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4 December 1998
From: "Justin Coleman" <justin.coleman@usa.net> To: <jy@jya.com> Subject: Space And Missile Defense Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 10:56:08 -0600 Space And Missile Defense During the Cold War, the focus of space support was on strategic missions: support to strategic nuclear forces and the National Command Authorities, strategic communications, strategic warning of attack to the homeland, strategic nuclear targeting, and arms control and verification. The tactical warfighter viewed space support as being largely behind the "green door." Space was the domain of the U.S. Air Force and the intelligence community. Warfighters felt space capabilities were unresponsive and held little utility for operational and tactical forces. Largely, they ignored space applications. The Persian Gulf War changed this perception forever. The U.S. Army demonstrated the value of space support to the warfighter, adapting Cold War systems to meet immediate tactical needs. Army tactical exploitation of national capabilities provided tactical commanders with national-level intelligence for mission planning and battle damage assessment. Satellites provided tactical warfighters communications with theater-wide and even global reach. Space systems enabled missile warning arid precise navigation. In all phases of the Gulf War, space systems were essential to the unparalleled success that coalition forces achieved. Operation Desert Storm also highlighted the need for effective multitiered missile defense. In response to the Iraqi Scud threat, Patriot batteries were rushed to the theater. Patriot batteries defending Israel did much to protect innocent civilians and preserve the coalition. On February 25, 1991, an Iraqi Scud missile penetrated coalition air defenses and hit Army barracks at Al Khubar, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 American soldiers and wounding nearly 100 more. This Scud killed or wounded more soldiers than any other engagement in the war. Many U.S. intelligence and air assets were then diverted from other important missions to address the Iraqi Scud threat. Since the Gulf War, the Army has worked hard at institutionalizing space and missile defense across the full spectrum of military operations. Each new crisis and military deployment further highlights the tactical utility of space systems. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and recent launches of longer range and more complex ballistic missiles by Pakistan, North Korea and Iran demonstrate the need to protect the force from the growing ballistic and cruise missile threat. At the forefront of the Army's space and missile defense efforts is the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (USASMDC). Continuing a space and missile defense legacy begun more than four decades ago by predecessor commands, USASMDC is one of the Army's newest major commands. It is the Army's specified proponent for space and national missile defense (NMD), and is the Army operational integrator for theater missile defense (TMD), providing the Army a senior voice in all joint and DoD forums that examine issues in these mission areas. This mission includes coordination, integration and execution in the areas of combat development, materiel development, maintaining an advanced technology base, and research and development. The commander of USASMDC also serves as the commander of U.S. Army Space Command (ARSPACE), the Army component to U.S. Space Command. As such, he commands assigned Army forces and operates facilities in support of the commander in chief, Space Command. This multifunctional mission makes USASMDC unique within all of the Army and Department of Defense. In February 1997, the Space and Missile Defense Command concluded a memorandum of agreement with U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). SMDC now identifies, coordinates and forwards space and missile defense requirements for TRADOC approval, in addition to leading the integration of doctrine, training, leader development, organization, materiel and soldier solutions across the Army and within appropriate, joint agencies. These duties are focused in the SMDC Force Development and Integration Center (FDIC) collocated with the command headquarters in Arlington, Va. The FDIC works in concert with other elements of TRADOC and the field to identify and guide the development and experimentation of space and missile defense operational concepts and requirements, and provide them to the field for examination. In contrast to the Army's historical methodology of using capabilities of systems already on-orbit, the focus is on incorporating Army requirements into new space systems through the joint requirements validation process before these systems are launched. The center provided space and missile defense input to the revision of Field Manual 100-5, Operations. It also writes the space portion of the Department of the Army modernization plan and has recently published the Army space master plan. The center is further institutionalizing space in Army operations through the designation of functional area 40, space operations, for which SMDC is the proponent under the Officer Personnel Management System XXI. FDIC is deeply involved in the Army After Next effort, coordinating the command's support of the Army war-fighting exercises at the National Training Center and sponsoring a series of space games. These first-of-their-kind war games bring together experts from the National Security Council, DoD, National Reconnaissance Office, Joint Staff, combined commands, other Services, industry and academia to fight the space and missile defense battle realistically in 2025-based scenarios. The results of these war games then feed into the annual Army After Next war games and the TRADOC-sponsored integrated idea team process to identify future requirements and help tile Army shape the future of space and missile defense. The TRADOC memorandum of understanding also authorizes the Space and Missile Defense Battle Lab (SMDBL) located in Huntsville, Ala., and Colorado Springs, Colo. The battle lab brings together technologists and warfighters to find rapid solutions to warfighter requirements. Examples of SMDBL efforts include Grenadier BRAT (beyond line-of-sight reporting and targeting), a system that allows automated blue force tracking and deep targeting at distances beyond the tactical Internet using national assets, and the deployable weather workstation. This downsized workstation for tactical commanders provides weather data that are directly downlinked from on-orbit weather satellites and automatically fed into tile Army battlefield command and control system. The forward element of Army Space Command, located in Colorado Springs, routinely deploys Army space support teams to Army components involved in joint operations or exercises. From the Persian Gulf to Bosnia to Kuwait, soldiers have been providing space