“Our strategic competitors are actively threatening our space capabilities and we must be ready.”

-@AFSpace, April 4, 2017

Space superiority, with little to no certainty, is a war-fighting domain–not because we want it to be but because our enemies are seeking to conquer, not come together.

Before the 1967 Outer Space Treaty banned the placement of weapons of mass destruction in low-Earth orbit (LEO), the U.S. was testing nuclear weapons in space, with the Soviet Union working on the kinks in their self-detonating spacecraft targeted at American spy satellites. Although no treaty on the use of space weaponry by spacefaring nations currently exists, Russia and China have proposed a treaty to ban space weapons–rejected only by the U.S.

The kind of confidence that the U.S. Air Force Space Command wants to cast out into the atmosphere–best emulated by a man like vice commander and Maj. Gen. David D. Thompson–is the kind of space that we as a nation should want to occupy.

Like others in the U.S. military space sector, it is Thompson’s job to ensure that the country is prepared for attack, or anything detrimental to matters of national security. It is his belief, however, that the military can no longer afford to have programs that are “years behind schedule and billions over budget.”

“To be frank, the government approach, and our approach to space operations and our relationships with the industrial sector–while they’re strong–have to be relooked at, renewed, refigured and refreshed,” commented Thompson at a meeting of the Aerospace Industries Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce in June.

The air (or lack thereof) needs to be cleared, as the shifting and changing threat environment in space is forcing the Air Force and Department of Defense to make some serious changes in their priorities. Thompson agrees, for the most part, that there needs to be a shift.

“For years we have been focused on keeping the trains running on time. Our job now is to understand the threat environment and be able to react to it,” Thompson said in his talk at SATELLITE 2017. “We need to focus on what we are truly commissioned and designed to do–fight [adversaries] in a contested environment.” 

To increase operational resiliency where the satellites float free, it is the General’s recommendation that the military increase their use of COMSATCOM services, that solutions to current problems might be found in that shared consortium between commercial and industry partners. Many value his opinion–is this evidence of a time to change?

“A diversity of options that are space based will also make for more resilient architecture…increasing the distribution of [systems] in the SATCOM world and the diversity across capabilities–both military and commercial–will surely help us increase the resiliency of those systems.”

Thompson is literally and figuratively breaking barriers in the aerospace and aeronautical defense industry, remarking to members of the media after the successful launch of the WGS-9 spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in March:
“Right here in 1950, the United States started breaking the barrier of space…ever since then, the Air Force, our nation and [later] our partners at NASA have been breaking barriers and advancing the frontier of space. That is the spirit of innovation that is the United States Air Force Space Command.”

Maj. Gen. David D. Thompson assists in organizing, training, equipping and maintaining mission-ready space and cyberspace forces and providing missile warning, positioning, navigation and timing, communications and cyber capabilities for North American Aerospace Defense Command, U.S. Strategic Command and other functional commands. He is also an Olmsted Scholar, graduate of the Senior Acquisition Course and Level III-certified Program Manager and was commissioned in 1985 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Maj. Gen. Thompson will be addressing the Potomac Officer’s Club as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Space: Innovations, Programs, and Policies Summit to be held Oct. 18, 2017 at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner in McLean, VA.

Click here to register

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President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum that seeks to advance analysis, integration, sharing and use of classified data on threat actors and their networks in support of national security missions.

The White House memo published Thursday would direct the U.S. attorney general, Department of Homeland Security secretary and director of national intelligence to lead the creation and enforcement of technical architectures and policy frameworks to facilitate use and sharing of identity attributes and associated derogatory data related to evaluated information on threat actors.

The document also calls for the Defense Department secretary to work with the attorney general, DHS chief and DNI to identify the agency that will serve as executive agent for each category of threat actor information.

The Commerce Department secretary shall oversee an interagency effort to set up frameworks for data exchange and application profiles for identity attributes.

The policy would require DNI to collaborate with the Intelligence Community to implement platforms for the publication of identity attributes in machine readable formats as well as direct the director of the office of science and technology policy to work with other agencies to align federally funded research and development programs that aim to streamline the use, integration and management of threat actor information.

