[ad_1]
Maj. General David Miller: The US needs more advanced technology to track space activity and provide indicators of future action
BOSTON – The United States needs better capabilities to monitor adversary activities in space and needs to quickly deploy satellite constellations that can survive in an armed conflict, Maj. Gen. David Miller said. Director of Operations, Training and Development, US Space Command.
The military is relying on the space industry to provide these capabilities quickly, Miller said at the Space Sector Market Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sept. 29.
A stronger US position in space will deter opponents from attacking US satellites, he said.
“If you start thinking about developing and investing in skills for what we need to focus on going forward, it can’t take 15 years from design to first deployment in orbit. You have roughly a two year window of time from lightning to bang. And that’s generous, ”he told the audience of private sector executives and entrepreneurs.
One of the problems the US Space Command – the organization responsible for military operations in space – is facing is that it is dependent on an infrastructure of satellites and ground systems developed decades ago, he said.
Identifying harmless activity in space and making satellites resilient to attack “hasn’t been a priority for the past 20 years,” Miller said.
To avoid conflict, he said, “The first thing to do is to understand what is going on, to attribute that act, to know that the act is true, and then to have an attitude that has resilience and reaction offers.”
US Space Command needs more advanced technology to track activity, provide indicators of future action, and needs better ways to integrate military and commercial networks to make systems more resilient.
To be able to identify who took the critical steps “to minimize the potential for escalation and, if necessary, prepare for a transition into a crisis,” Miller said. “And we’re not stubbornly dependent on closeness to be able to do that.”
“The infrastructure we built for shooting over the horizon, moving and communicating was not built for conflict,” he added.
Miller previously commanded the wing that operates the military’s missile warning satellites at Buckley Space Force Base, Colorado. The space-based infrared system satellites known as SBIRS are the primary sensors used to detect rocket launches. The Space Force launched SBIRS 5, the fifth satellite in the constellation, earlier this year.
“If you are counting your wealth in the single digits, you are not ready for conflict,” Miller said. “This skill was not developed to operate through a conflict.”
It is no secret that in the event of an armed conflict, China would target these satellites, he said. “Your doctrine and the skills you develop say you will aim for such things.”
The US architecture must be “propagated and in multiple orbits” in the future, said Miller.
Norms of behavior in space
The US Space Command is drafting a set of proposed standards for responsible behavior in space in response to a memo from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July.
“We want norms and we want safe and responsible behavior so as not to confuse or lead to misjudgments,” said Miller. “We will respond to Secretary of State Austin with ideas on this shortly.”
He proposed an approach to “identify what is reliable, responsible and peaceful behavior so that we can quickly assign and recognize what deviations from it look like”.
However, Miller said that peaceful outer space would require a closer partnership between the government and the commercial industry building a space economy.
“We have usually focused on alliances and partnerships, almost entirely to be from government to government,” he said. “This is valuable and we have yet to do it. But our partnerships must have an unprecedented level of commercial support. “
The military’s reliance on commercial space networks, for example, requires a higher-level partnership “so that each of us knows what the other is talking about and what the expectations are when we talk about resilience. And when we talk about a hybrid architecture, you understand what Defense in Depth means … and you know how much degradation can be absorbed. “
Some of the skills US Space Command needs from the private sector “can’t just be providing service,” Miller said. “It has to be part of a web of capabilities that has a degree of resilience built into it, that is part of a larger mesh framework in which we will be able to identify and map adversarial actions while also providing critical options to respond provide. “.”
[ad_2]
