Space Delta 18 National Space Intelligence Center | |
---|---|
Active | 24 June 2022–present |
Country | United States |
Branch | United States Space Force |
Type | Delta |
Role | Space intelligence |
Size | 350 personnel (expected) [1] |
Part of | Space Operations Command |
Headquarters | Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio |
Commanders | |
Commander | Col Marqus D. Randall |
Deputy Director | Cheryl Richmond [2] |
Senior Enlisted Leader | CMSgt Melissa M. Owens [3] |
Space Delta 18 (DEL 18) is a United States Space Force unit that serves as the National Space Intelligence Center (NSIC). It is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and activated on 24 June 2022.
NSIC is a field operating agency that is responsible for performing national and military space missions and evaluating capabilities, performance, limitations, and vulnerabilities of space and counter-space systems and services. It is the Space Force's counterpart to the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). [1]
The establishment of NSIC was ordered by Chief of Space Operations John W. Raymond. [4] It will be formed by transferring NASIC's Space Analysis Squadron and Counter-Space Analysis Squadron from the Space and Missiles Analysis Group to the Space Force. [5] Air Force Lieutenant General Leah Lauderback, the Space Force director of intelligence (S2)—to whom the center will ultimately report—led the planning effort. Congressional authorization is needed to create a field operating agency that reports directly to the S2. [1]
Awaiting funding for the establishment of the NSIC, the Space Force stood up the Space Force Intelligence Activity (SFIA) on 24 September 2021 as an interim unit. SFIA served under NASIC until the establishment of NSIC. [6] On 24 June 2022, NSIC was activated as Space Delta 18. [7]
The Space Delta 18's emblem design incorporates elements from the intelligence and space communities, its National Air and Space Intelligence Center heritage, and looks to the future. It consists of the following elements: [8]
DEL 18 took on the number 18 in honor of the Space Force becoming the 18th member of the United States Intelligence Community on 15 January 2021. [7] [9]
DEL 18 is composed of the following two squadrons transferred from NASIC's Space and Missiles Analysis Group. [10]
No. | Commander | Term | Ref | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Portrait | Name | Took office | Left office | Duration | ||
1 | Marqus D. Randall | Colonel24 June 2022 | Incumbent | 1 year, 269 days | [11] |
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