Space

The National Space Policy, which provides guidance for our current activity;

Our mutually supportive relationships with other national security, civil and international agencies;

Initiatives to increase the integration of space capabilities into both military and civil operations;

The goals, accomplishments and plans by which we are demonstrating and expanding the utility of space; and

A few key high-profile programs requiring focused management and planning.

    This overview supports the DoD's budget submission for its fiscal year (FY) 1998 space programs.

The Defense
Department's
vision for its
space programs.

    The past couple of years have seen major progress in several arenas, from policy to programmatic. Three overarching aspects help guide our efforts.

    First, my office as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Space (DUSD(S)) has been established to coordinate and oversee Defense space activities and to act as an agent for change. As the post-Cold War world evolves into more flexible, interdependent and less predictable global relationships during the 21st century, space will play an increasingly important role in both military/intelligence and civil/commercial arenas. The U.S. therefore must continue to lead in all space operations to assure our national security and freedom of action in a dynamic world.

    Secondly, DoD has worked hard to create a unifying vision for the emerging roles space will play for the foreseeable future. A tool to project our major goals in space for the next ten years is the National Security Master Plan (NSSMP). This plan's main attributes are:

Focus on the warfighter;

Centralized planning and decentralized execution;

Coordination and integration of key space activities; and

Capitalization on the growth in U.S., civil, commercial and international space activities.

    The first half of this document identifies the cross-cutting trends and major themes that underlie our activites and initiatives. The second half summarizes featured space programs to illustrate their roles in our longer-term planning activities, which follow.

Communications;

Surveillance, reconnaissance, and tactical warning and attack assessment (TW/AA);

Navigation (to include location and positioning);

Meteorology (as part of environmental monitoring);

Launch vehicles and systems;

Ground support (to include launch facilities, satellite control, and test);

All supporting RDT&E and

General support, to include space headquarters, training, and special centers.

Implementing the President's recent space policy decisions via DoD space policy, plans and program oversight;

Assuring "best practices" and acquisition reform initiatives in our space acquisition programs;

Increased integration of defense and intelligence activities to support the users;

Establishing a multi-dimensional framework to help us analyze, integrate and balance our evolving programs;

Responding to Congressional action and interest items;

Restructuring our launch capability to make it both more responsive and more competitive; and

Most important, continuing to normalize and integrate our space capablities so that they are routine parts of warfighters' operations.

    In summary, DoD has come a long way, but has even further to go. I hope I can count on your continuing support.

Robert V. Davis
Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Space)