So, it would be safe to assume that an organization entering a pandemic soon after achieving FOC would experience at least some hurdles and hiccups. But the picture that Lieutenant General JT Thompson, Commander of Space Force’s SMC, paints reveals quite the opposite.

On May 12, 2021, Thompson sat down with the Mitchell Institute’s Space Power Forum to highlight what SMC accomplished during the pandemic, discuss the growing roles that the commercial space sector and international partnerships are playing in the advancement of SMC’s capabilities, and to give an update on the Space Systems Command‘s (SSC) stand up process.

Thompson opened the forum by providing an impressive rundown of all that SMC achieved during the last year and a half. After giving a special nod to SMC for its high performance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he reaffirmed, with pride, SMC’s ability to persevere and advance its mission of providing unparalleled space capabilities to joint warfighters.

Despite the pandemic, SMC performed seven national security space launches, completed the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation, added two more GPS III satellites to the Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) constellation, and awarded the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract on-time and without protest. To Thompson, 2020 was, without a doubt, an extremely successful year for SMC.

SMC made further progress through the expansion of the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), by adding its 500th member, as well as awarding a new management contract for SpEC, which was comprised of a 10 year, $12 billion deal. SpEC was originally created “to bridge the cultural gap between military buyers and commercial space startups and small businesses through OTAs.” Fostering the growth of SMC’s relationship with the commercial space sector was a consistent theme that Thompson returned to throughout the forum.

The commercial space sector, Thompson believes, will be key in outpacing the advancement of adversarial counterspace systems. He explained, “I think we need to go bigger and bolder on incorporating commercial space capabilities into the service. We also saw…the increased development and testing of counter space systems by our adversaries, China and Russia. To compete in the space domain for the next decade, we really have to continue to refine our programs and our architectures in ways that allow us to both rapidly and efficiently partner with these new space startups.”

Thompson also underscored the commercial sector’s potential in enhancing and advancing Space Force’s space domain awareness, space traffic management, and weather monitoring initiatives.
He emphasized that commercial markets are driving a paradigm shift in speed, access, and relevance in the tactical battle space, but due to current Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) procurement requirements models, SMC doesn’t have as much flexibility as it should to pursue capabilities and technologies that the sector offers.

“It’s not an acquisition problem,” Thompson stated. “It’s a whole of the Department [of Defense] problem to try and access these commercial things on relevant timelines. We have a lot of engagements with industry. They have a ton of sharp folks who love to experiment, and they want to get after new ways to integrate commercial capabilities and capacities into our architecture.”

Thompson noted that similar to the booming potential the commercial sector offers the SMC, international and allied partnerships’ potential is just as booming. He explained that allied partners are playing an increasingly critical role in the U.S.’ “resilience to and deterrence of hostile and unsafe activity in space.”

In November of last year, SMC held the International Space Pitch Day, which resulted in the awarding of contracts to 10 small businesses across the U.K., Australia, U.S., and India. He gave an exciting update that earlier this year, the awardees presented progress in cutting edge areas such as blockchain, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). He praised the outcomes that sprang from the pitch day event and reported that SMC has received a huge wave of interest from other host countries around the world to participate in International Space Pitch Day in 2022. “It’s a relatively small effort,” said Thompson. “It’s relatively small dollars, but we’re seeing a huge impact from it.”

Another international partnership success story included the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that General John W. Raymond, Chief of Space Operations at the U.S. Space Force, signed with Japan last December. The MOU supports the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) program to host a pair of U.S. payloads on two Japanese satellites.

U.S. Space Force’s collaboration with Space Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Defense for the Enhanced Polar System – Recapitalization (EPS-R) was another win that Thompson highlighted. The EPS-R partnership enables payload hosting on two Norwegian polar satellites for artic communications purposes.

According to Thompson, the U.S. Space Force is currently discussing and exploring international space acquisition partnerships with Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Thompson said, “If the global space economy is going to grow as it’s expected…then we’ve got to be able to take advantage of these international partnerships over the next few years, to the mutual advantage of ourselves and our allies.”

Thompson also updated the forum on the stand up process of the Space Systems Command (SSC). In April of this year, U.S. Space Force announced launching SSC to take over technology development and acquisition, which has previously been under SMC’s purview. Thompson reported that SSC is planned be stood up this summer, pending a Commander’s nomination and confirmation.

“By continuing to collaborate with space acquisition organizations and bring them closer into the architectural collaborations that we have, I think that those partnerships will continue to pay huge dividends,” said Thompson.

To hear more from U.S. Space Force’s Lt Gen JT Thompson watch the space power forum on-demand here!

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In a recent Space Power Forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute, NASA Administrator, Jim Bridentsine, and Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, General John “Jay” Raymond, discussed the intricacies of the space domain and the future of space exploration. The two agencies, despite having distinctly separate missions, collaborate and bolster the work of each other, requiring that both Administrator Bridenstine and Gen. Raymond interact and rely on the others’ ongoing work. Together, they have a complete picture of both the current situation in space and the path that the U.S. government and military look to forge in the areas of space domain defense and exploration.

“We share the same goal of having norms of behavior to drive safe and professional behavior in the space domain…one of the things that I’m most proud of in the first nine months of the existence of the U.S. Space Force is how far we have come on developing partnerships with our allied partners,” Gen. Raymond elaborated. “The Outer Space Treaty is a key component of these partnerships. It makes countries responsible for their actions in space and it prohibits national appropriation of areas of space.“

A good example of the necessity of partnerships and space-based diplomacy is the International Space Station (ISS). Fifteen different countries share responsibility for the ISS, and 103 countries have had experiments on the ISS. Shared responsibility like this requires agreements and understandings between the parties involved. As Administrator Bridenstine explained, “We have currently over 700 active agreements with nations all around the world.”