The attorney general, DNI and heads of DHS and DoD should submit to the president within 270 days a plan on how to implement the memo’s requirements.

House and Senate Armed Services panels are expected to address F-35 aircraft procurements, missile defense and size of the U.S. Army as they begin to reconcile this month their versions of the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.

Both chambers’ NDAA versions reflect a $30 billion to $40 billion increase over President Donald Trump’s defense budget request for fiscal 2018.

The House panel proposed the acquisition of 87 Lockheed Martin-built F-35s, while the Senate committee’s NDAA covers the procurement of 94 fighter jets.

The upper chamber’s defense policy bill calls for additional 6,000 service personnel to the Army, while the House measure seeks to authorize a 17,000 increase to the service branch’s active duty, reserve and National Guard soldiers.

When it comes to missile defense budget, the lower chamber requested a $2.5 billion increase and the Senate proposed a $600 million funding hike for the Missile Defense Agency.

The House NDAA calls for the establishment of a separate Space Corps within the U.S. Air Force, a provision that was barred in the Senate’s defense policy measure.

The joint House-Senate conference committee needs to reconcile differences in their defense policy bills and send to Congress a final NDAA measure before the current continuing resolution expires in December, the report added.

A new information technology services provider for Pentagon tenants has achieved full operational capability and is now a sub-component of the Defense Information Systems Agency, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.

The Joint Service Provider was established primarily through the consolidation of three IT service organizations in the Pentagon, including the U.S. Army‘s Information Technology Agency, Washington Headquarters Services’ Enterprise Information Technology Services Directorate and the Joint Staff.

The move gives DISA control over funding and personnel that deliver most IT services for the Pentagon and other Defense Department facilities in the National Capital Region, the report stated.

Maj. Gen. Brian Dravis, director of JSP, told Federal News Radio that the consolidation of three major IT providers in the Pentagon helped decrease collective spending and manpower requirements by approximately 33 percent.

JSP said it has saved $31 million during its first full year of operations and the organization expects to achieve $354 million in additional cost savings by 2021.

Savings were also realized through the consolidation of 499 separate Pentagon IT contracts to about 200 agreements, with plans for further reorganization through DISA’s support.

JSP used some savings to deploy new IT services, including a WiFi network that is designed to deliver public internet access to Pentagon visitors as well as facilitate secure connection to DoD’s unclassified network for employees.

The U.S. Navy will hold a commissioning ceremony on Oct. 7 for the USS Washington fast attack submarine that Huntington Ingalls Industries‘ Newport News Shipbuilding company delivered in May.

Acting Navy Undersecretary Thomas Dee will deliver the principal address during the ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, which will also feature ship sponsor Elisabeth Mabus, daughter of former Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the Defense Department said Thursday.

Construction began in 2011 for the submarine dubbed SSN 787, which is the 14th Virginia-class nuclear submarine and the fourth in its class under Block III.

Newport News turned over the ship to the Navy in May after the submarine passed the Board of Inspection and Survey sea trials.

Virginia-class submarines are designed to operate in littoral and deep waters while engaging in anti-submarine, anti-surface ship, strike, irregular and mine warfare; special operations support; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations for sea control, power projection, forward presence, maritime security and deterrence.

Block III submarines under the Virginia class feature two large-diameter Virginia Payload Tubes instead of 12 individual launch tubes on the bow.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate Synovision Solutions President and CEO Bruce Jette to be assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for acquisition, technology and logistics.

The White House released Thursday the president’s announcement of candidates for possible positions in the administration, including Jette.

Jette most recently led Synovision, which has worked with government and military agencies such as the Defense Department Office of the Secretary, Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to provide management and technical consulting, engineering and project management services.

He has previous experience in the public sector as strategic science adviser to the Army chief of staff, senior research officer with the Army Research Laboratory as well as founder and director of the Army Rapid Equipping Force.

He served as a brigade and battalion operations officer for some of the Army’s units based in the U.S. and Germany and is a recipient of service awards including the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medal.

Jette is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the United States Military Academy.

The Senate received the nomination and has referred it to the armed services committee Thursday.