Space Force Rideshare Launch Will Help Create ‘Freight Train to Space’

Dec. 2, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Space Test Program (STP)-3 launch scheduled for Dec. 5 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., will prototype new warfighter capabilities, add nuclear launch detection sensors to orbit, and enhance Space Force efforts to improve resiliency in a new “threat-driven paradigm.”

In all, 16 payloads from the Space Force, NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration, and others will ride on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V 551 vehicle’s longest mission to date, estimated to clock seven hours, 10 minutes at a cost of $1.14 billion. The mission will include combined operational, nuclear detection, and prototype satellites in the areas of optical communication, space domain awareness, and weather.

“Our job is to get the technology ready for eventual transition to operational use,” the Space Test Program division director, Space Force Col. Carlos Quinones, told journalists by phone during a media briefing from Cape Canaveral.

The launch also marks the first in a series of missions known as Long Duration Propulsive ESPA. ESPA refers to expendable launch vehicle secondary payload adapter, a ring-shaped module that carries additional payloads that are both fixed and separable.

“The program is the only recurring propulsive rideshare option to orbit,” said Space Force Col. Heather Bogstie, chief of the Rapid Development Division. “The premise is to use the excess weight offered by launch vehicles to place prototypes on orbit faster and cheaper.”

The vision of LDPE is to increase the frequency of placing rings on orbit and to establish common dimensions and interfaces in order to reconstitute architectures or respond to impending threats faster.

“The rings themselves are what we are actually looking to transition more frequently into operation,” Bogstie said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine. The future program is called Rapid On-orbit Space Technology Evaluation Ring, or ROOSTER.

“By investing in the LDP Flash ROOSTER platform, we can ensure that we’re having that freight train to space, which is basically a cheap ride to space on a recurring basis, and we can easily accommodate reconstituting architectures or answering to threats that we may see in the near future,” she added. “We have these rings on orbit—rather than dispose of them, we would like to be able to use a residual capability of the rings to help provide resiliency to the Space Force architecture.”

Bogstie said the rings may have a use in communications or in on-orbit refueling or other servicing or logistics.

Space Force Col. Erin Gulden, mission director in the Atlas/Delta Division, said future launch capabilities will require innovative new ideas and prototypes, then to incorporate best practices.

“As we transition into the new domain of space warfighting, which is more driven by a threat-driven paradigm, we in the launch enterprise are remaining very appreciative and committed to standing beside our long-standing successful partnerships,” she said of the pending ULA launch. “Our future launch capabilities will require constant evolution.”

US, South Korea Seek to Broaden Alliance, Bolster Indo-Pacific Security

Dec. 2, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

As the Pentagon increasingly pivots its focus to strategic competition with China, the U.S. will look to expand its alliance with South Korea to increase security across the entire Indo-Pacific region, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Dec. 2 during a visit to the northeastern Asian nation.

Austin, speaking at a press conference after the U.S.-Republic of Korea Security Consultative Meeting in Seoul, said he and his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Suh Wook, went beyond discussions about the threat posed by North Korea to include other regional issues.

“We discussed ways to broaden our alliance’s focus to address issues of regional concern. We shared our assessments of the changing and complex regional security environment, and we emphasized our shared commitment to the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific,” said Austin, according to a transcript of the press conference.

Suh also said they discussed involving third-party nations to promote regional security and “enhance multilateral cooperation.”

“In particular, the [Republic of Korea] and the U.S. agreed on the importance of ROK-U.S.-Japan trilateral security cooperation for responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, and agreed to explore cooperation means to connect our New Southern Policy and the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy,” Suh said through a translator.

Tensions between China and the U.S., and the U.S.’s regional partners, have increased as of late, Austin acknowledged, after recent reports about China’s testing a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that entered orbit in July. Most recently, former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe touched off another controversy when he warned that a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan would mark “an emergency for the Japan-U.S. alliance” that would force a response, according to CNBC.

Suh, asked Dec. 2 if South Korea would also come to Taiwan’s defense in case of an invasion, said he and Austin did not speak on threats from specific countries in their discussions but reiterated their focus on ensuring security on a broad scale.

“The Republic of Korea and the United States are a global partnership, and we’re working closely together, cooperating to ensure the peace and stability of the entire world,” Suh said.

