The U.S. Army has established a new Space Operations Branch, marking a historic milestone in its ongoing transformation to meet the demands of modern, multidomain warfare.

The recent announcement by the U.S. Army formalizes and consolidates the Army’s space-related workforce into a single branch as the service continues adapting its structure to encompass operations across land, air, sea, cyber, and space.

“The Army is the largest user of space capabilities in the joint force, and space integration is absolutely critical to multidomain operations at every echelon,” said Lt. Gen. John Rafferty, commanding general, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, in a press release.

“Establishing the Space Operations Branch is an important step in the Army’s continuous transformation. It provides the Army with the professional structure to deliver space-based effects directly to our Soldiers and units at the tactical edge, enabling commanders to fight and win in a contested, multidomain environment.”

The Space Operations Branch brings together Army Space Operations Officers, previously designated as Functional Area 40, and enlisted Tactical Space Operations Specialists, designated under the Military Occupational Specialty 40D. According to the Army, the new branch consolidates and formalizes career paths for space professionals and establishes a dedicated structure for space operations within the force.

Space Operations Branch

Gen. Christopher LaNeve, U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff, said the effort reflects both capability development and professional growth within the force.

“Land power requires warfighting expertise in all domains,” he said. “What makes me proud is that our Army is not just building a capability, we’re growing professionals at every echelon. That’s what the 40D MOS is about—Soldiers delivering the foundational excellence our Joint Force depends on.”

“The new Space Branch provides highly trained, ready and deployable Soldiers and formations, equipped to deliver specialized capabilities to enable successful Army and joint force operations while effectively denying, disrupting and degrading adversary operations within the space domain,” the press release continues.

The announcement also stated that establishing the new branch will relieve operational pressure on the Air Defense Artillery, Signal, and Military Intelligence branches, which previously provided personnel on temporary tours to execute space missions. The change is intended to allow those branches to reduce non-mission-essential billets and reallocate Soldiers to other critical needs.

The Army noted that it currently integrates hundreds of thousands of space-enabled systems to support maneuver and multidomain operations. The Space Operations Branch is intended to ensure the service keeps pace with evolving force structure requirements across the joint force, including within multidomain task forces and theater strike effects groups.

New and improved

Training for the new branch will continue through existing pipelines at the Space and Missile Defense School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, part of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command’s Center of Excellence.

According to the Army, eligible Soldiers in grades E-3 through E-9 will be able to request reclassification into MOS 40D through a centralized selection board process beginning in October 2026.

Officers may continue to request acceptance into Functional Area 40 through established transfer processes, including Assured Functional Area Transfer after serving in their basic branch.

The Army said the new Space Operations Branch will produce trained, ready, and deployable soldiers and formations to support Army and joint force operations in a contested multidomain environment, a press release concludes.

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