STATEMENT
BY
UNDER SECRETARY OF THE AIR
FORCE
THE HONORABLE PETER B. TEETS
BEFORE
THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES
REGARDING
THE FISCAL YEAR 2005
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION BUDGET
REQUEST: STATUS OF THE SPACE PROGRAMS
FEBRUARY
25, 2004
Introduction
It is my distinct honor to
appear before the Committee today
representing the world’s finest air and
space force, and to be joined by the service
leads of our National Security Space
activities: General Lance Lord, Commander
of Air Force Space Command; Lieutenant
General Larry Dodgen, Commanding General,
Army Space and Missile Defense Command; Rear
Admiral Rand Fisher, Director Naval Space
Technology Programs, Space and Naval Warfare
Systems Command; and Brigadier General John
Thomas, Director, Command, Control,
Communications and Computers for the U.S.
Marine Corps. Our appearance here,
together, underscores the importance of
jointness in our National Security Space
endeavors.
Given the role of this
Committee, and my role in overseeing
National Security Space activities as Under
Secretary of the Air Force, Director of the
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and
the DoD Executive Agent for Space, I will
concentrate my remarks today on the five
priorities I have set for our National
Security Space efforts for 2004. They are:
(1) achieving mission success in operations
and acquisition, (2) developing and
maintaining a team of space professionals,
(3) integrating space capabilities for
national intelligence and warfighting, (4)
producing innovative solutions for the most
challenging national security problems, and
(5) ensuring freedom of action in space.
These priorities are my focus for this year
and are supported in the FY05 budget for our
DoD and NRO space programs.
Achieve Mission Success in
operations and acquisition
Our ongoing activities in
support of the Global War on Terrorism
highlight the fact that our space
capabilities have become increasingly
integrated in our national intelligence and
warfighting operations. Space systems are
unique assets – they provide global
persistence, perspective, and access
unhindered by geographic or political
boundaries. Our space systems, whether
integrated with airborne and surface
sensors, or acting alone over areas of high
risk or denied access, provide critical
surveillance and reconnaissance information
to national decision makers and combatant
commanders. They are also the primary
sources for global environmental monitoring
and weather forecasting data, global
communications, missile warning, precision
navigation and timing to troops on the
ground, ships at sea, aircraft in flight,
and weapons en route to targets. These
space capabilities enabled the tremendous
success our joint warfighters achieved
during combat operations in Afghanistan and
Iraq and will continue to be a cornerstone
for success in future conflicts.
Our success in conflict
relies on a mixture of technologies,
tactics, and people, including military
members, government civilians, and
contractors. During Operation IRAQI
FREEDOM, Air Force Space Command crews and
their contractor mission partners developed
new tactics and procedures to achieve the
highest Global Positioning System (GPS)
accuracy possible to support combat
operations; as a result, we were able to
strike legitimate regime targets with
pinpoint accuracy while minimizing
collateral damage, protecting civilian
lives, and reducing re-strike requirements.
Also, in a prime example of the benefits
provided by integrating sources, coalition
forces used a mixture of space, airborne,
and surface sensors to detect Iraqi theater
ballistic missile launches, protecting lives
while allowing our troops to sustain their
operations tempo.
To maintain our asymmetric
advantages in space, we must continue to
provide our warfighters with the most
capable and reliable systems possible. We
have eight national security space launches
planned for CY04, which focus on sustaining
and improving existing military and
intelligence satellite constellations. This
year, we will launch three GPS IIR
satellites, and on February 14, 2004, I was
pleased to be present as our Air Force and
industry team successfully launched a
Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite to
augment our strategic missile warning
capabilities. This launch, and the launch
of an NRO payload in the last quarter of
CY04 – one of three NRO launches this year –
mark the last Titan launches from Cape
Canaveral after 45 years of test and
operations. Now our focus is shifting to
the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)
system for our future space launch
missions. In support of this transition, we
plan to launch the first heavy lift Delta IV
EELV this year, giving us the capability to
launch our heaviest communications and
national security payloads. Our budget this
year supports an anticipated price increase
in future EELV buys, due largely to the
downturn in the commercial launch market.
Mission Success in operations
must be accompanied by Mission Success in
acquisitions. We have benefited greatly
from the recommendations of the joint
Defense Science Board and Air Force
Scientific Advisory Board task force on
Acquisition of National Security Space
Programs, led by Mr. A. Thomas Young. One
of their recommendations, with which I
strongly agree, is that Mission Success
should be the primary driver of a program,
not cost and schedule.
