The United States conducts activities in space in support of national security objectives. The main goals established by the President's National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement in this area include freedom of access to and use of space; maintaining the U.S. position as the major economic, political, military, and technological power in space; deterring threats to U.S. interests in space and defeating aggression if deterrence fails; preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to space; and enhancing global partnerships with other space faring nations across the spectrum of economic, political, and security issues. DoD space forces will provide the means to exploit and, if required, control space to assist in the successful execution of national security strategy and national military strategy.
Space systems provide force multipliers that are increasingly important for sustaining an effective level of defense capability as overall U.S. force structure is downsized and restructured. Space forces meet a wide range of requirements critical to the National Command Authority (NCA), combatant commanders, and operational forces. The global coverage, high readiness, nonintrusive forward presence, rapid responsiveness, and inherent flexibility of space forces enable them to provide real-time and near-real-time support for military operations in peacetime, crisis, and across the entire spectrum of conflict. In recognition of the leverage to be gained by fully utilizing space capabilities, DoD is working to normalize space across the Department by integrating space forces with land, sea, air, and special operations forces.
SPACE FORCES AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
Space forces are fundamental to modern military operations. They are playing a central role in the ongoing revolution in warfare because of their unique capabilities for gathering, processing, and disseminating information. As demonstrated during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, space systems can directly influence the course and outcome of war. For example, space systems helped confer a decisive advantage upon United States and friendly forces in terms of combat timing, operational tempo, synchronization, maneuver, and the integrated application of firepower. These inherent strengths of space forces will contribute directly to the deterrent effectiveness of U.S. armed forces.
Space Systems and C4I
Space forces provide key capabilities to integrate and deliver command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence (C4I) support to land, sea, air, and special operations forces. In the planning phase of military operations, space forces provide enemy order of battle, precise geographical references and elevations, threat locations and characteristics, and accurate cartography and geodesy. Command and control is enhanced by instantaneous communications and coordination of forces, near-real-time surveillance and reconnaissance, meteorological conditions, and situational awareness of the battlefield.
Space forces also provide data that is essential to military forces during the employment phase of military operations. Information provided by space systems may enable precision weapons to strike targets more effectively in any weather, day or night. Forces enroute have access to precise navigation, location, and timing information as well as continuous communications with the command element and other employed forces for coordinated strikes. In addition, space assets enable secure communications among all functions in a military operation. The net result is the ability to efficiently and effectively employ forces to achieve desired objectives with a minimum of casualties and collateral damage.
In short, space-based force multipliers help to improve operational effectiveness, efficiency, and interoperability; maintain high technological superiority; and support worldwide deployment, sustainment, and operations of U.S. land, sea, air, and special operations forces. By providing almost global coverage, space forces help to compensate for reductions of forward positioned infrastructure and provide ready, in-place capabilities to support U.S. forces worldwide.
Space Power and Deterrence
Space forces are an integral element of the overall deterrent posture of the U.S. armed forces. Any nation contemplating an action inimical to U.S. national security interests must be concerned about American space capabilities. Space systems provide the NCA, combatant commanders, and operational forces with unprecedented global situational awareness to identify and react to threats. As the United States draws down forces from overseas bases, space systems continue to provide nonintrusive presence because of their near-global coverage. Space forces thus help ensure that hostile actions will be discovered by the United States and introduce an element of uncertainty into the minds of potential adversaries.
More specifically, space forces provide unique capabilities for collecting and disseminating information for determining other nations' capabilities and intentions. This includes information for indications, warning, and responding to the threat or use of force against the United States, its armed forces, allies, and friends. Space systems perform global monitoring and are often the first to spot impending conflicts, allowing diplomatic actions to avert war. Space systems thus are critical to the ability of the United States to sustain a credible deterrent posture which will continue to ensure that the costs of the threat or use of force are unacceptable to a potential adversary.
