Karbler: Army doesn't want to 'disadvantage' soldiers transferring to Space Force

By Jaspreet Gill / May 21, 2021 at 1:05 PM

The head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command said today the service is working with the Space Force on an agreement to understand what the conditions and timeline will be for the planned transfer of soldiers next fiscal year, while making sure those soldiers aren't disadvantaged.

Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler, speaking at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event, said the service in October will begin transitioning its satellite operations brigade and the Space Force “has got to be ready to truly” organize, train and equip those soldiers.

He added the service doesn’t want to disadvantage the soldiers for promotions, re-enlistments or assignments when they transfer.

“You know, if we send them over there in their current capacity of what they’re doing for Army space, we really want to make sure that they’re set, they stabilize within the Space Force to continue doing that capacity because that goes down into Space [Command] because Gen. [James] Dickinson is not going to allow for degradation in capabilities that we as an Army are providing to him,” Karbler said.

The Army in its fiscal year 2021 request to Congress noted 100 soldiers would transfer over to the Space Force and in 2019, then-Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said the service had identified about 500 military and civilian personnel that could be considered for transfer in FY-22.

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