As programs are established,
strong systems engineering practices need to
be employed. Management of requirements,
early risk reduction activity, rigorous
design discipline, periodic independent
program assessment, and thorough component
subsystem and system level test activities
need to be built into the program at the
onset. Program Managers must have
unencumbered schedule and financial reserves
at their disposal to solve problems that
arise during program execution.
In an effort to
institutionalize this thinking, and
following an extensive coordination process
with OSD and the Joint Staff, I signed the
new National Security Space (NSS)
Acquisition Policy 03-01 on October 6,
2003. Using this process, we have
conducted Defense Space Acquisition Boards
that approved Space Based Radar’s (SBR)
entry into the Study Phase and
Transformational Satellite’s (TSAT) entry
into the Design Phase. In each case, an
Independent Program Assessment Team and an
Independent Cost Assessment Team identified
key risk areas and made excellent
recommendations on how to best manage the
risks inherent in these complex and vital
programs. In concert with the Joint Staff,
the Intelligence Community, and OSD, we are
implementing these recommendations so that
these critical programs have the necessary
foundation to assure their future mission
success.
In addition to the
institution of NSS 03-01, we have made great
strides in developing better cost
estimates. In a joint effort with the
Director of OSD Cost Analysis Improvement
Group (CAIG), we now have a strong space
system cost estimating capability in place;
and, with the CAIG leading the Independent
Cost Assessment Teams, have incorporated the
process on SBR and TSAT.
NSS 03-01 and its companion
directive in the NRO, in their current
forms, have provided excellent insight into
our programs. Yet, we're learning with each
program acquisition milestone decision, and
will update the policies later this year.
Develop and maintain a
team of Space Professionals
In order to preserve our
advantage as the leading space faring
nation, we must ensure we have a strategy to
guarantee availability of the most crucial
element of space power – our space
professionals. People remain central to our
success in space, and meeting the serious
challenges of today, and the future,
requires a Total Force approach. We will
continue to develop well-educated,
motivated, and competent people who are
skilled in the demands of the space medium.
Operationally, they must
understand the tactical environment they
support, as well as the space-unique
tactics, techniques, and procedures needed.
Technically, they must be schooled in the
acquisition of space systems, the
requirements of the vehicles that operate in
space, and the development of space-related
research, science, and technology. Our
space professionals must be sensitive to the
needs of the many and varied end-users of
space capabilities, and be able to formulate
and articulate new space doctrine to fully
control and exploit the medium of space in
support of our nation’s security
objectives. They must be able to develop
new technologies, systems, training methods,
concepts of operations and organizations
that will continue to sustain the U.S. as a
world leader in space. The new systems they
develop must be able to achieve desirable
effects at all levels of conflict.
Furthermore, they must ensure these systems
are interoperable with and integrated into
architectures that support the creation of
lethal and non-lethal effects. The backbone
of our joint and interagency space
operations capabilities will continue to be
individuals of exceptional dedication and
ability.
In order to develop and
maintain our space professionals, we are
implementing the Secretary of the Air
Force-approved Space Professional Strategy,
and the DoD Space Human Capital Resources
Strategy. These strategies describe a
professional development construct that is
comprehensive and recognizes the unique
roles that officers, enlisted personnel, and
government civilians play in National
Security Space. As we implement these
strategies, our objective is to ensure the
space cadres of all the Services possess the
necessary education, skills and experiences,
at all levels, to meet National Security
Space needs.
Integrate space
capabilities for national intelligence and
warfighting
We continue to make dramatic
improvements integrating our manned and
unmanned terrestrial, maritime, air, and
space systems for joint warfighting and
intelligence collection, and have seen
dramatic results. In Operation IRAQI
FREEDOM, the difference was not so much the
introduction of new capabilities, but rather
the integration of existing space
capabilities to produce desired effects.
Using existing systems in new ways, applying
new ideas and making new connections between
information providers and information users
is truly at the heart of our transformation
and integration efforts. Our
synchronization of end-user and space
segment capabilities, and the improvement of
our enterprise-wide vertical and horizontal
integration efforts are prime examples of
our ability to transform our warfighting and
intelligence gathering capabilities through
integration.
However, true
transformational integration requires more
than the use of existing capabilities in new
and innovative ways. We need to make
integration a priority throughout the
enterprise. As we attempt to increase our
worldwide persistent situational awareness,
we need to bring a true system of systems
approach to the fielding of new
capabilities. SBR, for example, is not
being developed in a vacuum. As we work
through the early development of this
system, which offers the promise of a start
on a persistent surveillance architecture,
we are ensuring that other systems in
development, such as TSAT and the NRO’s
Optical Relay Communications Architecture
(ORCA), are not just interoperable with SBR,
but are truly integrated from operational
concept to employment.
