AFSPC commander focuses on leverage in space community

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrice Clarke
  • 50th Space Wing Public Affairs
OXON HILL, Md. (AFNS) --  The commander of Air Force Space Command detailed challenges of the space community during the Air Force Association Air and Space Conference and Technology Exposition here Sept. 14.

Gen. C. Robert Kehler outlined how leverage, integration and innovative thinking can all bring the space community into the future with existing assets.

"In 1957 there was one man-made object in Earth's orbit," General Kehler said. "In 2010 the catalog contains more than 20,000 that we can track; and there are estimates out there for the objects that we can't track. We have watched the amount of things in space grow exponentially. Then, there were a few participants in the space business, now there are many participants that are capable."

The general outlined the key to ensuring the new space policy initiative -- assuring the resilience of space mission essential functions are carried out -- is leverage.

"We need to leverage the existing space and cyberspace capabilities," he said. "We need to exploit the potential of current systems and the systems that we know we will have in 10 or 20 years from now. I will submit to you that we know what we will have 10 years from now; we know what we will have in 20 years. Those systems are leaving the launch pads today. We know today what resources are available to us. It's all about leverage. What are we going to do with what we have?"

Space Command specialists currently are using this philosophy with the Global Positioning System.

"One of the things you find about GPS is it is all about how many satellites are in view of your receiver," he said. "Get yourself in an urban canyon and you find that you just don't have enough satellites in view. This carries into what happens in real canyons in places like Afghanistan. A year ago we began to reposition some of the GPS satellites; to put more satellites in view of a GPS user. That movement of the constellation will take about 12 to 18 months, increasing the coverage. This way we are taking advantage of those satellites that are already on orbit but repositioning them in a way that has real operational benefit."

Further integrating space within the air and cyberspace domains was another way to carry out the space policy.

"The Air Force conducts its operations in three domains, air, space and cyberspace," the general said. "The question as Airman is how we leverage those three domains together. The power of integration is the ability to work together across those three domains. There is something about the nature of Airman here that helps us so well. Because we do see this cross domain synergy between air, space and cyberspace it's our job to determine how best to take advantage of these synergies."

To continue from leverage to integration, General Kehler stressed that officials must add innovative thinking to fully carry out those missions.

"There isn't one strategy that works for all of our space capabilities," General Kehler said. "What we are going to have to do is come up with a strategy for each set of our capabilities. We need to bring innovation when thinking of those strategies. We cannot abandon innovation to avoid risk. It's about finding a balance so we can position ourselves for the future."

He added that innovation is how space develops game-changing capabilities.

"We are going to have to leverage the things we have, we are going to have to use the things that we have better and we are going to have to be more innovative," he said. "We know that space and cyberspace are going to remain key components of how the U.S. military conducts its' operations. Our space and cyberspace professionals and our Airmen across the Air Force are up to the challenge. We have the people who can make it happen, the folks to follow through and we will make sure the joint warfighter has game changing space and cyberspace capabilities."