What that partnership won’t include, Austin seemed to indicate, is a transfer of nuclear submarine technology akin to the Australia-United Kingdom-U.S. partnership—called AUKUS—in September. While the Dec. 2 meeting included discussions on how to strengthen the South Korean-American alliance, it didn’t include talk of nuclear subs, he said.

Austin also demurred when asked about the possibility of the U.S. bringing tactical nuclear weapons back to South Korea to counter China and North Korea. The Pentagon withdrew the last of its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991 and has resisted calls to redeploy them by some South Korean lawmakers.

“We seek the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and we believe the best way to achieve that goal is a calibrated and practical approach to explore diplomacy with [North Korea], and that’s obviously backed up by a credible deterrent and military readiness,” Austin said. “And so we’ll continue to consult closely with the Republic of Korea and Japan and other allies and partners every step of the way.”

Congress Passes Continuing Resolution to Fund Government Through Feb. 18

Dec. 2, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 2 with new information after the House vote and again at 10:30 p.m. with new information after the Senate vote.

Congress passed a continuing resolution shortly before 9:30 p.m. Dec. 2 to keep the government funded through Feb. 18, capping a hectic day on Capitol Hill.

The House voted 221-212, and the Senate voted 69-28, in favor of a new CR, staving off a shutdown that would have gone into effect at the stroke of midnight Dec. 4.

The deal to keep the government open didn’t come together until the morning of Dec. 2, when House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Further Extending Government Funding Act, keeping funding at fiscal 2021 levels with a few exceptions, one being an extra $4.3 billion for the Department of Defense’s accounts to pay for the care of Afghan evacuees on military bases.

From there, it was a steady push to get the legislation passed and to the desk of President Joe Biden in a single day. The House passed the bill around 5:30 p.m., sending it to the Senate.

To pass the CR, the Senate had to negotiate a compromise with several Republican Senators who indicated they would oppose moving quickly on the bill unless it stripped funding for Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Had those Senators raised objections and dragged out the process, a government shutdown would have likely occurred.

Instead, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of the Senators who has indicated his opposition, said during a Senate floor speech that he would be satisfied with “a simple up-or-down, yes-or-no, majority vote.”

Senate leaders agreed to consider the proposal as an amendment with a majority vote—it was rejected 50-48 along party lines.

From there, the CR itself was quickly approved with bipartisan support.

“I am happy to let the American people know the government remains open,” Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the floor moments after the bill passed.

While the government remains open, however, the new CR does not have the funding the Defense Department needs to start new programs and projects. The Department of the Air Force alone has said a CR blocks 16 new starts, four production increases, and seven military construction projects, in addition to the transfer of satellite communications capabilities from the Army, Navy, and Air Force to the Space Force. Exercises and readiness efforts will be delayed as well.

The Pentagon has become accustomed to working under a CR. According to a Government Accountability Office report, this is the 12th time in 13 years that DOD has started a new fiscal year under a continuing resolution.

But until Congress passes legislation appropriating funds for fiscal 2022, new projects, programs, and efforts will continue to be delayed. The House Appropriations Committee released its draft of the budget in June, and its Senate counterpart released its version in October. Since then, no action has been taken to bring them for a full vote.

Meanwhile, the Senate is still struggling to pass the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual policy bill that has been enacted every year for six decades. Republican Senators have raised objections to a process they called rushed and called for more votes on amendments, while Democrats have pushed to get the “must pass” legislation through quickly.

Biden Administration Outlines Space Priorities at First National Space Council Meeting

Dec. 1, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

The White House released its United States Space Priorities Framework on Dec. 1, as senior leaders gathered at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., for the first National Space Council meeting led by Vice President Kamala Harris. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”

To deter aggression in space, the document says the U.S. will “accelerate its transition to a more resilient national security space posture and strengthen its ability to detect and attribute hostile acts in space.” The U.S. also will “take steps to protect its military forces from space-enabled threats,” according to the document.

Additional priorities, include:

Maintaining U.S. leadership in space exploration and science
Advancing space-based Earth observation to “support action on climate change”
Fostering policy and regulatory environments enabling “a competitive and burgeoning U.S. commercial space sector”
Protecting “space-related critical infrastructure”
And, investing in science, technology, engineering, and math education.

