Artykuły o Space Force

[Orionid]

Space Force takes Capitol Hill by storm • What is the true cost of space programs? • Space budget deep dive
by Sandra Erwin — March 21, 2018 [SN]
You’re reading the SN Military.Space newsletter we publish Tuesdays.



HOT TOPIC: Trump’s space force talk takes Capitol Hill by storm. All eyes on DepSecDef Shanahan’s military space review

The internet has been having fun with President Trump’s talk of creating a military space force. The president’s riff captured the public’s imagination, spawning memes and jokes about starship ninjas gearing up to fight the nation’s wars in space.

But the reality is far more boring and complicated. Before anyone rushes to design storm trooper helmets and uniforms, there is a congressionally mandated review under way — led by Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan — that will lay the groundwork for what comes next for the military’s space forces that are now part of the U.S. Air Force.

When Trump mentioned the space force in a speech last week at a Marine Corps base, people didn’t know what to make of it. But lawmakers pushing for the creation of a space corps seized on the president’s comments and pressed defense officials to explain how they would carry out Trump’s directive.



Trump’s sudden attention to space also has been read as a sign of the influence of Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the National Space Council.

But as far as reorganizing military units into a space force is concerned, no such thing will happen at least until Shanahan completes the review by year’s end and Congress agrees on legislative language that would be rolled into the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019.

Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee last week that Trump is “very interested in ensuring that the department is best organized and equipped to achieve our vital missions in space,”

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) has led the congressional push to create a space corps, which would be to the Air Force what the Marine Corps is to the Navy. Given the president’s remarks, he said, “I anticipate that the department will accelerate its plans to embrace the formation of an independent space force.”



Doug Loverro, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, said he is fully onboard with the concept of a dedicated space force. “It’s a question of whether you peel the band-aid off slowly or you rip it off. I am ready to rip the band-aid off,” he said. The Air Force space corps “needs an identifiable existence within the Air Force.”

Retired Gen. Robert Kehler, former commander of Air Force Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command, wondered whether a separate military branch for space would become a shiny object that distracts more than it helps.

“It may be that we need to go to a separate space corps or a space force in the future. But those are really big steps.” The Air Force has increased the space budget and tried to give space more attention, “but space has not gotten the consistent priority treatment that it needs to include the management of personnel that makes non-aviators warfighters.”

Air Force releases new report on acquisition programs



The U.S. Air Force this month dropped its annual report on weapon acquisition programs for fiscal year 2017. In three of the largest and costliest space programs — the AEHF communications satellites, the SBIRS missile-warning constellation and national security launch services — the Air Force claims to have brought prices down considerably.

The original per-unit cost of satellites 5 and 6 of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency system, which provides secure, jam-resistant communications for tactical and strategic missions, was $1.7 billion, the Air Force reported. The current cost is $1.3 billion per satellite, a 23 percent drop.

For the space-based infrared SBIRS satellites 5 and 6, the Air Force says the per-unit cost went down 12 percent — from $1.9 billion to $1.6 billion.

The Air Force reports a 23 percent price reduction for EELV launches — from $421 million in 2013 to $326 million currently. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program provides space launch services for medium and heavy national security space missions.

The Air Force’s numbers are in sharp contrast to those of the auditors at the Government Accountability Office. In the most recent annual report on space programs, GAO Director of Acquisition and Sourcing Management Cristina Chaplain looked at the expenses in each entire program and came up with results that show soaring costs.

FY-19 budget: Air Force spending more money on space


Gen. Jay Raymond. Credit: SpaceNews/Tom Kimmell

“The Air Force’s FY-19 budget accelerates our efforts to deter, defend and prevail against anyone who seeks to deny our ability to freely operate in space,” Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, commander of Air Force Space Command, said in a statement.

The unclassified space budget the Air Force unveiled in February includes $8.5 billion for investments in new systems — $5.9 billion in the research and development accounts, and $2.6 billion for procurement of satellites and launch services, according to a service official. The 2019 request is 7.1 percent more than the Air Force sought for 2018. Over the next five years, the Air Force projects to invest $44.3 billion in space systems — $31.5 billion in research and development, and $12.8 billion in procurement. That would mark an 18-percent increase over the $37.5 billion five-year plan submitted last year.

Doug Berenson, managing director of the consulting firm Avascent, estimates unclassified space spending for 2019 total $7.3 billion, or $1.2 billion less than the Air Force’s number. Berenson said the difference is probably due to the Air Force counting ground-based equipment.

Industry consultant Mike Tierney of Jacques & Associates also crunched the numbers and came up with a lower space total than the Air Force: $7.68 billion.