We continue to integrate our
warfighting needs and our intelligence
collection activities. The Space-Based
Infrared System (SBIRS) will not only
replace the veteran DSP platform, but will
also meet the demands for much greater
capability in the mission areas of missile
defense, battlespace characterization to
support real-time warfighting operations,
and technical intelligence. However,
technical challenges associated with
electromagnetic interference have continued
to delay the two highly-elliptical orbit
payloads. These payloads, currently
scheduled for delivery in
FY04 and
FY05, will perform at the crossroads
of defense and intelligence needs, and we're
managing them to ensure the missions of both
communities.
Another aspect of integration
is to ensure that the defense and
intelligence space organizations work
together as a team. As the DoD Executive
Agent for Space, I strongly encourage
unifying efforts across all of the space
stakeholders – ensuring integration remains
a priority, not an afterthought. In support
of this unity of effort, we continue to
integrate our corporate processes. Our
planning, programming, budgeting, and
acquisition efforts embrace an integrated
capabilities-based approach to develop the
means necessary to secure our National
Security objectives in the most effective
and efficient manner possible.
Yet, unity of effort alone is
not enough. Our continuing commitment to
integration is also shown in the development
of our space professionals. The DoD has
developed a Space Human Capital Resources
Strategy designed to integrate the space
cadres of the military services and the
Intelligence Community to the maximum extent
practicable. Among other things, this means
that we will be eliminating unnecessary
redundancies in our space education and
training programs as well as finding and
eliminating gaps in our programs. More
importantly, it means that space
professionals from the four services and the
Intelligence Community will be working
together more closely, earlier in their
careers. The best practices and ideas that
they each bring to the table can truly help
push our space capabilities to the next
level.
Integration properly done has
a synergistic effect. The value of our
National Security Space systems, developed
with a system of systems approach, using
integrated corporate processes, and manned
by space professionals who have been
developed in an environment that fosters
innovative employment, will greatly exceed
the sum of the parts.
Produce innovative
solutions for the most challenging national
security problems
Our goal is transparency – we
want the ability to see everything and know
everything, while simultaneously denying our
adversaries both the ability to do the same,
and the knowledge that such capabilities are
being used against them. We want to always
be one step, or more, ahead of our
adversaries – to be first to see, first to
understand, and first to act. To do so
requires the development of breakthrough
technologies that would produce new sources
and methods for collecting intelligence.
Thus, our other activities this year support
the transformation of military satellite
systems, with technology maturation and
development activities in TSAT and SBR; and
the modernization of current systems,
including new jam-resistant capabilities for
our GPS constellation.
We will launch the last of
the present generation of GPS satellites in
FY04. In FY05, we will begin launching the
next generation of “modernized” GPS
satellites, with military-code and flexible
power capabilities. The generation after
next will be composed of GPS III satellites,
which will include all of the legacy
capabilities, plus the addition of
high-powered, anti-jam military-code, along
with other accuracy, reliability, and data
integrity improvements.
As always, communications
play a fundamental role in any military
action. We are modernizing our
communications systems, as well as preparing
for the next leap forward in capability.
Last October, the Joint Requirements
Oversight Council (JROC) approved our
Transformational Communications Architecture
(TCA). Part of the TCA is the Wideband
Gapfiller System (WGS), which will augment
the current Defense Satellite Communications
System (DSCS) capability.
Another vital program, which
will provide a smooth transition to TSAT, is
the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF)
system that replaces the MILSTAR
communications constellation. The first
AEHF satellite will be launched in FY07 and
will provide survivable, protected satellite
communications for strategic and tactical
users. AEHF represents a significant step
forward in capability over current systems,
providing up to 12 times greater capacity
than MILSTAR with up to 4000 simultaneous
networks while hosting up to 6000 users per
satellite.
TSAT will be a revolutionary
change in satellite communications for the
warfighter and national intelligence. Our
goal is to create an “internet in the sky” –
making it possible for U.S. Marines in a
Humvee, in a faraway land, in the middle of
a rainstorm, to open up their laptops,
request imagery, and get it downloaded
within seconds. TSAT is an enabler of
horizontal integration – allowing our
fighting forces to have near-real-time
intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance at their fingertips. TSAT
will provide an unprecedented connectivity
with Internet-like capability that extends
the Global Information Grid to deployed and
mobile users worldwide, and will deliver an
order of magnitude increase in capacity.
The program entered Design Phase this past
month; and as a result, we recently awarded
two contracts for risk reduction and design
development. We plan to launch the first
TSAT in FY12.
