Gen. David (DT) Thompson
UPDATED: To include SMC explanation of CSCO reporting chain. WASHINGTON: The Space Force is working to expand acquisition of commercial space services from satellite communications to include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data and analysis, officials say.
“Comms, data relay, remote sensing, and even ISR and some other things — [these] capabilities are increasingly available in the commercial market,” Space Force deputy Lt. Gen. DT Thompson told the 2021 C4ISR Conference today.
Thus, Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) head Lt. Gen. JT Thompson (no relation to DT) and Clare Grason, who runs the Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO) now “are looking to expand their responsibilities beyond just commercial SATCOM to the availability and use and procurement and provisioning of other commercial services,” he said.
The CSCO buys commercial satellite bandwidth access from myriad providers, and then matches the needs of various operational commands and other DoD customers to a provider.
In 2018, CSCO was transferred from the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to Air Force Space Command, and then to the Space Force. As part of the planned reorganization of SMC into SSC, Thompson said, CSCO will also come under SSC.
UPDATE BEGINS. Space Force’s organization plan for SSC was announced April 8 by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond and SMC’s Thompson. SMC’s press release noted that CSCO will be aligned under SSC, but the charts released did not show where it would sit.
But an SMC spokesperson explained in an email that it will be part of SSC’s “Enterprise Corps.” The Enterprise Corps, in turn, will report both to the SSC commander and eventually to the new Air Force assistant secretary for space acquisition. “The capability they provide best fits in this area of the future organization,” the spokesperson said. UPDATE ENDS.
The idea of giving the CSCO the authority to buy ISR satellite data and analytical services is to tap into the burgeoning market, Thompson said, where commercial firms practically are tripping over themselves to put up new satellite constellations, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Commercial companies are now providing everything from electro-optical imagery (such as Maxar, Planet and BlackSky) to cutting edge synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data (such as Capella and ICEYE) to even more innovative radio-frequency geolocation services (such as Kleos and HawkEye 360).
And beyond just procuring data and services, Thompson said, commercial firms also can bring Space Force “the innovation and technology that they use, that we can apply to our own space systems.”
“We ultimately need a dedicated commercial office,” Col. Russ Teehan, SMC’s portfolio architect said at AFCEA’s Partnering for Space Power in 2021 conference last week. “We need a dedicated SATCOM office that the Hill and others can defend and plus up … that the administration and [Space Force chief Gen. Jay] Raymond can then ramp up.”
That office could work with the Space Operations Command (SpOC) and the new Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) to rapidly move capabilities to warfighters, he elaborated, and “make 2035 happen in 2025.”
The SpOC is one of three Space Force commands announced in June 2020, along with SSC and Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM). It oversees operations of US military satellites. In essence, SpOC replicates the old Air Force Space Command.
The SWAC was created by Raymond in his CSO Planning Guidance. It will be a central cog in developing the overarching Space Force “force design” — a new term that former DoD officials say seems to be itself newly created, with a rather unclear official meaning. According to the guidance document:
“The SWAC will analyze opportunities to enhance the resilience of legacy systems as an interim step to fielding a force designed to operate in a warfighting domain. The SWAC will develop future force structures that meet evolving mission requirements, are resilient to the threat, and are cost informed. The SWAC will execute Service wargaming functions that help to formulate these architectures, as well as understand their interplay between USSF and the Joint Force. SWAC designs inform the CPG, annual “Force Design” updates, Service requirements, and programming options validated by the [Strategy and Resource Office.]
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New Space Force ‘International Partnership Strategy’ coming next year
UK Air Marshal Paul Godfrey told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that his remit includes ensuring that there are clear “touch points” for allies and partners to interact with the nascent Space Force Futures Command.