Space forces also are essential for ensuring that U.S. land, sea, air, and special operations forces are capable of conducting operations against adversaries armed with WMD and missile systems. Space systems collect and disseminate information necessary for detecting, identifying, and characterizing threats. This includes nuclear material production, weapons systems transfers, and movements. Space systems support military planning, mission rehearsal, and targeting; detect nuclear detonations; provide launch point determination; ensure command, control, and communications; enable precise navigation, maneuver, and weapons delivery; facilitate smart weapons selection and force coordination; and support mapping, charting, geodesy, and terrain analysis. The force multipliers provided by space forces will enhance the effectiveness of military operations to seize, disable, or destroy WMD and missile systems, as well as provide for the alerting, survival, and protection of U.S. forces against hostile missile launches.
Furthermore, space forces improve the effectiveness of active and passive defenses measures. Space systems will support the operations of active defenses which can intercept nonstrategic ballistic and cruise missiles and prevent or limit contamination should the missile be carrying a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon. Space systems technologies are being investigated to allow cueing of missile defense forces to attacks by cruise missiles. They also will support civil defense of populations and passive defenses of operational forces. Space systems can provide strategic ballistic missile launch detection; limited theater ballistic missile launch detection; approximate impact area prediction; potential target acquisition sensor cueing; battle management, command, control, and communications; and intelligence and missile warning dissemination.
Space Systems and the U.S. Contribution to Global Security
Space forces are a comparative national advantage of the United States and are an area within coalition strategy that can contribute unique capabilities for global security. In particular, space systems are capable of performing missions which place a premium on interoperability and the capacity to operate with other nations' forces. Space systems will enable United States and allied land, sea, and air forces to operate jointly in a more efficient and effective manner. They may also provide a means to support political commitments without putting U.S. forces at risk. Moreover, certain space systems provide dual-use capabilities employed by U.S. as well as international civil and commercial users in peacetime.
The exploitation and control of space will help enable the United States to achieve information warfare objectives in a military theater of operation. This could greatly enhance U.S. and allied ability to fight on more favorable terms. The ability to provide C4I support to U.S. forces, and deny such support to an adversary, will enable combatant commanders and operational forces to plan and react faster than an adversary and thereby dictate the timing and tempo of operations. The responsiveness of in-theater exploitation and dissemination of space sensor information is a key factor.
Numerous countries in regions around the world are acquiring or accessing space systems, technologies, and products. Foreign nations and subnational groups are obtaining space capabilities through indigenous efforts, purchases of goods and services, and cooperative activities. The spread of indigenous military and intelligence space systems, civil space systems with military and intelligence utility, and commercial space services with military and intelligence applications poses a significant challenge to U.S. defense strategy and military operations. The spread of space capabilities compounds the dangers to U.S. national security posed by the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, missile systems for their delivery, and advanced conventional weapon systems.
Consequently, DoD must be able to ensure freedom of action in space for friendly forces and, when directed, limit or deny an adversary's ability to use the medium for hostile purposes. To ensure space control, DoD must sustain and improve capabilities to surveil and monitor all militarily significant activities in space. DoD also will continue to design, develop, and operate space systems with ensured survivability and endurability of their critical functions. Moreover, DoD must have capabilities to deny an adversary's use of space systems to support hostile military forces.
In addition to military countermeasures, DoD's strategy to deal with the threat posed by the proliferation of space capabilities with military and intelligence applications includes: actions to strengthen U.S. competitiveness in foreign markets; measures to protect technologies, methodologies, and overall system capabilities which sustain U.S. advantage in space capabilities and promote continued U.S. technological advancements; maintaining controls over significant capabilities which can be sold or transferred to foreign recipients; government-to-government relationships with friendly states involving the sharing of space technology, products, and data; and agreements or arrangements which limit or deny foreign acquisition of, or access to, space systems, technology, products, and data which could provide support to hostile forces.
MAJOR DOD SPACE PROGRAMS
Space Launch
Space launch is a key enabling capability for DoD to exploit space. Current U.S. space launch systems, however, do not meet all DoD needs and are becoming increasingly costly to use. A basic question for the past several years has been what level of DoD investment is appropriate to maintain existing capabilities and to provide for future space launch capability given current and expected fiscal constraints.
