Space has been a contested domain for years. The doctrine, the training, and the culture needed to fight and win in it have been built, mostly quietly, at a squadron at Nellis Air Force Base. Most people who care about the Space Force have never heard of it. Most of the people shaping how space warfare is conducted today came through it.

This year, the 328th Weapons Squadron turns 30. Three decades after the Space Division was stood up at the Air Force Weapons School in 1996, the institution that started by teaching fighter pilots how to integrate space support into their missions now graduates the tactical and operational leaders who will contest the domain against peer adversaries. The transformation is real. And according to the officer commanding the 328th right now, it's far from finished.

In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Lt. Col. Brian "Knuckles" Peterson, Commander of the 328th Weapons Squadron, to talk about what the space weapons officer community has built, where it's going, and what the next 30 years demand.

In this conversation, Lt. Col. Peterson discusses:

Why the 328th is a domain WIC, not a platform WIC, and why that distinction changes everything about how space warfighters are trained
What it means to graduate 450 weapons officers over 30 years in a service that still needs to double in size
How the course evolved from space support integration to full orbital warfare and EW combined arms, and why that shift wasn't just curriculum, it was culture
The debrief culture that distinguishes weapons officers: why failure is designed into the course, and what that teaches about decision-making under real-world pressure
The feedback loop between operators, testers, and acquirers, and why building the widget before figuring out how to fight it is one of the Space Force's cardinal sins
What it looks like when a Guardian truly understands the joint force, and why that connection is the foundation of everything the 328th produces
Why the school is expanding: a new building, an intelligence course, a cyber course, and what that signals about where the Space Force is heading
What the 30th anniversary Reblu is actually for, and why reconnecting 450 graduates matters as much as the classified combat updates on day one
What the 328th needs to keep producing to ensure the Space Force wins the fights that are coming

The Space Force of 2045 is being built right now at Nellis. The 328th turns 30 this month and the celebration isn't just about what's been accomplished. It's about what the weapons officer community owes the joint force in the next three decades.

Hosted by Bill Woolf

Produced by Ty Holliday

Guest: Lt. Col. Brian "Knuckles" Peterson, Commander, 328th Weapons Squadron, Space Delta 1, Space Training and Readiness Command Lt. Col. Peterson commands the Space Force's weapons school at Nellis Air Force Base, the institution responsible for producing the Space Force's tactical and operational warfighting experts. He brings a background in missile warning, three combat deployments, and time in the Space Force's futures division to the role.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/

Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

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Most people who know the Space Force exists assume it trains operators. People who know how to run satellites, track threats, and execute missions. What fewer people understand is that operating a system and understanding _why_ that system matters are two entirely different things. One is a skill. The other is the foundation of a warfighter.

Space is no longer a peaceful backstop for GPS and weather. It's a contested domain, one that underpins every instrument of American power, from diplomacy to the economy to combat operations. The Space Force didn't just need people who could do the job. It needed people who could explain why the job exists in the first place, and then teach that to the entire joint force, allied partners, and eventually the American public.

In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Col. Alison Gonzalez, Commander of Space Delta 13, the Space Force's dedicated education command under Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM), to explore why building a force of strategic thinkers is just as important as building a force of trained operators.

* Why the Space Force separated education from training, and what's lost when you collapse the two
* What Delta 13 actually does: the three pillars of professional military education, continuing education, and partnership education
* How Delta 13 educates beyond Guardians, including the joint force, international allies, industry, and academia
* Why Col. Gonzalez believes seamless integration across all those partners is the long-term vision, and what stands in the way
* The role universities like Texas A&M, Arizona State, and Purdue play in developing Guardian leaders
* How industry partnerships give Guardians real operational problem sets to solve, and bring solutions back to the force
* The story behind Col. Gonzalez becoming one of the first Guardians to wear and publicly demonstrate the Space Force service dress uniform
* How she went from satellite operator to commanding one of STARCOM's deltas, and what she'd tell any Guardian trying to rise through the ranks
* Why less than 10% of Americans know the Space Force exists, and what SFA and Delta 13 can do together to change that

Education is the why behind everything the Space Force does. Without it, you have operators. With it, you have Guardians who understand what they're protecting and why it's worth fighting for.

Hosted by Bill Woolf

Produced by Ty Holliday

AV by Redwire

Production Support by Emily Honhart and Omar Mahmoud

Col. Alison Gonzalez Commander, Space Delta 13, Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) Col. Gonzalez assumed command of Delta 13 in July 2025, taking charge of the Space Force's education enterprise headquartered at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Her career spans satellite operations, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Space Defense Center, and Headquarters U.S. Space Force, where she served as Director of Staff for the Office of the Chief of Human Capital prior to taking command.

Learn more about Space Delta 13: https://www.starcom.spaceforce.mil/About-Us/Units/Space-Delta-13-Education/

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/

Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

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Most people have never heard of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The Space Force couldn't exist without it.

Dr. Andy Williams has been at AFRL since 2003, long enough to watch the space domain go from what he calls a "relatively benign environment" to a fully contested warfighting domain. He now serves as AFRL's Deputy Technology Executive Officer for Space: the single point of contact between the lab and the U.S. Space Force, responsible for making sure the science that starts on a whiteboard at Kirtland actually ends up in a Guardian's hands.

He's the conductor. And in this conversation, recorded live on the Redwire Stage at the 41st Space Symposium, he and SFA Founder Bill Woolf trace the full pipeline, from basic research to operational capability, and don't flinch on where it breaks.

In this episode:

* Why Dr. Williams says space is now more important to the joint fight than air — and what that demands from a research lab
* What the "conductor" role actually looks like day to day, coordinating across AFRL's directorates at the seams, and where the baton gets dropped most often
* How a service still defining itself translates operational gaps into concrete research priorities — and why the only model that works treats S&T, acquisition, and operators as one team
* What always gets cut first in a resource-constrained environment, and why that's a problem that compounds like debt
* The ROSA story: three attempts, a decade of basic research, new materials no one planned to develop — and what it teaches about what it actually takes to get a technology across the finish line for the Space Force
* Why science and technology is exactly like a retirement account — and what decades of cuts have cost the service that's supposed to be the most technologically advanced in the world
* Dynamic space operations: the capability Dr. Williams believes could be decisive in future conflict, why the U.S. isn't leading it, and what he means when he says the Space Force needs velocity — not just speed

Recorded at the Redwire Stage at the 41st Space Symposium. Hosted by Bill Woolf

Produced by Ty Holliday

AV by Redwire

Production Support by Omar Mahmoud & Emily Honhart

Dr. Andrew "Andy" Williams is the Deputy Technology Executive Officer for Space at the Air Force Research Laboratory. He serves as AFRL's primary point of contact for the U.S. Space Force, integrating and executing the lab's space science and technology investment strategy and leading engagement across DoD, the Intelligence Community, NASA, industry, and academia. He has been at AFRL since 2003.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/

Learn more about AFRL: https://www.afrl.af.mil/

Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

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