UK Space Command introduced a “buddy system” designed to facilitate the training of new workers with little to no experience or knowledge of the new military domain.
A senior officer referenced the new system during the Space-Comm Expo in London on 12 March 2025, where they observed that “we can help people navigate that new, demanding role much more quickly than [we] potentially would [have] do[ne].”
Go deeper with GlobalData
The aim of the initiative – which was first introduced in February 2025 – is to offer companions with sufficient knowledge of space to support new civil servants joining Space Command to help improve their induction.
Feedback will be collected so that the system can be continuously developed.
Becoming space-literate
The ‘buddy system’ is the first of many ways the fledgling command, established in April 2021, is cultivating a space-conscious workforce, not just within Space Command itself, but across the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the armed forces.
One significant source of space education will be the UK Space Academy, which is scheduled to open in 2027. Courses from foundation through to practitioner and expert levels can be accessed by those working in Space Command, or those across defence who are interested in a career in space.
Other British services, such as the Royal Air Force, are promoting space among its Air Cadets from the age of 14-years-old, all of whom can now undertake qualifications in the field.
Constitution of UK Space Command
For most positions in UK Space Command, both military and civilian, a space background is desirable but not essential.
The joint command is run by nearly 600 staff; more than half of them are military personnel, drawn from across the armed forces. Space Command also includes more than 100 contractors, and a contingent of MoD civil servants.
More broadly, the MoD approaches space in the same way as it does with the sea, land, air, and cyber domains. Therefore, it can draw personnel from across all services.
The UK is pursuing integration across the single armed services wherein space becomes a key consideration, the senior officer acknowledged. However, they added that this must be balanced with allowing Space Command to grow as an authority in its own right, which requires a space-conscious workforce.
To derive from experience in the future, the Joint Personnel Administration, a human resources intranet-based personnel database, records information of all those who have gained space operator experience within the MoD, “which means,” the senior officer noted, “in the future… we have an ability to recall people, and make sure we are closely aligned with our reserves as well.”
Run up to the SDR
“I think the demand signals on us have never been so much as they are now” they added. “It gives me more confidence that space really is at the front and centre.”
This fresh mentality for space as a domain in its own right is one that has still yet to be fully realised as the MoD continues to cultivate a space mentality in the modern battlespace. There is vulnerability that comes with operating space-based infrastructure, from communications, intelligence, surveillance to navigation; the ability to protect these enablers is important as space becomes more contested.
Naturally, protective measures in space will become a pivotal focus area for the MoD’s strategic procurement plans going forward. Even industry is making this pivot towards space, a reality that Éric Béranger, CEO of Europe’s foremost missile manufacturer MBDA, addressed in a speech in Paris on 17 March.
The space revelation seeps in ahead of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review, a document that will outline the principles guiding the British armed forces amid a fractured security climate, due to be released before the middle of 2025.