SBR is an important element
in our efforts to achieve horizontal
integration. SBR will provide a start on
persistent, global situational awareness and
target tracking capability as part of a
horizontally integrated DoD and National
system of systems. Radar from space will
provide the critical element of global
persistence providing day/night, all
weather, worldwide, multi-theater
surveillance on-demand. In FY05, we plan to
focus on concept definition, risk reduction,
and systems engineering activities, all
leading to a System Requirements Review in
third quarter of FY05 and a System Design
Review as early as FY06. These activities
are part of the Study phase (Concept
Definition), which will culminate in a
downselect award and a decision to enter
Design Phase in mid FY06.
Recent conflicts have proven,
once again, how vital meteorological
forecasting is for military operations.
Knowing what the weather is in any given
location allows us to choose the right
weapon for the right target, and is an
invaluable asset for navigation. The
National Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) will
satisfy both civil and military national
security requirements for space-based,
remotely sensed environmental data that will
significantly improve weather forecasting
and climate prediction. NPOESS is a
tri-agency (DoD/Department Of Commerce
[DOC]/NASA) satellite program consolidating
the missions and programs of DoD's Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and
DOC's Polar-orbiting Operational
Environmental Satellite (POES) systems into
a single integrated program. An integrated
suite of 12 very complex instruments will
provide visible and infrared cloud-cover
imagery and other atmospheric,
oceanographic, terrestrial, and space
environmental information. The system is
currently in development, with a planned
first launch in FY10.
We cannot stay on the cutting
edge of development without investing in
science and technology (S&T) efforts. We
are actively working with the Director,
Defense Research and Engineering, and
organizations such as the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air
Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), along with
civil agencies such as NASA on our space S&T
effort. With their participation, we are
documenting our space S&T strategy, which
will be available this summer. We are also
working with DARPA to leverage common
technologies and applications into the
Operationally Responsive Space (ORS)
program, including next generation
propulsion, advanced structure, and thermal
protection schemes. And while we do not
currently have an operational role in NASA’s
new space exploration program, we will work
closely with the agency through our
Partnership Council to find areas of
possible collaboration. These activities
build on nearly five decades of
collaboration with NASA on X-vehicles,
hypersonic propulsion, and space tests and
technology demonstrations.
Ensure freedom of action
in space
Americans have come to rely
on the unhindered use of space and will
demand no less in the future. This includes
robust capabilities for assured launch and
space control. While the United States
supports the peaceful use of space by all,
prudence demands that we must be able to
ensure the United States, its allies, and
coalition partners will be able to make use
of space, while denying that use of space to
adversaries.
To ensure freedom of action,
we are maintaining assured access to space
in the near term as we simultaneously
investigate entirely new, operationally
responsive space activities. Today's space
surveillance capability must evolve into
integrated space situational awareness.
Space control activities – while taking
advantage of space situational awareness –
emphasize first the protection of our
national security interests against known
vulnerabilities and credible threats. We
will also pursue a mix of capabilities to
limit any adversary's ability to deny us
free access to space and deny an adversary's
use of space against us for hostile
purposes.
We are proud of the success
of both families of Evolved Expendable
Launch Vehicles (EELVs). With six
successful launches in a row, three from
each provider, these are the best launch
vehicles we’ve ever produced. However, we
are not finished yet. Long-term, we are
pursuing vehicle concepts that can be
launched on demand – in hours and days,
rather than weeks and months – with the
vision of fulfilling time-critical
warfighter requirements. I’ve been in the
launch business for 45 years, and we still
launch satellites about the same way we did
in the 60s. We can do better.
The intent of Operationally
Responsive Space (ORS) is to create a more
responsive, reliable, and affordable lift
family capable of fulfilling both current
and future launch requirements, and the
corresponding responsive and affordable
satellites. Near term, we plan to
demonstrate a more responsive and less
expensive launch system with capabilities of
1,000 pounds to low earth orbit.
Concurrently, Air Force Space Command, AFRL,
the NRO, DARPA, OSD's Office of Force
Transformation, and our national and Service
laboratories are sponsoring Tactical
Satellite (TacSat) initiatives focused on
responsive satellites, and decreasing the
size, cost, and timelines of development.
The combined efforts of these initiatives –
operationally responsive launch and
satellite development – will transform the
delivery of space-based capabilities.
Similarly, our launch ranges must keep pace
with modernized launch vehicles and future
launch manifests.