In his Dec. 1 executive order authorizing the National Space Council and outlining its duties, President Joe Biden added five new seats to the council for the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, Labor, and Education and the National Climate Advisor.

Vice President Kamala Harris hosts the first National Space Council Meeting of the Biden administration on Dec. 1.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks credited her boss’ rules for appropriate conduct in space as a step toward stopping perilous, debris-generating anti-satellite tests like the one Russia carried out Nov. 15. Hicks referred to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III’s Tenets of Responsible Behavior in Space during the Dec. 1 meeting.

Russia’s test, in which it launched a kinetic kill vehicle by rocket at a defunct satellite, “really demonstrates the potential deadly effects if tenets like this are not widely shared,” Hicks said. “We’ve seen significant amounts of hazardous debris created that … could still threaten the lives of those space travelers who are in low Earth orbit, and that risk will continue for years with space assets that are vital for all nations’ interests.”

Hicks said the tenets represent “longstanding operational practices,” including:

Behaving professionally and with due regard for others
Avoiding interference
Maintaining safe separations and trajectories
And notifying others when needed to keep space safe.

Air Force Leaders Still Urging Congress to Not Block Modernization Effort

Dec. 1, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force isn’t giving up on its long-frustrated efforts to retire older aircraft, as its department’s leader continues to talk with lawmakers about plans to free up funds for modernization, Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones said Nov. 30.

Over the past several years, the Air Force has detailed plans to retire airframes such as the A-10, KC-135, and RQ-4, only for Congress to block them. But Jones, speaking during an Air Force Association Air and Space Warfighters in Action symposium, said the urgency of the situation has grown due to the U.S.’s growing competition with and focus on China.

The Air Force needs modern platforms that are more relevant to a conflict with a near-peer adversary, but in order to get them, some older, single-mission ones need to be let go, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September. Such moves will mean accepting “near-term risk,” Jones acknowledged Nov. 30.

But members of Congress often cite these near-term risks as reasons for blocking aircraft retirements. Kendall said back in September that he had spoken with Senate Armed Services Committee chair Jack Reed (D-R.I.) about using an all-or-nothing package similar to what has been done with base closures to reduce political pressure. And Jones said Kendall had been back on Capitol Hill frequently to highlight the longer-term risks the Air Force faces if its modernization efforts are continually blocked.

“It’s really important that we take those and make those hard decisions now,” she said. “That relies on the American people understanding where we are, and Secretary Kendall has also spent quite a bit of time on the Hill as of late … It really is meant to level set on how the Department of the Air Force understands the threats that we face and the real strategic muscle movements that need to be made so we’re best postured.”

Kendall’s focus on long-term challenges posed by China is nothing new. In his Senate confirmation hearing, he said Chinese modernization was his primary motivation for returning to government service, and at the AFA conference, he recounted telling a senator shortly after he was sworn in that his top three priorities are “China, China, and China.”

But as Kendall and Jones lead the effort to modernize and counter China, they’re not just looking to slash anything over a certain age, Jones said in response to a question about how she defined “legacy” systems.

“The conversation is less about what is or isn’t legacy, but more around what will or will not make sure that we are as successful as we can be in a high-end fight,” Jones said. “And so if it’s not survivable, if it’s not relevant, and it’s going to be hard to sustain, then how might we ensure that we are making the investments in the capabilities that give us the best chance?”

That dovetails with Kendall’s previous comments about focusing more on capabilities and less on experiments and prototypes that don’t end up producing anything. Jones said the Secretary’s stated focus is on “meaningful operational capability.”

“A key component of that is capacity,” Jones added. “It’s not just a … few ‘Gee, whiz’ things, but no kidding, do we have the mass, do we have the capacity to ensure that this is going to have an actual effect?”

Space Force Plans for Simulators, Adds Advanced Training to Rotations

Dec. 1, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

The Space Force has carved out personnel rotations to accommodate advanced training and turned to units for training ideas while envisioning what the service’s operations chief called an “operational test and training infrastructure,” including new space simulators.

