50th SCS provides vital support to Schriever missions

By admin

Posted on January 17, 2020

By Airman Amanda Lovelace | 50th Space Wing Public Affairs

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. — The 50th Space Communications Squadron provides cyber capabilities and support to the warfighter, a role vital to the missions here.

Airman 1st Class Javier Rojas, 50th SCS Operations Flight network operations technician, said the squadron maintains communications systems that are important in supporting Schriever’s space operations.

“We operate, maintain and defend the cyber space domain,” he said. “By doing so, we provide support for all the different assets that Schriever has here. We don’t run those systems, but we provide support for the Airmen who do.”

Staff Sgt. Joshua Phillips, 50th SCS Operations Flight non-commissioned officer in charge of vulnerability management, listed numerous tasks his squadron accomplishes, including: providing internet access to remote sites, supporting GPS, managing cyber capabilities, preventative cyber interdiction and mission defense, among others.

“By providing support for all those important mission systems, we can guarantee the Airmen who are running them are able to run them in an accurate manner and as efficiently as possible, and for those systems to perform the tasks that they’re assigned to accomplish,” Rojas said.

The different shops within the squadron all have a unique role in supporting the squadron’s mission, allowing for more specific focus and attention to be provided to each aspect that goes into supporting Schriever’s varying mission systems.

“Each shop in our squadron has their own individual way of supporting all of our mission satellites,” Rojas said. “[Together we] provide support to important systems like missile detection, intel and GPS.”

According to Phillips, intel, operations, space operations, multiple joint forces, missile defense, base defense and security all depend on the 50th SCS to deliver cyber security capabilities.

“What we do impacts the base directly,” Phillips said. “We maintain file services, print services, internet protocol TV and dynamic host configuration protocol (enterprise level services) for the entire base. We secure servers and remediate vulnerabilities on [unclassified and classified networks].”

Schriever maximizes its capabilities due to the Airmen in 50th SCS.

“Even though it seems as though we’re in the back end, I would say we’re equally as crucial to the overall space mission,” Rojas said. “What we do is crucial in providing support to the bigger picture space mission.”