Late last week, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John Rood told Congress that a total of $12.5 billion is in the president’s 2019 budget request “to take steps to establish a more resilient, defendable space architecture.”

At a time when the Air Force is under political pressure to show it cares about space, “how you count is a non-trivial issue,” said Berenson.

LeoSat making big play for military communications business


With Sky Perfect Jsat’s financial blessing, LeoSat feels reinvigorated in pursuing the investments needed to make is LEO/HTS constellation happen. Credit: LeoSat/Thales Alenia Space

LeoSat has not even built a single satellite but has already booked $500 million worth of orders, its executives claim. In a crowded market for low-Earth-orbit satellite communications, the company believes it has found its niche marketing premium services to secrecy-obsessed clients, including the U.S. military.

“We’ve had a lot of interaction with DoD and combatant commands,” Michael Abad-Santos, senior vice president of LeoSat, told SpaceNews at the Satellite 2018 exposition. Based in Washington, LeoSat is recruiting investors with a goal to begin launching high-capacity broadband satellites in 2019 and have an operating constellation of 78 to 108 spacecraft by 2022.

What makes this system more secure than most? It’s an enterprise private network where data travels “end to end,” bypassing gateways and terrestrial infrastructure. Satellites are cross-linked in space via lasers.

LeoSat CEO Mark Rigolle said building the constellation will cost $3.6 billion, a third of which will be equity. “Toward the end of 2019 we’ll be putting the debt package together,” he said. The selection of Thales as the manufacturer means France’s export credit agency will support the project as a job creator. “If we sign up U.S. suppliers we’ll work with the Ex-Im bank as well.”

DoD, NASA, FAA examine the space industrial base

The Pentagon has been working with NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Reconnaissance Office on a review of the space industrial base, said Brennan Hogan Grignon, director of industry outreach for the secretary of defense.

The “space industrial base working group” is looking at how agencies could share technology and, more broadly, how the government buys technology from the private sector, she said last week at a House Aerospace Caucus event on Capitol Hill.

“With the innovation in space technology that is happening, there is growing interest in coordinating programs and requirements across the agencies,” Hogan Grignon said. The Pentagon could team up with NASA and the FAA on projects where technologies overlap. “Are there requirements that can be aligned with the requirements of FAA, NASA and other agencies that are trying to procure the same technology for dual-use?” One of the big topics is “how we use commercial technology, how we leverage that technology and break down the barriers from an acquisition perspective to get that technology to our warfighters.”

ICYMI: Bruno says ULA poised to step up commercial sales


ULA President and Chief Executive Tory Bruno discusses plans to increase his company’s presence on the commercial launch market during the Satellite 2018 conference March 12. Credit: Kate Patterson for SpaceNews

Amid uncertainty in the military market, United Launch Alliance wants to grow its commercial launch business using both the current Atlas and future Vulcan rockets. ULA president and CEO Tory Bruno said ULA was devoting more attention to the commercial market because the company no longer had to help the U.S. government solve a “crisis” of national security space launches. “We’ve done our duty. Our job for the first decade was to help the United States avoid a serious crisis in space,” by launching primarily national security payloads. “The assets were aging out. The replacements were late. We were asked to be able to fly with perfect reliability because you couldn’t afford to lose any.” That crisis is over. “We helped solve it,” he said. “So now we are able to shift our attention to the commercial marketplace, and we’re pretty excited to be able to do that.”

Source: https://spacenews.com/spaceforce-takes-capitol-hill-by-storm-%E2%80%A2-what-is-the-true-cost-of-space-programs-%E2%80%A2-space-budget-deep-dive/

[Orionid]

On National Security | Space Force fans, be careful what you wish for
by Sandra Erwin — March 31, 2018 [SN]
“On National Security” appears in every issue of SpaceNews magazine. This column ran in the March 12, 2018 issue.


Flanked by models of launch vehicles, President Donald Trump praised private investment in space during a brief media availability at a meeting of the Cabinet March 8. Credit: White House

A branch of the service dedicated to space warfare is a titillating prospect. And ever since the topic of a “Space Force” was brought up by President Trump, congressional hawks can’t stop talking about it.

Trump and other proponents of a stronger military posture in space argue that this is necessary to counter and deter what other countries are doing to “deny” the United States unfettered access to space and freedom to operate there.

Source: https://spacenews.com/on-national-security-space-force-fans-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/

SN Military.Space | DoD elated by budget hike, but good times may not last • USAF ready to ‘go fast’ in space • Three-star space commander swearing in
by Sandra Erwin — April 5, 2018 [N]
You’re reading the SN Military.Space newsletter we publish Tuesdays.

