The Top 3 Priorities Of New Space Force: Stopher

By JOHN STOPHER

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Next, revolutionary capabilities that support joint warfighting against peer competitors must be built. Finally, the newest service must lead in creating a comprehensive deterrence regime that can garner international support and build domestic political support as we transition to an era where “space is a warfighting domain.”

The first priority of the Space Force has to be addressing acquisition holes, including architectural planning and integration, enterprise systems engineering, and programmatic discipline. The poor track record of space program acquisition performance has provided the congressional oversight bodies (as well as warfighters who depend on the capabilities) ample reason to demand a management overhaul.

The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) recognized those deficiencies and established a new assistant Secretary of the Air Force for space — with a mandate that echoes the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) model of acquisition. The new assistant secretary is responsible for acquisition, architecture and integration. That person, therefore, should be given the responsibility and authority to coordinate, synchronize developments, and manage all the National Security Space enterprise via a DoD Directive.

While this new position is similar to the former principal DoD space advisor as described in DoDD 5100.96, the office holder should be granted stronger authorities. Unfortunately, the acquisition community responsible for the space portfolio currently has developed a culture of accepting less-than-ideal funding profiles and unrealistic schedule milestones. To overcome this, the new assistant secretary should have the ability to architect, plan, control, and resource programs — not simply to “coordinate” among various services and agencies. He or she should be the single position of accountability for space acquisition that Congress has been seeking for many years.

The second priority, preparing for the high-end fight with peer competitors, is defense-wide and is rooted in the 2018 National Defense Strategy. Achieving this goal will require significant advances in our space capabilities, such as enabling integrated All Domain Operations and building resilient systems.

The Space Force must ensure the joint warfighter is equipped with far superior, more integrated capabilities than our peers. Ironically, the technology is the easy part. The hard part is to coordinate, plan, and synchronize the efforts across the DoD. The NDAA re-established a council to work these issues. Now it is the job of the Defense Secretary to provide — and continuously reinforce — authorities necessary for this council to succeed.

The third priority should be building multilateral support for US space policies and plans to deter highly capable adversaries, such as Russia and China, from targeting US and allied space assets. International cooperation is essential in our efforts to preserve peace, promote norms of responsible behavior globally, and avoid conflict through deterrence. Our allies and partners (current and new) play a key role in helping us develop space governance. And the US military, including the Space Force, has an important role to play in building consensus with US allies and partners concerning robust space deterrence (including cross-domain), and it must work closely with other US government departments in doing so.

It is essential that Space Force leaders understand the downside risks to security that stem from the dual-use nature of space technologies and the global build-up of military specific capabilities, so that the US can configure strategies to reduce, if not eliminate, irresponsible or malevolent behavior. Deterrence cannot be predicated solely on technological superiority.

Now that the Space Force has been established, it also is time to more openly discuss the limits of, and opportunities for, military action in space as space increasingly becomes a warfighting domain. Up to now, there has been a lack of robust debate among the US legislators about how the nature of military competition in space has changed, and what needs to be done about it. Space Force leaders will need to work to build a consensus on the role it will take in peacetime as well as conflict. Strong domestic political support is essential to ensure that the Space Force development programs receive adequate backing as we work with the international community to shape the space domain.

Now that the Space Force has been established, it is time to clearly identify what its success will look like, and how to measure the service’s progress for these three critical tasks.

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John Stopher, former principal assistant for space to the Air Force Secretary, is a senior fellow with the Prague Security Studies Institute. Stopher was also budget director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was closely involved with both black and white space programs.