With the military’s newfound ability “to talk about space as a warfighting domain, as a contested domain,” the Space Force can get started providing advanced training to Guardians on tactics, such as maneuvering satellites, said Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, in a Nov. 29 webinar by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

The infrastructure would provide, for the first time, “the ability to have a virtual environment where we can practice our tradecraft, test our tactics against a thinking adversary, and get better and develop over time,” Saltzman said. Current space simulators are “designed to provide procedural currency to efficiently and effectively operate the weapon systems” he added, noting that procedural currency is “necessary but not sufficient.”

Like the Defense Department’s satellites in orbit, the people operating them weren’t “designed for a contested environment,” Saltzman said. “So we have to shift in both areas.”

To carve out time for training, Saltzman said he drew from the Air Force’s Air Expeditionary Wings and Groups model that “preserves some institutional capacity to do advanced training.” By contrast, right now, “we’re all in, 100 percent of the time, to accomplish the services that are currently necessary worldwide.”

In defining the new training requirements, he said the service is “actively working with the units” to define them, not just for space operators but for support personnel, mission planners, engineers, intelligence personnel, and others, “so that they are ready to address a threat in a contested environment.”

Another “critical component” will be the infrastructure—a “modeling and sim environment to validate the tactics: ’Will this work in the domain? Do the physics work?’” Saltzman said. “What we really haven’t had is simulators where our operators can practice tactics in a virtual environment against a thinking adversary. That’s the piece—it’s the range complex; it’s a professional aggressor force—that’s the comprehensive tapestry, if you will, that makes up what an advanced training program requires.”

Saltzman said “tactics” as currently envisioned might include “a combination of maneuver. It’s a combination of taking advantage of the capabilities that are inherent on the spacecraft, whether it’s beam-forming, beam-shaping; whether it’s about denial of a directed-energy weapon to affect our systems by shutting certain systems off and timing and tempo.

“[There are] a number of tactics that we’ve currently developed, and I would project that there are a lot that we have yet to develop,” Saltzman said. “The ability to mitigate a directed-energy threat, if you will—whether it’s [radio frequency] energy, lasers, etc.—sometimes that’s maneuver, sometimes that’s repositioning, and sometimes that’s subsystem operation on the satellite itself to try to mitigate those capabilities.”

During a dynamic time in the space security environment, “I really see it as the birth and the initial evolution of this capability,” Saltzman said.

Continuing Resolution Blocks Air Force New Starts, Production Boosts, MILCON

Dec. 1, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

With just a few days left until the current continuing resolution funding the government expires, the Department of the Air Force enumerated 16 new starts and four production increases that will be blocked until Congress appropriates money for the Pentagon’s fiscal 2022 activities. Also stymied will be seven military construction projects and the transfer of satellite communications capabilities from the Army, Navy, and Air Force to the Space Force, as well as exercises and readiness efforts.

Continuing resolutions “immediately disrupt major exercises and training events, impede readiness, delay maintenance, impose uncertainty on the workforce, curtail hiring and recruitment actions, and include inefficient and constrained contracting practices,” the Department of the Air Force said in a statement. The CR “reduces aircraft availability/maintenance, curbs modernization efforts, and hampers the continued development” of air and space systems needed for “tomorrow’s complex global security environment.”

Besides blocking new starts, “the department cannot implement new policies [or] procedures,” the Air Force said. “Not only can’t we start new programs, we can’t increase the rate of production of ongoing ones, even if that’s what our contracts call for.”

The CR, which is slated to expire on Dec. 3, also blocks “new technology development in support of national security priorities.”

The CR will hamper the standup of U.S. Space Force by blocking “Army, Navy, and Air Force transfers to Space Force for SATCOM (Satellite Communications); Facility Sustainment, Restoration, and Modernization (FSRM), and Base Operating Support (BOS),” impeding its ability to reach full operational capability and “meet mission objectives,” according to the department.

It also impacts readiness by slowing spending on FSRM projects, weapon system sustainment, and contracts until 2022 funding is approved.

Sixteen new starts are on hold, including secure, Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information voice and video modifications to C-32, C-37, C-40, and VC-25A VIP transports; the Next Generation Aerial Target (NGAT); E-4B Full Motion Flight Deck Simulator; and B-1B test assets for Air Force Materiel Command.