HOT TOPIC: Pentagon elated by 2018 appropriations. Can the good times last? Military space among the budget winners



Only six months ago, everyone in the building was saying that lifting the Budget Control Act spending caps “would be extraordinarily difficult,” recalled Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan. “Pretty much the consensus was that it would not happen,” he said last week at the Center for a New American Security.

Source: https://spacenews.com/sn-military-space-dod-elated-by-budget-hike-but-good-times-may-not-last-%E2%80%A2-usaf-ready-to-go-fast-in-space-%E2%80%A2-three-star-space-commander-swearing-in/

On National Security | The Air Force’s change of tone in the Space Force debate
by Sandra Erwin — May 5, 2018 [SN]
“On National Security” appears in every issue of SpaceNews magazine. This column ran in the April 23, 2018 issue.


U.S. Air Force Gen. John “Jay” Raymond.

The high-level attention being paid to space — both as an economic engine and as a national security fighting ground — seems to be reaching new heights. So much so that the idea of having a separate branch of the military dedicated to space might be losing attractiveness.

“Rather than go through the difficulty of a new organizational structure, I believe the leadership we have now can execute,” said Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command. Hyten has previously been critical of the Air Force for “not getting” what must done to ensure the military’s access to space is not challenged by China or Russia. He called out the Air Force for moving too slowly to modernize satellites and invest in resilient systems that can survive electronic or physical attacks.

Source: https://spacenews.com/on-national-security-the-air-forces-change-of-tone-in-the-space-force-debate/

Space acquisition reforms: What’s different this time • HASC bill lays groundwork for future space force
by Sandra Erwin — May 15, 2018 [SN]
You’re reading the SN Military.Space newsletter we publish Tuesdays.



HOT TOPICS: Air Force space acquisitions: Real change or business as usual? • NDAA provisions set stage for another round of debate on space reorganization

THE U.S. AIR FORCE has rolled out a string of reforms and policies to speed up the modernization of space systems. It designated the follow-on to the SBIRS missile warning constellation — known as next-generation overhead persistent infrared, or OPIR — as the “pacesetting” program that will guide future efforts.

I checked in with former Air Force acquisition executive William LaPlante for his take on the Air Force’s efforts so far. LaPlante is senior vice president and general manager of Mitre Corporation’s National Security Sector.

Source: https://spacenews.com/space-acquisition-reforms-whats-different-this-time-%E2%80%A2-hasc-bill-lays-groundwork-for-future-space-force/

Space Force? Create a “Space Guard” instead, some argue
by Jeff Foust — May 31, 2018 [SN]


George Nield, the former head of the FAA's commercial space transportation office, believes that a "Space Guard" modeled after the Coast Guard is a better approach for dealing with U.S. responsibilities in space than a military force or corps. Credit: SpaceNews/Tom Kimmell

LOS ANGELES — As the White House and Congress debate whether to establish a “Space Force” within the Defense Department, some believe a more effective approach is to develop an organization analogous to the Coast Guard.

In a panel discussion at the International Space Development Conference here May 27, former government officials and other experts suggested a “Space Guard” could be a more effective tool in dealing with space security issues in an era where there are more countries, and more companies, operating in Earth orbit.

Source: https://spacenews.com/space-force-create-a-space-guard-instead-some-argue/

On National Security | On matters of space, Congress keeps up pressure as it demands change
by Sandra Erwin — June 10, 2018 [SN]
“On National Security” appears in every issue of SpaceNews magazine. This column ran in the June 4, 2018 issue.


Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at U.S. Northern Command headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Credit: DoD

It could be a few more years before a resolution is reached on whether the U.S. military should have a separate Space Force.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, are not letting up on efforts to keep the Air Force and the Pentagon focused on space issues.

“Space has become so critical that I know we’re going to get more on that,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters May 23 in Colorado Springs after delivering the commencement speech at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Source: https://spacenews.com/on-national-security-on-matters-of-space-congress-keeps-up-pressure-as-it-demands-change/

SN Military.Space | Space reforms near decision point • SMC Commander: Procurement slow but not broken • Mattis downplays impact of Trump trade wars
by Sandra Erwin — June 13, 2018 [SN]
You’re reading the SN Military. Space newsletter we publish Tuesdays.

HOT TOPICS: Congress keeps up pressure on space reforms • SMC Commander: Procurement slow but not broken • Mattis downplays impact of Trump trade wars



SPACE FORCE NEARS CRITICAL DECISION POINT When he was secretary of defense during the Obama administration, Ash Carter was not a proponent of a separate military space service. His views on the matter have not changed. “I never recommended that and I don’t recommend that now,” Carter told a Mitre Corp. conference last week in Massachusetts. Creating an independent branch of the service for space operations would move the military “in the wrong direction” because it would segregate, rather than integrate space forces with the rest of the armed services. Carter’s remarks were webcast live by Mitre but the video was removed after the speech.

