During a recent Mitchell Institute Schriever Spacepower Forum, Gen. Kevin P. Chilton (Ret.) pointed out to Gen. David D. Thompson, Vice Chief of Space Operations at the Space Force, that space has shifted away from being a benign domain to an extremely competitive operating environment. In response to how the force is maturing as an organization and responding to the level of activity in the domain, Gen. Thompson said, “We are very much clearly in the next chapter of the Space Force…[Now] the mission of the Space Force is to deliver on the capabilities and the promises that we’ve made as part of the establishment.”

Gen. Thompson explained that the Space Force is indeed responding to the changes in the space domain by having a combat-ready force with advanced testing, training, and the ability to deliver warfighting capabilities. Gen. Thompson attributes a lot of this forward momentum to the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, Frank Calvelli, who was appointed to his position last year.

“He has brought us perspective and insight, and [has driven] a real change to how we look at space acquisition,” said Gen. Thompson. “[Calvelli is] focusing on simplifying, delivering, and meeting our promises in terms of the capabilities we deliver on time and on cost.”

Part of delivering those capabilities is the continuous development and deployment of a resilient space architecture, a key priority that Space Force leadership has been focusing on since the branch’s founding. Gen. Chilton asked Gen. Thompson about how the Space Force has been approaching the development of its architecture in a way that can withstand a possible “first-mover” strike by an adversary. Gen. Thompson explained that a proliferated architecture is where the answer resides.

“I would say distribution and proliferation in all of its elements,” said Gen. Thompson. “We certainly think about proliferated architectures in a very narrow sense, like having a large number of satellites in one orbital regime. [We must] distribute those capabilities across multiple regimes, which means that an adversary – if they’re going to attack you in space – has to have a very sophisticated and synchronized means of attack.”

Another approach that Gen. Thompson believes can eliminate strategic surprises from adversaries is to adopt a “new understanding” of space domain awareness. “[We must be] truly thinking more carefully about what it means to fully understand what’s happening in the domain, especially a direct-focused perspective on space domain awareness,” said Gen. Thompson. “As the human race continues to expand out into the solar system, the moon, and beyond, we believe our responsibility is to understand what’s happening in the domain.”

A critical component of being one step ahead of an adversary in the space domain, according to Gen. Thompson, is having a level of resiliency that will ensure that warfighters – across all services – can continue their operations in cases of degradation or denial in the space environment. “I’m not one who believes that degradation or denial of use of space will occur broadly and over a long period of time,” said Gen. Thompson. “But understanding where the reliance is, and how [the military services] might operate in that environment, is the first piece of it.”

This rapidly changing threat environment that Gen. Thompson describes is something that the industry has taken notice of and has been testing services and solutions specifically designed to promote military resiliency in the space domain.

As Gen. Thompson pointed out, there is currently a need among all military branches to have continued and uninterrupted delivery of space-based services, especially during adversarial attempts to degrade or deny space capabilities. For example, if an adversary were to successfully jam or degrade a satellite’s ability to provide connectivity to warfighters on the ground, it is imperative that the military be able to roll connectivity and services over to another satellite, in order to have uninterrupted and unaffected operations.

In March of this year, SES, Hughes, and ThinKom, came together to test space capabilities that could transform how the military strategically leverages SATCOM services. The three companies held a demonstration that effectively illustrated the ability of an end satellite user to seamlessly roam between satellite services originating in different orbits and leveraging different frequency bands. This verified capability speaks directly to the DoD’s need for the distribution of services across “multiple orbital regimes,” as Gen. Thompson described.

According to Ben Pigsley, SVP of Defense Networks at SES Space & Defense, “The military is facing near-peer adversaries that have demonstrated their ability to disrupt, deny, and degrade our communications networks. In today’s environment, government networks are both congested and contested with deliberate and directed jamming, cyberattacks, and kinetic attacks.”

When asked about SES Space & Defense’s successful multi-orbit testing and how the DoD could leverage those capabilities, he said, “Both multi-orbit and multi-band network solutions offer an elevated level of resiliency and increase availability to government customers. Higher availability is critical to the command-and-control networks operated by the DoD…The military’s industry partners are ready to support both multi-band and multi-orbit operations.”

Click the video below to watch the Spacepower Forum in its entirety.

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As Vice Chief of Space Operations, General Thompson is responsible for assisting the Chief of Space Operations, and organizing, training, and equipping space forces in the U.S. and overseas – integrating space policy guidance and coordinating space-related activities. He is a career space officer with assignments in operations, acquisition, research and development, and command.

Thompson opened the forum by expressing his excitement over the recent confirmations of U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones. According to Thompson, both Secretary Kendall and Under Secretary Jones have hit the ground running and are quickly facilitating the next phase of Space Force. “We’re excited they’re here and that civilian leadership is in place,” expressed Thompson.