Production Increases are blocked, including:

F-15E Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) —18 units
Small Diameter Bomb II—242 units
E-11 Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN)—two aircraft
ICBM Fuze modification—20 units.

The CR delays seven military construction projects, including:

Two Basic Military Training dormitories at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas
A Nuclear Command Control and Communications acquisition management facility at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
A Ground Based Strategic Deterrent software sustainment center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah
A KC-46 depot maintenance hangar at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
A B-21 Raider bomber facility at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.
A fire crash rescue station at Joint Base Andrews, Md.
An F-16 mission training center at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C.

Spangdahlem AB to Keep F-16s, at Least for Now

Dec. 1, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, will keep its fighter mission after the Pentagon’s Global Posture Review permanently reversed a Trump administration decision to shift the base’s F-16s to Italy and to cancel plans to move tankers and special operations forces there.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) confirmed to Air Force Magazine on Dec. 1 that the recently approved Global Posture Review preserves the strength of forces in Europe and the vital role played by NATO partner Germany.

“We’re not abandoning Europe or NATO,” USAFE spokesperson Capt. Erik Anthony said by phone from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. “We are here. We’re committed. And by the way, it’s probably going to look like a plus-up of forces.”

In the since-rescinded policy decision announced by the Trump White House in June 2020 and given a specific execution plan by Pentagon leaders a month later, U.S. troops stationed in Germany were to be capped at 25,000. Shedding more than 12,000 troops would have required the shifting of Airmen and 52nd Fighter Wing assets to Aviano Air Base, Italy.

“The Global Posture Review included select near-term adjustments to DoD forces in Europe… but does not identify the specific realignment of forces at Spangdahlem Air Base or Aviano Air Base,” Anthony said. “There are plans that were being written and posturing to execute those moves, but the actual realignment of those forces never happened.”

Trump’s strategic policy decisions were initially made in response to Germany not meeting a NATO goal of spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. After taking office, President Joe Biden in February reversed the 25,000-troop cap, triggering Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to freeze prior reorganization decisions.

Though details remain classified, Pentagon leaders said the plan is to bolster forces in the Indo-Pacific and European theaters. Anthony cautioned that force adjustments in Europe are still a possibility if they support mission requirements.

“There’s nothing written in stone right now,” he explained.

“There’s planning that’s taking place … as to what that looks like with the current environment that we live in today,” Anthony added. “That’s not to say that forces couldn’t move between [Spangdahlem and Aviano], if that makes sense.”

The GPR provided a framework for force posture decisions, not specific movements. The Pentagon, however, announced that 500 troops who were part of a U.S. Army Multi-Domain Task Force and Theater Fires Command will remain in Wiesbaden, Germany, and seven military sites in Germany and Belgium previously slated for return to host country will remain in DOD hands.

“There’s going to be future planning based on the GPR, but there’s a lot of steps that those plans are going to have to go through before they’re approved and we start executing,” the Air Force spokesman said.

Rendering ASATs Obsolete, Tweaking Missile Defenses in Light of Russian, Chinese Tests

Nov. 30, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

Recent Russian and Chinese tests of space weapons are a “natural consequence of military behaviors,” and the U.S. must now “mitigate this threat,” the Space Force’s operations chief said.

Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman theorized on Russian and Chinese mindsets during the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ virtual Spacepower Forum on Nov. 29. The panel was moderated by retired Air Force Gen. Kevin P. Chilton, a former space shuttle mission commander and past commander of U.S. Strategic Command who is Mitchell’s Explorer Chair for Space Warfighting Studies.

“When you are behind, you look for ways to seek vulnerabilities of your adversary and your competitor so that you can regain the strategic advantage, and we’re seeing that play out,” Saltzman said. “We’ve had an advantage for a long time. They’ve watched how we’ve prosecuted campaigns from Desert Storm and beyond, and they know that if they can take those capabilities away from us”—such as those enabled by the Space Force’s satellites or ground-based radar stations—“that it can bring more parity to the strategic military environment.”

Saltzman described the Space Force’s strategy for addressing kinetic anti-satellite weapons, or ASATs, as in the case of the Russian test, as a mix of diplomacy in the form of “international peer pressure” and of rendering such weapons obsolete with dispersed constellations.