Source: https://spacenews.com/sn-military-space-space-reforms-near-decision-point-%E2%80%A2-smc-commander-procurement-slow-but-not-broken-%E2%80%A2-mattis-downplays-impact-of-trump-trade-wars/

Trump wants a Space Force; will Congress oblige? • DoD: ‘This will be a deliberate process’
by Sandra Erwin — June 18, 2018 [SN]
You’re reading the SN Military.Space newsletter we publish Tuesdays.


President Trump directs the Pentagon to create a Space Force as a “separate but equal” branch of the military.

Trump: We’ll have the Air Force, we’ll have the Space Force ‘That’s a big statement’

What happened Monday at the White House?

The National Space Council meeting at the White House on Monday was supposed to be all about the Trump administration’s new approach to managing space traffic and debris. And the president was there to kick off the meeting and sign a policy directive that officially designates the Department of Commerce as the public face of the nations space-friendly economy.

Source: https://spacenews.com/trump-wants-a-space-force-will-congress-oblige-%E2%80%A2-dod-this-will-be-a-deliberate-process/

What would the mission of the United States Space Force be?
by Mark Whittington — June 19, 2018 [SN]


“We are going to have the Air Force, and we are going to have the Space Force. Separate but equal. It is going to be something,” President Donald Trump said during a June 18 meeting of the National Space Council. “I’m hereby directing the department of Defense and the Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. That’s a big statement.” Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

President Trump’s recent directive to the Defense Department to create a new branch of the military, a United States Space Force, was not an idle musing. Trump’s proposal derives from a growing debate inside military and political circles about how to best meet the threat posed to American space assets by potential enemies: Russia and China, to be precise.

Source: https://spacenews.com/what-would-the-mission-of-the-united-states-space-force-be/

Trump’s Space Force announcement could propel us to deal with space ‘Pearl Harbor’
by Brian G. Chow — June 20, 2018 [SN]


In this European Space Agency illustration, a satellite breaks up, adding to the growing population of orbital debris. Debris-clearing spacecraft the U.S., China and others have in the works could double as anti-satellite weapons. Credit: ESA

On June 18, President Trump directed the Pentagon to create a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces. This directive instantly puts the Pentagon and Congress in overdrive. Those who loathe or love a Space Force “separate but equal” to the Air Force must think and act decisively and quickly. Regardless of whether the Space Force actually materializes, the deliberation of its pros and cons alone could finally spring us into action to deal with the overlooked looming threat of space Pearl Harbor.

Source: https://spacenews.com/trumps-space-force-announcement-could-propel-us-to-deal-with-space-pearl-harbor/

Space Force: Pentagon navigates the way ahead and awaits direction from Congress
by Sandra Erwin — June 20, 2018


U.S. Department of Defense headquarters

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will turn to his own policy advisers for options that he could present to the president.

WASHINGTON — As the initial shock of the president’s order to create a Space Force wears off, the question of “what comes next” looms large for the Pentagon.

With the U.S. Air Force poised for a major breakup if and when the Space Force is formed, leaders on Tuesday moved quickly to allay fears and assure airmen that business, for now, will go on as usual.

Source: https://spacenews.com/space-force-pentagon-navigates-the-way-ahead-and-awaits-direction-from-congress/

Rep. Mike Rogers: Space Force will be done ‘responsibly’ with minimal disruption
by Sandra Erwin — June 21, 2018 [SN]


Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) speaks at a Mitchell Institute event June 21 at the Capitol Hill Club.

Only Congress has the authority to reorganize the military or create a new service, but Rogers nonetheless wants the Pentagon to come forward with a plan to help Congress prepare language for next year’s National Defense Authorization Act.

WASHINGTON — Congress’ original proponent of a separate space branch of the military expects the Pentagon to follow the president’s lead and move quickly to create a Space Force.

The next step in the process will be a report due August 1 from Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.

“This is what I expect to happen,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said on Thursday at a Mitchell Institute breakfast event on Capitol Hill. His committee wants to see Shanahan’s report that is due August 1. “And I’m pretty sure it’s going to say, ‘We think we need to go past the Space Corps and have a Space Force because  the commander in chief said that’s what he wants.'”

Source: https://spacenews.com/rep-mike-rogers-space-force-will-be-done-responsibly-with-minimal-disruption/