The President's National Space Transportation Policy, approved on August 5, 1994, seeks to balance efforts to sustain and modernize existing launch capabilities with the need to invest in the development of improved future capabilities. In that policy, DoD is designated as the lead agency for improvement and evolution of the current expendable launch vehicle (ELV) fleet, including appropriate technology development. The DoD objective for this effort is to reduce costs while improving reliability, operability, responsiveness, and safety.
In order to implement this guidance, DoD is initiating an evolutionary ELV program. This program will eventually replace the medium and heavy-lift launch systems currently in the inventory. The program is defining a new relationship with the launch industry emphasizing a measured development effort. DoD seeks to use innovative methods to allow U.S. industry a greater leadership role in free market access to space. The current medium launch vehicle class will be phased out as early as 2001, and the heavy as early as 2004.
The Department recently completed an assessment of the defense related space launch industrial base. The basic conclusion of the assessment was that the industrial base has sufficient capability to meet defense needs today. However, there is significant overcapacity in some portions of the base which will require industry consolidation. Relatively stable commercial/defense demand, the predominantly dual-use nature of the base, and specific actions to meet DoD requirements, such as the ELV initiative, will ensure an adequate industrial base.
Space-Based Infrared Mission Area
After the cancellation of the Follow-on Early Warning System (FEWS), the Department embarked on an intensive study to review the space-based infrared (SBIR) mission area. The goals of the SBIR study were to review infrared requirements needed to protect the United States within the context of two major regional contingencies and intelligence community needs, develop architectures to satisfy those requirements, and make a programmatic recommendation for system acquisition.
The SBIR study was notable in two areas: the process for conducting the study and the results the study produced. The process brought together the various military and intelligence disciplines which use infrared data and developed a comprehensive set of requirements categorized into four areas: missile warning (strategic and theater), missile defense (national and theater), technical intelligence, and battle space characterization. Battle space characterization reflected the needs of the combatant commanders for situational awareness. Previously generated requirements for SBIR systems, new requirements, and those developed by the intelligence community were reviewed, analyzed, and adjusted to reflect current guidance.
The consolidated set of requirements was then used to develop a range of candidate architectures. These included satellite constellations in highly elliptical orbits, geosynchronous orbits, low earth orbits, and various combinations of these orbits. In several cases, requirements which were driving the architectural design were revisited to ensure the validity of the requirement.
Based on the SBIR study, DoD is proceeding with the development of a new high-altitude constellation of infrared detection satellites consisting of both highly elliptical and geosynchronous elements. The planned first launch of this new system is 2002. A flight demonstration of low earth orbit satellites will be conducted to mature this technology and to investigate further phenomonologies in additional infrared frequencies. Furthermore, the high altitude system will be designed to include the capability to integrate a low orbit component if the need arises. Deployment of the low-altitude component may also permit the size of the high-altitude constellation to be reduced.
Military Satellite Communications
The U.S. Army operates and mans the Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) for DoD through the Army Space Command at remote sites throughout the world. To update this capability, DoD's primary effort in satellite communications is the Milstar program. Conceived during the Cold War, the program was significantly restructured following the Bottom-Up Review (BUR) to reflect the increased tactical needs of current defense planning. The emphasis of the Milstar program has shifted from the provision of low data-rate, highly survivable communications to medium data-rate communications that will provide survivable, difficult to detect, jam-resistant communications to tactical forces worldwide without reliance on foreign-based ground relays. This new emphasis was embodied in a redesign of the Milstar II system.
The BUR not only addressed the system requirements but also the affordability of the program. As a result, the constellation size for the system was reduced from six to four satellites with a determination to seek a less expensive alternative to the current design beginning late in this decade. The Milstar III program will seek to provide an advanced Extremely High Frequency (EHF) communication system with capabilities similar to the current system on a platform that can be launched on a future medium lift vehicle. The technological refinement required for that design will be pursued in an intensive investment program beginning in 1995.
