The Space Force intends to first look at communications satellites as a pathfinder for establishing a Commercial Augmentation Reserve Fleet. (Intelsat)
SPACE SYMPOSIUM — Space Systems Command expects “this summer” to lay out an initial approach to creating a system for calling up satellite services in times of crisis or conflict to support military missions — starting with commercial satellite communications providers, according to SSC’s point person for the effort.
Col. Rich Kniseley, newly appointed as the head of SSC’s Commercial Space Office, told Breaking Defense on Wednesday that “I’m hoping to deliver a framework to leadership this summer with commercial SATCOM as a pathfinder.”
A draft version of the framework will first go to industry for feedback so that Kniseley’s team can refine it, and then up to Space Force and Department of the Air Force leadership for review — and if validated, the Commercial Space Office can start laying a foundation for action.
The Space Force is looking to flesh out a space parallel to the existing Air Force and Navy civil reserve fleets, which allow those services to call up non-military planes and ships in times of need. But, as Kniseley explained in an interview on the margins of the Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, the notionally titled Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) is much more complicated that for the air and maritime domains.
This is because the Defense Department uses different space assets for a plethora of missions, from SATCOM, to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to missile warning/tracking to keeping an eye on what is going on in space itself. And of course, the Space Force also is increasingly reliant on commercial launch and ISR suppliers, meaning some of the assets that on paper could be called up under CASR might already be in play.
Another open question that his team is exploring, Kniseley said, is whether the Space Force would have to get any new authorities from Congress. “I can’t really answer that right now,” he said.
To dig into the complexities, Kniseley in March established a task force, pulling experts from across DoD, which is working off of information gathered from commercial space companies that participated in SSC’s CASR reverse industry day in early February.
“I see five major cornerstones that I needed to kind of pull threads on themes, and understand if there’s any stumbling blocks, challenges,” he said.
The first subgroup is looking at “contracting, financing and programming,” Kniseley said, and involves not only Space Force experts but those from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
“The next one is policy and legal,” he said. “Do I have the right policies there? Do I need more policies, but also legal — especially when you start thinking about risk and indemnification of the companies and everything like that?”
A third subgroup is trying to figure out “operations,” Kniseley said. “This is something new to us. We need to really understand how this is going to be employed. … We really need to understand how it would be employed, who makes the decision, where’s the demand signal, who calls the contractor? So we’re going to work through those vignettes.” (This is particularly an issue with regard to remote sensing and ISR providers, due to the fact that the mission largely falls within the portfolio of the National Reconnaissance Office.)
To that end, he explained, he is working with other elements of SSC charged with building operational capabilities such as space sensing and warfighting.
“Architecture” is the subject of the fourth group, Kniseley said, working in particular with the Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) charged with creating force designs for various Space Force mission areas. “We’ve got representation from SWAC and other entities, because I look at [them] as my demand signal. I don’t look at CASR as a blank check. I look at it as: how are we getting after the architecture and the capabilities that we need?”
Finally, Kniseley said, he has put together a subgroup of industry representatives to help look at the issues from the other side. “I can’t do this without industries,” he said.