support to Army forces deployed to the world's trouble spots. These teams are now aligned to corps and divisions and support those units during their warfighter exercises. ARSPACE soldiers stationed at defense satellite communications system (DSCS) operations centers around the world manage the operational payload for DoD's DSCS communications satellites supporting the National Command Authorities, the Services and other agencies with wideband satellite communications around the world. The NASA detachment at the Johnson Space Center provides Army astronauts that fly aboard the space shuttle. AR-SPACE-owned joint tactical ground stations (JTAGS) in Europe and South Korea provide a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, in-theater missile warning capability with direct downlinks from the defense support program satellites for the unified commanders in chief. The Space and Missile Defense Acquisition Center in Huntsville continues to develop, field and sustain low-density space and missile defense systems for the warfighter. The joint land attack cruise missile defense elevated netted sensor system will be a key element of future joint theater missile defense, providing a badly needed capability to detect and counter the rapidly growing cruise missile threat. The Ballistic Missile Targets Joint Program Office executes the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization targets program, which provides realistic and reliable missile targets at a low cost in support of the development of TMD and NMD systems. Looking to the future, the commander is modernizing JTAGS to ensure theater commanders in chief will retain in-theater missile warning when the defense support program satellites are replaced with the space-based-infrared system early in the next millennium. The Army Space Program Office exploits current and future tactical potential of national space systems, integrating these capabilities into the Army and the Department of Defense as rapidly as possible. The office has developed and fielded more than 60 systems to the Army and DoD, and its tactical exploitation of national capabilities program is the model for the rest of DoD. The tactical exploitation system continues this legacy, providing corps and division commanders increased capabilities in downsized, more deployable and mobile platforms. U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll and Kwajalein Missile Range (USAKA/ KMR) is a world-class space surveillance and missile test facility. US-AKA/KMR will be an essential facility as tile Army and Defense Depart-merit test TMD and NMD systems to support Joint Vision 2010 and Army Vision 2010. Radar at the facility provides data on thousands of space objects as part of the U.S. Space Command's space surveillance mission. DoD, NASA and commercial launch and satellite operators rely heavily on Space Command's space catalog to ensure their assets will arrive and remain on-orbit safe from collision with debris. The new NMD ground-based radar-prototype--a key Army responsibility in the NMD architecture--is located at Kwajalein, and while it is still being tested, it has demonstrated its potential space control capability by successfully tracking an on-orbit satellite. The high-energy laser systems test facility at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., is another unique USASMDC facility. Recently, it has demonstrated the use of lasers to destroy rockets in flight and has lazed a satellite in orbit in an effort to determine the vulnerability of U m S' satellites to ground-based lasers. This facility is well-suited to the challenges of applying lasers to help explain the complexities of protecting satellites and tine use of lasers in missile defense. Currently, the facility is participating in the U.S.-Israel tactical high-energy laser program to develop a deployable tactical laser for protection of forces and civilian populations from short-range missiles and rockets. Located in Huntsville is the core of the command's space and missile technology expertise, the Missile Defense and Space Technology Center (MDSTC), which continues a long tradition of pushing the technology envelope in areas such as advanced interceptors, sensors, communications and data processing, ensuring that technology will be there to support the future requirements of the warfighter. A world-class technology center, MDSTC provides extensive support to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization as part of its missile defense development efforts. The new space technology directorate has allowed the center to place increased emphasis on the development of space technology. One current effort is a teaming with the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office to ensure Army requirements are incorporated in the Discover II technology demonstration program. This two-satellite technology demonstration is the forerunner of a constellation of 24 to 48 satellites that will provide the deployed tactical warfighter with near-continuous day and night, all-weather, ground moving target indicator/synthetic aperture radar imagery. The tactical commander will be able to task the satellite directly and have the imagery directly downlinked to him in near-real time or real time to make the imagery useful for fast-paced tactical operations. As the Army makes the transition to the next century, Force XXI and the Army After Next, space and missile defense will become even more critical than it is today. Forces will be smaller, and there is no indication that the Army's operations tempo will decrease. Army Vision 2010 depends on space and missile defense capabilities. The Army's near-term modernization strategy is based on digitization and information dominance. Beyond line-of-sight space support is critical to connecting sensors, command and control systems, and weapon platforms into a net-work-centric system. Space and missile defense will enable full-spectrum operations by contributing to force projection, force protection and force sustainment. It will also enable information dominance and shaping the battlespace. Given the geopolitical environment replete with complex tensions, tile broad spectrum of operational demands on land forces and the likelihood of asymmetric threats, space and missile defense will be critical. Without it, the Army will be incapable of projecting its force, sustaining it in-theater and conducting the decisive operations described in the Army vision. Certainly, the space and missile defense mission is larger than USASMDC and the Army. Just as the Army will not fight alone on future battlefields but will be part of a joint force, Army Space and Missile Defense Command cannot perform the space and missile defense mission alone. We must be partners with others in the Army, other Services, tile joint community, industry, academia and our allies to ensure tactical warfighters have the space and missile defense assets they need to deploy, do their jobs and come home safely.