Even as we become more
operationally responsive, future adversaries
will try to deny us the asymmetric advantage
that space provides us – as evidenced by the
GPS jamming in Iraq. We must look now to
overcome future threats that may not be as
straightforward. We recently finished a
broad reaching study to baseline
vulnerabilities of our military space
systems. An action plan is being
implemented that will help mitigate
vulnerabilities in a way that will help
ensure the availability of space
capabilities to our warfighters and national
decision makers. Our efforts currently fall
into three areas: Space Situational
Awareness (SSA), Defensive Counter Space (DCS),
and Offensive Counter Space (OCS).
SSA forms the foundation for
our counter space actions and includes
traditional space surveillance, detailed
reconnaissance of specific space assets,
collection and processing of space
intelligence data, and analysis of the space
environment. It also encompasses the use of
traditional intelligence sources to provide
insights into adversary space operations.
We continue to invest in critical
capabilities to improve our ability to
detect, track and characterize objects in
space.
We are modernizing the
current Space Surveillance Network with new
hardware for selected radar and optical
sensors, and plan to integrate and fuse this
improved sensor data with space intelligence
and environment data through a command and
control system. This will allow us to
produce a common space picture relevant to
the warfighter for decision-making.
Finally, we will increase our surveillance
and characterization capabilities to new
levels when we deploy our new space-based
sensors: Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS)
and Orbital Deep Space Imager (ODSI).
SBSS will be a constellation
of optical sensing satellites in Low Earth
Orbit designed to provide timely and
accurate information on satellite
locations. The SBSS constellation is the
follow-on to the successful Mid-Course Space
Experiment/Space Based Visible (MSX/SBV) sensor
on orbit today. The initial SBSS satellite
will launch in FY07, and improve our ability
to detect deep space objects by 80% over the
MSX/SBV system. ODSI will be a
constellation of satellites in
geo-synchronous orbit, and will provide
significant improvement in today's ability
to not only track, but also characterize
objects in space.
In terms of protecting U.S.
space assets, our Defensive Counter Space
program continues the development of the
Rapid Attack Identification Detection and
Reporting System (RAIDRS) to ensure
capability to identify and locate attacks on
US space systems. The first spiral of
RAIDRS will include radio frequency
interference detection, and geo-location for
communication satellites, and laser dazzling
detection for DSP.
RAIDRS is one key element of
a larger strategy to identify and reduce
vulnerabilities across the National Security
Space sector. Over the past year, we have
worked across the NRO, U.S. Strategic
Command, and other organizations to develop
an integrated approach for investments in
protection. This crosscutting effort seeks
to deter attacks on U.S. space interests by
making focused investments in specific
programs, as well as in generic capabilities
like RAIDRS.
Our Offensive Counter Space
program is intended to develop systems to
deny adversary use of space and assure U.S.
space superiority. Earlier this fiscal
year, we successfully tested and delivered
the first Counter Communications Systems to
the 76th Space Control Squadron
at Peterson AFB, Colorado. We plan to
deliver two more of the first generation
units in FY05 to achieve a Full Operational
Capability, and will then begin work on the
next generation capability. We also intend
to award a contract for the multi-service
Army/Air Force Counter Surveillance and
Reconnaissance System (CSRS) for final
system design and development. CSRS is a
mobile, transportable system that will use
reversible effects to counter space-based
surveillance and reconnaissance
satellites. Our goal is to achieve
Initial Operational Capability in FY09.
Conclusion
This is an exciting time for
the space programs in the Department of
Defense and Intelligence Community. In
spite of the challenges we face, we have the
most capable space force in the world as
proven by recent actions in Afghanistan and
Iraq. Our accomplishments in CY03 include
successful launches of 11 national security
satellites and the successful launches of
both the Atlas V and Delta IV EELV launch
vehicles. In addition, we have made great
progress in modernizing our current family
of systems, working toward the next
generation of intelligence, communications,
remote sensing, missile warning, and
environmental satellites.
We have identified and are
addressing systemic issues in order to
improve our ability to deliver these vital
capabilities. However, space programs are
challenging – by virtue of the complex
technologies, small quantities, and the
inability to repair them on-orbit. This
requires up-front investment and attention
to practices that are more demanding than in
most other acquisitions. As long as we
continue to expect our space systems to
provide extremely asymmetric advantages,
even after years on-orbit, then we will be
building systems that are on the leading
edge of technology. We are working to
minimize the difficulties; but as we
continue to push the technological envelope,
challenging situations will always be part
of the equation.
I appreciate the continued
support the Congress and this Committee have
given to help deliver these vital
capabilities, and I look forward to working
with you as we continue to develop, produce,
launch, and operate critical space systems
that deliver vital capabilities to this
great nation.
