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Space Integral To DOD Way Of War, Policy
by Jim Garamone, DOD News
July 31, 2023
Space is integral to the way the United
States military fights, and that is why DOD took a top-to-bottom
look at the domain, said John F. Plumb, the assistant secretary of
defense for space policy on July 19, 2023.
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June 29, 2022 - U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, U.S. Space
Command commander, greets Dr. John Plumb, assistant
secretary of defense for space policy, Peterson Space Force
Base, Colorado. During his visit Plumb received briefs on
the current state of threats to the space domain, an
overview of USSPACECOM operational plans, and challenges
related to space warfighting. (Image created by USA
Patriotism! from U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class
John Philip Wagner, Jr.)
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Plumb, who spoke at the Aspen Security
Conference in Colorado, carefully discussed the still classified
Space Strategic Review.
That review looked at the national
security environment for space. It took stock of "where we are and
where we're headed," Plumb said.
Since the 1950s, the
military has been intrigued by the benefits that space provides to
defense. "Space is in our DNA for the military," the assistant
secretary said. "It's absolutely essential to our way of war."
This was not a hard sell for military officials, who now ensure
the space domain is considered in every decision, he said.
DOD is focused on China as the department's pacing challenge, Plumb
said. "China is also our pacing challenge in space," he said. "When
we look at that environment, it is very different than it was 10
years ago."
What DOD must do is "ensure that we can deter
conflict in space," he said.
Every military mission relies
on space and DOD officials must ensure that U.S. service members
have what they need in the domain to carry out their missions. "That
means we have to protect and defend our systems and devalue
adversary attacks on our systems," Plumb said.
Building
resilience into systems is standard now in the satellite world, he
said. As is developing procedures, tactics and equipment to defend
satellites already in orbit.
Even then, "resilience is never
complete," Plumb said. "It will be a constant back-and-forth. But we
are truly investing in becoming resilient, we're picking off certain
mission sets, think missile warning missile trackers."
DOD
is moving from an architecture that has a few very large and
expensive satellites, in geostationary orbits "to a proliferated
architecture in low-Earth orbit," he said.
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May 6, 2022 - Falcon 9 rocket launches from Space Launch
Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. (Image created by USA
Patriotism! from U.S. Space Force photo by Joshua Conti.)
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That has a couple of advantages, the first
being it makes attacking the target harder, and it means DOD can
capitalize on the so-called "refresh rate."
The large
"exquisite" satellites are very expensive and designed to last 20
years. The low-Earth orbit satellites last three to five years and
"provide an ability to innovate at speed and not have to look out
for my requirements 20 years from now," Plumb said.
Planners can make a pretty good guess what they will need for three
to five years, but it is far more complicated looking decades ahead
technologically.
"So, there's a lot of advantages there from
a military standpoint, and I think we are all in on getting there,"
he said. "But resilience is a kind of never-ending quest."
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