Treaties and agreements between countries operating in the space domain allow for research and development on the ISS, and is opening the door to further visitation and exploration on the moon. This will begin with NASA’s recently announced and upcoming Artemis program, which will send astronauts back to the moon within the next five years. Artemis, in Greek mythology, is the twin sister of Apollo. And this mission will ensure a woman sets foot on the moon by 2024 with the goal of making commercial partnership and sustainable exploration possible by 2030.

This research and development is important for the goals of NASA. Administrator Bridenstine explained, “We have found hundreds of tons of water ice. Water ice is life support. It’s air to breathe. It’s water to drink. It’s also hydrogen. Hydrogen, of course, is the same rocket fuel that powered space shuttles…It’s hundreds of millions of tons of hydrogen on the surface of the moon. Let’s use it.” One of the longer-term goals of the Artemis program is to send astronauts to Mars. In order to do this, research and development of propulsion need to continue. And, now it will be able to be explored from beyond the atmosphere of Earth.

But there is another concern that faces both NASA and the Space Force in the space domain – congestion and debris.

With many satellites orbiting in MEO, LEO, and GEO, and with objects randomly traveling through space from beyond, situational awareness is a key function of the Space Force. “You have to understand what’s going on in the domain around you. And, you have to be able to navigate the precision navigation and timing. And so, all of those things out beyond what we have traditionally operated in, which is geosynchronous orbit and below, now are expanded. Again, this is enabled by a close partnership with NASA,” said Gen. Raymond.

With better understanding of the hazards of space operations, and exploration of new propulsion and sustainability from the lunar surface and the ISS, new horizons may be possible. If threats can be diminished through treaties, and situational awareness can be maintained, and new technologies can be established, once unreachable ideas may now be grasped. “The goal here is to be able to travel to Mars in a matter of months, maybe two or three months, not nine months…” Administrator Bridenstine confirmed.

From the moon, new technologies, and mined resources may give NASA the means to reach Mars and do something once unthinkable. And, it’s through diplomacy, exploration, and partnerships that this may be possible.

For more information about the Artemis Program and the U.S. Space Force, click HERE to watch the Space Power Forum in its entirety.

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Something similar can be said for the military, which utilizes satellite and space to give the warfighter a significant, tactical edge. Satellites are used for position, navigation and timing (PNT), communications, and empowering today’s network-enabled warfighter with the connectivity that today’s advanced weapons systems and platforms require. Unfortunately, satellite constellations are the targets of potential threats and are in need of increased protection.

This sentiment was shared by Lt. Gen. J.T. Thompson of the Space and Missile Systems Center at a recent Space Power Forum hosted by the Mitchell Institute. During his introductory remarks, Lt. Gen. Thompson highlighted that there is an urgent need to think protectively about the constellations of satellites that serve public and private interests as our near-peer adversaries continue to develop ways in which to deny access to satellites. As Lt. Gen. Thompson explained, “There is a lot of publicly available data about the development of counter-space capabilities by our nation’s adversaries.”

The U.S. is invested and committed to, “…protecting the global commons of space.” But keeping space available for all nations who would use it for peaceful purposes is becoming increasingly difficult. Lt. Gen. Thompson warned that, “There is a strong emphasis on weaponizing space by a couple of our adversaries.”

It’s been well-reported that adversaries such as China and Russia are developing capabilities intended to interfere with U.S. and allied satellites. There are lunar concerns, threats of kinetic, cyber and directed energy attacks, and of course, jamming interference risks. Lt. Gen. Thompson explained the immediacy of such threats when he said, “These are not distant threats. They are happening now. They are evolving and adapting their capabilities at a rapid pace.”

How does the U.S. counter these threats and stay vigilant as they evolve? Lt. Gen. Thompson and the Space and Missile Systems Center are taking a proactive approach, “This is really pure competition. It’s not just military competition. It’s also economic, diplomatic, and information. We have to decide, as a nation, if we want to win it.”

If the U.S. military is going to win this competition, it’s not going to do it alone. Commercial satellite operators will have to play a role.

Commercial leads in innovation and delivers resiliency

At the heart of this competition is innovation – an area where the commercial satellite industry now leads. Today’s COMSATCOM industry is building more satellites, launching them more frequently and innovating much quicker than the government. This has led to exciting new advancements in high throughput satellites (HTS) and even the emergence of satellite constellations at Non-Geostationary Orbits, closer to Earth. These new constellations at Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) are capable of delivering fiber-like bandwidth and throughputs.

But the use of commercial satellite capacity doesn’t just deliver new innovations to the military – it also improves resiliency.

By disaggregating military satellite communications from just MILSATCOM satellites – such as the WGS constellation – and utilizing a mix of MILSATCOM and COMSATCOM, the military can bake redundancy into their satellite networks. This can also make it harder for adversaries to target and deny satellite capabilities.

There are ten MILSATCOM satellites in the WGS constellation today and approximately 150 commercial satellites in orbit. By increasing the ecosystem of satellites that could potentially be carrying military communications, the DoD can make adversary targeting calculus nearly impossible.

This will encourage rapid innovation and get increased capability to ensure the warfighter can maintain a tactical edge.

While space may no longer be the benign “global commons” it once was, there are ways to ensure satellite resiliency even in today’s austere space domain. But it’s only possible through increased partnership between the military and commercial satellite providers.

To hear more from Lt. Gen. Thompson you can view the Space Power Forum in its entirety.

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