Building Combat Power in Orbit - Insights with Lt. Gen Greg Gagnon

Building Combat Power in Orbit – Insights with Lt. Gen Greg Gagnon

Building Combat Power in Orbit

When people talk about the Space Force, the conversation usually drifts toward satellites and launch vehicles. Hardware. Orbits. Constellations.

But spend a few minutes listening to Lt. Gen. Greg Gagnon, and that framing starts to feel incomplete.

Because the real center of gravity in space operations isn’t just the technology overhead. It’s the people on the ground who turn those capabilities into combat power. And as Gagnon makes clear in a recent conversation on the Spacepower Podcast, that work is only as good as the training that prepares them for it.

“We have to train like we fight,” Gagnon says. And he means it.

His command, Combat Forces Command, exists to ensure that when Guardians deploy, they’re ready. Not just familiar with the mission. Ready. And that readiness, he argues, is built through realistic, challenging, integrated training that mirrors what operators will face in the real world.

Training that mirrors reality

In other domains, realistic training often means live exercises. Aircraft in the sky. Ships at sea. Forces moving across terrain.

In space, the equivalent is harder to see. The training happens in simulators, in operations centers, in exercises that layer complexity on top of complexity until the scenario feels as close to real-world conditions as possible.

What matters is realism. Not just technical proficiency, but the ability to operate under pressure, with incomplete information, in degraded environments, alongside joint and coalition partners.

Combat Forces Command runs exercises designed to test exactly that. Operators work through scenarios where communications are disrupted, where adversaries are contesting the domain, where decisions have to be made quickly with imperfect data.

“The goal,” Gagnon explains, “isn’t perfection. It’s resilience. It’s the ability to adapt when things don’t go as planned.”

And that’s where the real learning happens. Not in the scripted portions of an exercise, but in the moments where operators have to figure it out on the fly. Where the plan breaks down and they have to make it work anyway.

Integration as a forcing function

One theme that comes up repeatedly in the conversation is integration.

Space doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Every mission Combat Forces Command supports involves working with other services, other agencies, coalition partners. The value of space capabilities shows up in what they enable for joint operations, not in isolation.

That reality shapes how training is designed.

Exercises aren’t just about testing space operators. They’re about testing how well those operators integrate with the broader joint force. “How well they communicate,” Gagnon says. “How quickly they can respond to requests for support. How effectively they can translate space capabilities into actionable effects for combatant commanders.”

It’s a different kind of challenge than technical mastery. It requires understanding not just how the system works, but how it fits into the larger operational picture.

And it requires practice. Lots of it.

Gagnon describes exercises where space operators work side by side with Army units, Air Force planners, Navy commanders. Not in separate lanes. Together. Solving the same problem from different angles until they learn each other’s language, each other’s constraints, each other’s capabilities.

That’s not something you can script. It has to be lived.

The quiet work of building culture

If there’s a single idea that lingers after listening to Gagnon, it’s that building a combat-ready force isn’t just about training events. It’s about culture.

He talks about this carefully. About creating an environment where Guardians are encouraged to take initiative, to think critically, to use judgement when something doesn’t make sense.

“We need operators who can think, not just execute,” he says. “Because in a contested environment, where adversaries are adapting and where operations don’t always unfold according to script, following the checklist isn’t enough.”

Space operations, particularly in contested environments, demand more. They demand judgment. The ability to make decisions under pressure. The ability to recognize when the situation has changed and the plan needs to change with it.

What Gagnon describes is a culture where that’s not just tolerated but expected. Where after-action reviews focus on learning, not blame. Where exercises are designed to surface problems, not hide them. Where leaders model the behavior they want to see.

And it shows up in the outcomes. In operators who can make decisions under pressure. In teams that can adapt when the mission changes mid-stream. In a force that’s ready for the reality of competition in space, not just the theory.

What readiness actually looks like

There’s a tendency to think of readiness as a binary state. Either a force is ready, or it’s not.

Gagnon’s view is more nuanced.

Readiness, as he describes it, is built over time. Through realistic training. Through integration with joint partners. Through a culture that values initiative and learning.

“It’s not something that happens overnight,” he says. “And it’s not something that can be sustained without investment.”

But when it works, the result is a force that can operate effectively in the most contested domain humanity has ever tried to control.

He’s careful not to oversell it. The work is hard. The challenges are real. The adversaries are capable. But the Guardians being trained today are meeting those challenges head-on. And that matters.

Why this conversation matters

This episode of the Spacepower Podcast stands out for its clarity. Lt. Gen. Gagnon doesn’t traffic in buzzwords or abstract concepts. He talks about the work as it actually is. The training. The integration. The culture. The people.

And in doing so, he offers a window into what it takes to build combat power in orbit. Not just satellites and ground stations. But the human systems that turn technology into capability. The operators who make decisions. The leaders who shape culture. The trainers who build readiness.

It’s worth the listen.

For those who want to understand how that actually happens, hear Lt. Gen. Gagnon explain it in his own words on the Spacepower Podcast.

Listen to the full episode: