an AOR— covers the Caribbean, Central and South America.
As Chief of Space Operations, General B. Chance Saltzman, is the ranking General in Space Force. He did not mention Venezuela by name but did say Space Force has just been active in that part of the world.
“The Joint Force is sized and structured around the assumption that Space Force will be there when called, as we clearly saw in the recent operations in SOUTHCOM AOR. Without space, kill chains don't close, our strategic advantage evaporates, and we can't complete our joint missions.”
Space Force calls its people Guardians. The unit at DM will have about 40 Guardians.
The DM50 is a civilian group that works to strengthen the connections between Davis-Monthan and the civilian community.
DM50 President Ben Fernandez says people from Davis-Monthan help it have a 2.4 Billion dollar impact on the local economy every year —and it helps that Space Force adds more people here to a new mission that’s likely to grow.
He says, “It's a big, nice gold stamp for us, right? So we welcome any and all missions to Davis-Monthan and we will support those missions but to see this at the beginning of the activation here this morning, is something super special.”
