The Space Force celebrated the first graduating class of its new Officer Training Course Thursday, marking a new approach to training that ensures the new leaders will have knowledge across key areas.

The year-long course brings together training in space operations, cyber defense, intelligence and acquisitions — traditionally separate specialty areas in the field.

"We can no longer afford to stove pipe our leaders from day one," Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, told 84 graduates and their families who gathered at Peterson Space Force Base. The class included a mix of new officers who commission through the Air Force Academy, Reserve Officers' Training Corps and Officer Training School.

Saltzman explained that with their year of training, those who focus on cyber defense

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