Thompson then gave an update on where Space Force currently stands. He explained that year one of Space Force was focused on inventing the force, designing it, and getting it in place. Though there will be several more years of fully building out the force, Thompson proudly announced that the design and resourcing phase of establishing Space Force is complete.

Year two’s primary focus has been on the integration of the force. “We’ve taken some pretty aggressive and significant steps thus far,” said Thompson. He explained that “integration” includes integration of the force with the services, the combatant commands, and with partners and allies.

“They’re trailblazing the path for large-scale interservice transfer from those services into the Space Force. They’ve already begun that activity. And even as we speak, we are selecting up to about 350 others from that group, who will follow behind them once they trailblaze the path to that inter-service transfer.” – General David “DT” Thompson

The first step of the force’s integration is interservice transfer. The Space Force began with a large transfer of individuals from the U.S. Air Force, resulting in about 5,800 individuals in uniforms. In addition to bringing in candidates from the Air Force Academy, Space Force is also looking to bring in 50 interservice transfers from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and the Navy.

“They’re kind of our beta test,” said Thompson. “They’re trailblazing the path for large-scale interservice transfer from those services into the Space Force. They’ve already begun that activity. And even as we speak, we are selecting up to about 350 others from that group, who will follow behind them once they trailblaze the path to that inter-service transfer.”

In addition to manpower transfers, Thompson stated that Space Force is currently finalizing transfers of satellite communications, missions, and functions from the Army and the Navy.

Another recent and important milestone that Thompson highlighted was U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command sending elements to the United States Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Pacific Sentry exercise. This step was key to understanding how the U.S. Space Force as a service, and U.S. Space Command as a combatant command, integrate, provide capabilities, and contribute to combatant commander operations and objectives. Both Space Force and Space Command sent one-star officers to the exercise to lead teams. According to Thompson, “I think it was incredibly productive, not just for our two organizations, but helping to inform the other combatant commands how we should proceed.”

Thompson also explained that Space Force is already deep into mil-to-mil connections with a host of countries. “They’ve reached out to us to look at how we develop and expand relationships, and how we better do in space, what the nation – and our allies and partners – have known how to do for decades in the air, on land, and at sea,” said Thompson.

Thompson further explained that these countries are not just “our tried-and-true and well-understood partners.” Space Force has had countries from South America and others in the Indo-Pacific who are interested in establishing some sort of a mil-to-mil relationship as it pertains to security in space.

To preface his update on Space Force’s proposed 2022 budget, Thompson explained that the main catalysts that drove the force’s creation were “the threats that we face, the fact that we now have to defend and protect those capabilities we provide, and to look at how we deny those capabilities to others.” He went on to say that Space Force brings “coherence, consistency, and unity to those activities inside of the Department of Defense.”

“In addition to protecting what we have today, we’re going to pivot toward architectures in the future that are designed to be resilient, robust, and deliver capabilities under attack.” – General David “DT” Thompson

Thompson then detailed Space Force’s priorities for the 2022 budget. He explained that the force is still working with Congress on final implementation. “Our priorities for that budget were to ensure that we can continue to provide the capabilities we already have,” said Thompson. “That includes everything from GPS to missile warning to satellite communications to supporting the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and others with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in space. We’re really focusing on defending and protecting those capabilities so that they can continue to provide what they need under attack.”

He then discussed how Space Force is pivoting toward designs, systems, architectures, and forces that are designed to operate under threat. Thompson explained, “In addition to protecting what we have today, we’re going to pivot toward architectures in the future that are designed to be resilient, robust, and deliver capabilities under attack.”

Thompson said that Space Force must look at a host of ways to deny adverse use of space capabilities. He used the Indo-Pacific region as a prime example. “Left to its own devices, our forces in that part of the world – maritime, air, land, and others – will be under constant surveillance and monitoring by China over its space constellation,” said Thompson. “That poses a great threat to our joint forces and to our potential operations. We have to have a means by which to address them.”

According to Thompson, up until now, Space Force’s test and evaluation enterprise was focused on ensuring that its satellites operated effectively in the space domain. He explained that there now must be a shift to create a test and evaluation enterprise that tests and confirms that these capabilities operate under attack – similar to combat aircraft, combat action groups at sea, etc.

“We now have to build the enterprise that does that,” said Thompson. “We have to have more effective and detailed management of an entire suite of space professionals…we need all those enablers that need to support what is truly a military service, and more importantly, military forces in the domain.”

Featured image: Air Force Staff Sgt. Jamie Franco recites the oath of enlistment during a change of service ceremony at Osan Air Base, South Korea. Jamie and her husband, Frank, both made the jump from the Air Force to the Space Force. (Photo courtesy of Air Force Staff Sgt. Betty Chevalier.)

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