Lt. Gen. Larry James, the commander of Joint Functional Component Command for Space (JFCC Space) and 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic), discussed the future of his command during a keynote address at the U.S. Strategic Command Space Symposium in Omaha, Neb.

General James stated that the top priority for his command is warfighter support and talked about the need to continue delivering assured combat power to the joint fight.

"How do we make sure that the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) knows what's going on in the air, sea, and ground domain, along with a seamless perspective on cyber and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations?

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How do we have that situational awareness within the JSpOC so we can ensure that everything that we do is focused on supporting that combatant commander ... these questions may seem challenging, but these are questions we need to understand daily, because at the end of the day we require knowledge on what's going on in the theaters as well as what's going on in space," said the general.

"So bringing that total space situational awareness, the fusion created within the JSpOC, is certainly a challenge that we have. And then the next piece is integrating that situational awareness with the relevant and requisite pieces of information of the combatant commanders' domain."

General James highlighted space's ongoing integration with cyber.
Over the past year, he explained, there have been two top-level meetings between senior leadership at Cyber Command, JFCC Space and JFCC Global Strike to discuss bringing this integrated capability to the combatant commanders. This coordination had proved essential to developing integration and efficiencies between the different lines of operation.

"We're starting to understand the processes we need to put in place, and the planning tools and techniques we need to have out there to bring these lines of operation together and make them more closely integrated," said General James.

With his 14th Air Force hat on, General James explained that his team is specifically working with 24th Air Force, the Air Force's component Cyber Command, to develop these processes and procedures as well as to pass on lessons learned and best practices.

The general also talked about advancing coalition operations with our key allies, the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

JFCC Space, he explained, is focused on what it takes to integrate Coalition space capabilities, better share information across all the domains that we operate and ultimately bring about increased capability. This concept is outlined in the June 2010 National Space Policy and according to the general, JFCC Space and 14th Air Force are moving forward to turn these concepts into reality.

"So we have to figure out how to do that and figure out what a Coalition Space Operations Center will look like in the future," said the general. "And just bringing all those capabilities to bear in a coalition environment in space, just like we do in air, sea and land, is extremely important."