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Space Forum MT 12/2018 · 53

The committee was worried that without significant reorganisation, the and holding the Deputy Secretary of Defense responsible for their “full and
US would lose its edge in space as a war-fighting domain, citing the head faithful execution.”
of US Strategic Command, who said that the space enterprise was not
resilient enough to prosecute or survive high-end conflict which extends A Single Accountable Command
to space.
With its existing structure the ‘national security space enterprise’ does That single accountable organisation is the USAF Space Command,
not enable US space forces to evolve into an organisation capable of which is now solely responsible for organising, training and equipping all
operating in space as a war-fighting domain, the HASC said. Furthermore, USAF space forces. These responsibilities include acquisition, resources
its management structure jeopardises US space dominance. and requirements, cadre development and war-fighting.
On the red tape reduction front, the NDAA eliminated the position of the
Fragmented Leadership Principal Defense Space Advisor, a position that had no decision-making
authority, and the Defence Space Council, which the summary described
The HASC pointed to numerous studies and reports that have highlight- as a bureaucratic forum that was not integrated into the DoD’s real deci-
ed fragmented leadership and authority and the resulting lack of focus and sion-making bodies.
priority on military space, as well as ineffective decision-making. It also nixed the position of the USAF Deputy Chief of Staff for Space
As far back as 2000, the Rumsfeld Commission, also known as Operations, as per the HASC’s recommendation, which the summary de-
the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space scribed as a “hastily-developed half-measure instituted by the Air Force,
Management, called out the need for management and organisational which at best only added a box on the organisational chart,” and finally the
changes. It concluded that several disparate space activities should be NDAA said that the Deputy Secretary of Defense must make one person
promptly merged, chains of command adjusted, lines of communication responsible for space budget prioritisation, but that person cannot be the
opened and policies modified, in order to achieve greater responsibility Secretary of the Air Force.
and accountability, the NDAA summary noted. To keep DoD honest, according to the summary, the NDAA also requires
Subsequent reports years later, from the Institute for Defense Analyses the Deputy Secretary of Defense to contract with a federally funded R&D
in 2008 and the Government Accountability Office in 2016, said much the corporation that is independent of the USAF, to guide Congress in the es-
same. GAO’s 2016 report, entitled ‘DoD Space Acquisition Management tablishment of a separate military department that will take responsibility
and Oversight’ identified more than 60 stakeholder organisations involved for the Department’s space activities.
in space acquisitions and observed that: “…in general, the DoD has not Whether the elevation of USAF Space Command to the status of the
made any significant changes to space leadership over the last two dec- single accountable organisation will fit the bill remains to be seen. Space
ades.” National security space leaders echoed these conclusions in a Corps supporters clearly think not and continue to push for it, but report-
number of other hearings, such as the 2016 ‘National Security Space: 21st edly believe forming such a corps could take between three and five years.
Century Challenges, 20th Century Organization,’in which three senior re-
tired space experts, “unequivocally,” answered no, when asked whether Reusable Launch Vehicles
they believed that the US was adequately postured to address the serious
challenges faced in space. Whether or not the US eventually institutes such a corps with the kind of
In a March 2017 joint hearing between several congressional subcom- semi-independent identity, command structure and procurement bureau-
mittees, former Commander of USAF Space Command, Gen. William cracy as, for example, the US Marine Corps, its lawmakers clearly believe
Shelton summed up the lack of progress since 2007 – when China tested that it should have potent and coherent capabilities that enable it to retain
an anti-satellite weapon – by saying that, “ten years of innumerable studies the use of space for its own purposes, while preventing hostile powers
and policy debates have not produced tangible improvements in our space from using space against it.
protection posture.” One of the key pillars of developing such a capability, naturally, is relia-
In May the same year the Director of the National Reconnaissance ble access to orbit at a reasonable cost in real terms. Unsurprisingly, reus-
Office, Betty J Sapp, argued that the US is failing to keep pace with ad- able launch vehicles, particularly those built and operated by Elon Musk’s
versaries who are making space a priority. “I believe we have not made the SpaceX organisation, have attracted the interest of the HASC. Noting the
investment that would indicate space is a priority or fundamental to the US. successful relaunch on 30 March 2017 of a FALCON 9 rocket – in the
Our requirements, budget, and acquisition processes are disconnected, same class as the USAF’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)
and none of them moves quickly,” she said. system – that had previously orbited a payload, it recommended that the
government rapidly evaluate their use for military missions. EELVs include
Guiding Principles the Boeing/United Launch Alliance DELTA IV and the Lockheed Martin/
ULA ATLAS V.
To resolve the problem, the HASC put forward four guiding principles. Arguably, the US military has a reusable vehicle capable of placing pay-
The first is to reduce bureaucracy, clarify roles and responsibilities and give loads (admittedly small ones) in orbit and even retrieving them. This is the
one individual the power to lead the national security space enterprise. Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), a miniature analogue of the
The second is to treat space as an equal to the other domains. The third late lamented Space Shuttle. The OTV itself, however, is more of a payload
principle is to identify a professional cadre of trained, promoted and sus- than a launcher, as it needs a launch vehicle in the form of the ATLAS V and
tained space experts, and the fourth is to establish an integrated national has even been carried into space atop a FALCON 9.
security space programme. That historic relaunch in March of last year took place from Launch
The HASC’s first recommendation based on these principles was to Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the FALCON
create that Space Corps within the USAF. It would have been tasked with 9 orbiting a geosynchronous communications satellite. (The first stage of
protecting US interests in space, deterring aggression in, from and through this rocket had previously been used in a space station cargo resupply
space and providing combat-ready forces to enable combatant com- mission for NASA in April of 2016.) After separating from the second stage
manders to fight and win wars. HASC’s second was to create a ‘sub-uni- during the latest mission, the first stage returned to Earth for the second
fied’ combatant command within STRATCOM, to strengthen operational time, landing vertically on a drone ship stationed in the Atlantic, SpaceX
leadership – a recommendation reportedly under consideration by the reported. At the moment, it is only the launch vehicle’s first stage that is
Pentagon. Elimination of the Principal Defense Space Advisor post was reusable.
the committee’s final recommendation. SpaceX points out that most of the cost of any space launch is incurred
When the NDAA was enacted, besides denying formation of a Space in building a rocket that is used only once, the price of which is compara-
Corps but directing further study of the idea, it did mandate changes to ble to that of a commercial airliner that will make tens of thousands of reve-
USAF space programmes to “begin fixing the broken national security nue flights over its service life. The company argues that a rapidly reusable
space enterprise,” according to the final congressional floor summary of launch vehicle could reduce the cost of space flight a hundredfold. More
the act. importantly for a military capability, it could enable short notice launches
These changes are to involve the streamlining of USAF acquisition of usefully large payloads, essential to the effectiveness of any space force
authorities, elimination of “burdensome red tape” and empowering “a that aspires to war-fighting capabilities.
single accountable organisation” for space forces (note the lower-case
initials) within the USAF. These changes are intended to renew the em- Peter Donaldson, with 25 years of experience as a journalist and writer covering
phasis on the organisation and management of space within the US DoD aerospace and defence technology and operations, is a regular contributor to MT.