Despite the decision to pursue this advanced EHF alternative, there remain questions as to what direction military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) should take in the future. Communications are currently spread among three frequency bands on as many as six satellite systems. All these systems will be due for replacement in the middle of the next decade. With affordability a key concern, the Department has initiated an intensive architecture study to determine the best mix of capabilities, including commercial alternatives, to support military satellite communications needs for the next century. The FY 1996 budget reflects a consolidated MILSATCOM strategy to reduce cost and improve operability.
Meteorological Satellite Convergence
DoD, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) completed a study in March 1994 that examined the feasibility of merging the DoD and NOAA operational polar-orbiting environmental satellite programs -- the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) Program -- while capitalizing on NASA's Earth Observing System technologies. This study culminated in the President's May 5, 1994, decision to converge U.S. polar-orbiting operational environmental satellite systems. An Integrated Program Office (IPO) has been created for the planning, development, acquisition, management, technology transition, launch, and operations of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). DoD is the lead agency responsible for supporting the IPO in NPOESS system acquisitions. The NPOESS program also carries out a National Performance Review objective of reducing the cost of acquiring and operating polar-orbiting environmental satellite systems, while continuing to satisfy military and civil operational requirements.
The NPOESS will consist of a three-satellite constellation. The need date for the first satellite could be as early as 2004. The preferred architectural option includes a European satellite as one of the three satellites, provided this satellite meets specified U.S. conditions, including the capability to selectively deny critical data to an adversary during crisis or war yet ensure the use of such data by U.S. and Allied military forces. A NOAA-led team which includes DoD and NASA is negotiating with the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites for provision of the mid-morning satellite of the three-satellite converged constellation. DoD is working closely with NOAA and NASA to ensure NPOESS satisfies national security requirements.
SPACE SUPPORT TO THE WARFIGHTER
Over the past year, space forces have played important roles in every contingency where U.S. forces were engaged. In the former Yugoslavia, for example, multispectral imagery products provide support to U.S. forces which can be used for search and rescue. In Haiti, the UHF Follow-On and Milstar I military satellite communications systems provide operational support to U.S. forces for command and control as well as other functions.
To enhance the contributions of space forces to U.S. military operations, space forces also have been integrated into the Joint and Service exercise schedule. U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) components are actively engaged in supporting each combatant commander. Space systems directly supported exercises including Ulchi Focus Lens in Korea, Keen Edge in Japan, Atlantic Resolve in Europe, and Bulwark Bronze with U.S. Strategic Command and North American Aerospace Command. By fully integrating space capabilities into military operations, combatant commanders are better able to tailor their campaign planning and operations to more effectively employ available forces and achieve objectives at the least risk and cost.
To enhance the contributions of space systems to joint warfighting capabilities, USSPACECOM is proposing to establish a Joint Space and Missile Defense Warfare Center at Falcon Air Force Base, Colorado. It will coordinate the efforts of the Services with respect to space applications; integration of joint space operations into doctrine; innovation and application of joint space capabilities; and focused space support to the warfighter. DoD is also actively pursuing advanced applications of space forces through Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TENCAP) programs. The Army's TENCAP program, for example, is currently providing robust, in-theater space support to operational forces. The Army will continue by fielding more advanced and mobile capabilities with direct, in-theater immediate response to the warfighter. The Air Force and Navy sensor-to-shooter efforts currently underway to integrate space system-derived information into aircraft are an additional example of ongoing activities to better exploit the force multipliers provided by space forces. These and other initiatives will improve the exploitation of space capabilities in the planning and conduct of military operations.
Space forces are essential for the successful execution of U.S. national security strategy and national military strategy. Space systems provide force multipliers which complement and enhance the capabilities of U.S. land, sea, air, and special operations forces. The organizational, operational, and modernization initiatives planned for the coming years will ensure that DoD space forces will retain the capability and versatility to accomplish their missions effectively and efficiently in support of U.S. national security objectives.