He alluded to potential tweaks to existing missile defenses, including the addition of artificial intelligence, that could make them more suitable for tracking different objects than they were originally designed and for defending against new long-range weapons, such as China’s suspected fractional orbital bombardment system (FOBS), thought to be able to carry a nuclear warhead, and of Russia’s long-range cruise missiles.

Deterring ASAT Weapons

Russia’s Nov. 15 anti-satellite test created an estimated 1,500 pieces of orbital debris big enough to be tracked, and the Space Force is “now spending a tremendous amount of our time, energy, and capacity to characterize the nature of that debris field,” Saltzman said. The Space Force is responsible for identifying and cataloging space objects and characteristics of their trajectories.

“At a minimum, we know that it poses a hazard to the astronauts on the [International Space Station]—at a very minimum,” Saltzman said. “And it’s one of our basic responsibilities to make sure that we characterize all of the objects that are on orbit to protect not just humankind up there on the ISS but all of these very expensive, exquisite satellites that we spend blood, sweat, tears, energy, [and] national treasure to put into orbit.”

Saltzman said deterring a war from starting in space is one of the new service’s “primary responsibilities,” and the Space Force currently views deterrence as a two-sided coin: on one side is negating any benefits of a destructive act; on the other is imposing costs for violating accepted norms.

In terms of negating the benefits of a destructive act, the Space Force is “focused on resiliency,” which could include “more disaggregated capability on orbit,” Saltzman said, referring to the likes of dispersed constellations. “If they don’t know what to shoot at, then what’s the benefit of shooting? That’s the basic logic. And so we are actively pouring our resources into building a resilient architecture that no one satellite destruction would dismantle.”

On the other side of the coin is imposing costs for violating accepted norms. Of course, to be in violation, the norm has to exist. Saltzman said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s Tenets of Responsible Behavior in Space “is one of the ways in which we hope to start to combat this kind of behavior.” Tenets include limiting the creation of “long-lived debris” and maintaining safe trajectories. Saltzman cautioned not to underestimate the importance of setting a framework as a foundation for holding other nations accountable, such as through the United Nations or other international coalitions: “I think that international peer pressure is actually pretty valuable,” he said.

Inviting numerous countries to share a satellite, for example, “so that many nations are affected by a single satellite’s destruction … would raise the threshold for an adversary to take that kind of action,” Saltzman said. “If they think they can get away with things Scott-free, then it changes the calculus. … I think we [should] at least go through the research and development required to see what it would take to impose costs.”

Tweaking Missile Defenses

Saltzman addressed speculation that Chinese testing this summer, reported in October, could have been of a nuclear first-strike weapon, saying it is “front and center because this is a very forward-edge technology capability,” in part because it likely can stay in orbit for long periods. However, he cautioned, “the words that we use are important so that we understand exactly what we’re talking about here. I hear things like hypersonic missile, and I hear suborbital sometimes, and so this is a categorically different system.”

For one thing, space objects have “inherent overflight capabilities” and the proposition “that you could routinely orbit a nuclear weapon over a country.” Analysts frequently point out that the Space Force’s X-37B autonomous spaceplane amounts to the same thing.

In terms of detecting such a weapon that can go into orbit then deorbit, his point was that it’s not a ballistic missile with a predictable trajectory.

“A lot of our warning is based on ballistic missiles because that’s been the primary threat for so many years,” Saltzman said. “So it’s incumbent on the Space Force, in my mind, to make sure that we’re developing the capabilities to track these kind of weapons—before they’re launched, ideally, but then throughout their life cycle, either on orbit or in execution of their mission set.

“And if we can track, we can attribute. And if we can attribute, I think we can deter,” he added.

Saltzman hinted at one way the Space Force might advance its ability to track in a discussion of defending against Russia’s long-range cruise missiles.

“We own a great number of radars that provide missile warning. We own overhead capabilities from an [infrared] standpoint that can track some of these capabilities,” he said.

“So it’s incumbent on us to make sure we get the most out of those sensors to be able to maybe use them in a way they weren’t designed. We have a long history of this. We’ve gotten the most out of our systems because we have some really talented engineers that can change the way data is fused on the ground and actually pull more information out of the sensor data that we collect. So when we see a new threat, we immediately start pouring resources and brainpower into it.”