Leadership Dinner with Gen. Shawn Bratton, USSF

A capacity crowd gathered on Thursday, January 22, as INSA welcomed Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen Shawn Bratton, USSF, for his first INSA Leadership Dinner.

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Following a lively welcome reception, Gen. Shawn Bratton delivered keynote remarks on Space Force’s evolution into a warfighting service. He emphasized the need to maintain space superiority to protect U.S. forces from space-enabled threats and underscored how quickly the operational environment is changing. Calling for significant organizational growth, he said Space Force must nearly double in size over the next decade to meet increasing mission demands. Gen. Bratton highlighted the importance of winning today’s fight while preparing for future challenges, including cislunar operations, adding that “if we’re not ready to win today, it doesn’t matter how prepared we are for tomorrow.” He challenged the audience to help keep the focus on execution and emphasized that national security objectives cannot be achieved without close collaboration between Space Force and the commercial space sector.

Gen. Bratton then joined INSA Chairwoman Tish Long for a moderated Q&A focused on readiness, acquisition, and workforce transformation. He pointed to the rapid pace of adversary advancement and the urgency of responding faster. The discussion explored a major shift in workforce design, embedding operators in the acquisition process and training new officers as generalists across space, intelligence, cyber, and acquisition. Gen. Bratton also touched on the transition to Portfolio Acquisition Executives and emphasized that faster delivery depends on clear, candid engagement between industry and senior leadership. Throughout the conversation, he reinforced the need to move from a peacetime rhythm to a conflict-ready mindset that fully embraces the realities of space as a contested domain