13S Specialty Shredouts

13S Space Operations Career Field

The 13S Space Operations career field is a little different because it has different “specialty shredouts,” more commonly known as “shreds.”  An officer AFSC is separated into the following:

• 13S – The “1” is for operations, so all “operator” AFSCs in the Air Force start with “1.”   The “3” is the Utilization Field and the “S” is the Functional Area.  The three characters combined are the designation for the Space Operations career field.
• 13SX – The “X” is the Qualification Level, which can be 0-4.  They use the X just as a placeholder because your Qualification Level will change throughout your career.

The fifth character designates the shred.  Several years ago the space and nuclear career fields were merged, so there were five different shreds (C used to be Nuclear Weapons).  Now that they are separate, we only have the following:

• A – Satellite Command and Control (C2)
• B – Spacelift
• D – Space Surveillance
• E – Missile Warning

Altogether, someone’s AFSC may be 13S3E.  This means they are a space operator who has been serving long enough to have earned the “3” qualification, and is currently in a Missile Warning assignment.

Now that we have the way, here is some general info about the different shreds.  The one interesting thing about the shreds is that your assignment drives the shred instead of your shred driving the assignment.  In other words, AFPC doesn’t say we need 13SXA’s  and only send you to Satellite Command and Control bases, they instead just send you where you are needed.  After you get there, your AFSC is updated accordingly.

Here is some general information of what I know about how the bases line up with the shreds.  Here is another good source from a reddit post by SilentD.

Satellite Command and Control (C2)

The main base for Satellite Command and Control is Schriever AFB, CO in Colorado Springs, CO.  Here is the official web page for Schriever AFB.  I also find it useful to go to the “Units” page on official AFB web pages because it tells you what units are located at the base, and can give you a general idea about the missions.  The main missions at Schriever are GPS, WGS, DSCS, AEHF, and Milstar.  Each acronym is a family of satellites currently in orbit in space.  There may be lots of satellites up in space but there is always a place on the ground who is ultimately in charge of “flying” them.   In this case and for those constellations, that place is Schriever AFB.  That means that GPS is flown out of Schriever!  It is Air Force operators that keep GPS up and running for the entire world.  All of the rest of the constellations I mentioned are different families of military communication satellites.

From a joint doctrine perspective (Reference Joint Publication 3-14, Space Operations), these families of satellites fall under “Space Force Enhancement.”  Space Force Enhancement means using space assets to increase the effectiveness and combat potential of a force.  So think about combat troops on the ground deployed in Afghanistan.  What would make them more effective?  Being able to communicate via MILSATCOM (military satellite communications) would make them much more effective, and so would using GPS to more accurately drop bombs on target, or guide aircraft through a sandstorm.

From a more practical sense, our jobs as Space Operators involves keeping these satellites up and running.  We do this by using ground sites to “check in” with the satellite through what we call satellite contacts.  This means we have to understand the technical intricacies of whatever computer system we are using.  This system is capable of monitoring all aspects of the satellite health, uploading maneuvers to move it around if needed, and directing the component responsible for the mission (i.e., payload) to do what we need it to do.  It is a complex system so this is why training can take time.

As an operators once you get through the training and are “on console,” your job is to do all of those things.  Typically the engineers are the really smart people who designed this stuff, so it is our job to run the procedures to do the things.  If you have a contact scheduled you will command the satellite to tell you what’s up, download the data, and ensure it can be processed correctly by the experts.

Spacelift

The spacelift missions are conducted out of Vandenberg AFB, CA and Cape Canaveral AFS, FL.  Spacelift is the mission of launching satellites into space on rockets.  More recently, you have probably heard and seen the media coverage of SpaceX launching things into space.  The two main sites for launches in the United States are the above two Air Force bases.

The interesting thing about spacelift is that everybody in the US needs to use those two sites if they want to launch something into space from the US.  This means there is no one contractor that the Air Force deals with, it deals with all of the contractors and companies.  Some examples are United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, and Orbital ATK.

The Air Force’s role isn’t to launch the satellites for these contractors, they are all responsible for doing that themselves.  The Air Force essentially allows these contractors to use the launch sites, i.e., ranges.  We make sure the area is safe, provide facilities for launch control, and manage the schedule so contractors can know when to launch.  We facilitate the contractor’s use of Air Force facilities and make sure they have everything they need, then prep for the next launch.

Space Surveillance

The space surveillance mission involves keeping track of all of the objects which orbit Earth in space.  There are many benefits for doing this, both from a common sense and military perspective.  Think of it like this, in order for us to do whatever we want to do in the air domain, we have to first achieve air superiority.  Air superiority is the degree of control we have of the airspace.  NORAD and USNORTHCOM, for example, helps us achieve air superiority of North America.  If enemy bombers approach North America, we know about it in advance and can scramble fighters to intercept them as necessary.  The same applies to space, although space is not yet a domain of conflict.

Similar to how NORAD and NORTHCOM maintains situational awareness of the air domain for North America, the Space Surveillance Network (SSN) maintains situational awareness of space.  Objects in the air can change direction relatively easily.  If an airplane wants to fly around a thundercloud, it can recalculate a route around it and still reach it’s destination.  The interesting thing about space is that instead of just flying through the air, objects are actually continuously falling toward the Earth.  The path of this object is called an orbit; it may be easiest to think of this orbit as a racetrack.  The object is fixed in it’s orbit unless a force interacts with the object, in which case the entire orbit is altered because the direction of the object is altered.  This means that we can predict with great accuracy when an orbiting object will be at any given point in it’s orbit.  We don’t have to watch the object continuously, we can just take a glance, make sure it is still where we expected it, and continue glancing at other objects.

This is what the Air Force Space Surveillance mission is all about.  This is actually a US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) mission, and it achieves this mission through an agency called the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) at Vandenberg AFB, CA.  There are many Air Force sites around the globe which support this mission, but one of the main ones is the 20th Space Control Squadron at Eglin AFB, FL.  This is a massive radar which looks at objects in space and helps the JSpOC update the satellite catalog (SATCAT), which is a database of every object in space.

Missile Warning

The missile warning mission is a network of sensors which can detect missile launches around the globe.  If Russia were to launch an ICBM at North America, we would know about it because of the missile warning network.  The network itself is comprised of both space-based and ground-based sensors.  The space-based sensors area “flown” from the 2d Space Warning Squadron at Buckley AFB, CO.  This squadron flies satellite constellations which can detect missile launches from space.

The below sites are the ground-based sites which support the missile warning mission.  These ground based sites are giant radar sites which are positioned in a way which best monitors our borders from missile attack.  The primary mission of these radars is missile warning.  These radars are so powerful that they can also detect objects in space, which allows them to have a secondary mission of space surveillance.  Here are the sites.

• 7th Space Warning Squadron – Beale AFB, CA
• 6th Space Warning Squadron – Cape Cod Air Force Station, MA
• 10th Space Warning Squadron – Cavalier AFS, ND
• 12th Space Warning Squadron – Thule AFB, Greenland
• 13th Space Warning Squadron – Clear AFS, AK

As far as the specific details of operator life, certification, quality of life, etc., SilentD’s reddit post is really good.  If you have any questions that remain unanswered please feel free to use the Contact Us Page or post a question in the comments.