
Defense One: State of Defense Space Force with Saltzman
Transcript General Saltzman
12 March, 2024
Audrey Decker (Moderator)
Hello everyone, I’m Audrey Decker, Defense Ones Air and space reporter. Welcome to the start of our annual State of defense series. I’m excited to kick off this year with general chance Saltzman, Chief of Space operations. General Saltzman, thank you for joining us. Thank you. It’s been a busy few weeks for you guys. The department recently announced a plan to re optimize the Air Force and Space Force for great power competition. I want to dig into what that means for the Space Force. But let’s start off with a budget. The Pentagon just sent its 2025 proposal to Congress and it’s still waiting for Congress to pass a budget for 2020 for this Space Forces budget has typically grown from year to year but this year it’s slated to decrease a little bit by 2%. Could you walk me through the budget and explain why there’s a reduction in the top line?
Gen Saltzman
I’ve been doing this long enough to know that it’s really hard to find a smoking gun that says this is why the budget dropped here. This is why the budget increased the two previous years before, as you mentioned, the Space Force budget increased. But there were a number of factors that came with that, even from the aggregation of some capabilities from other services, Space Development Agency coming into the space force and a number of additions that came into the space force. So not necessarily growth, but some growth but some aggregation. In FY 25, where there seems to be a decrease. There’s a lot of factors that go into what would cause a top line decrease. In this case, there was about 600 million and reductions in the number of launches that we required, because payloads already or does manifest in support, again, any number of reasons why that would be the case. But that’s just one of the things that affects the budget and so I wouldn’t focus so much on the actual top line as I would the broader considerations. Like we are still investing heavily in resilient architectures to make sure that we can continue to provide missile warning, satellite communications, precision navigation and timing when the nation needs it. We have invested heavily in our operational tests and training infrastructure to make sure that our guardians have the kind of advanced training that they need for the threats they’re going to face. And so there’s lots of areas that I feel very comfortable that we’ve plussed up and that we’re increasing to make sure we can meet all the requirements. So the national defense strategy
Audrey Decker
the Pentagon had to build its budget this year under a congressional cap, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, did that impact any specific programs for the Space Force that maybe you had to scale back on?
Gen Saltzman
Well, I think anytime there are constraints placed on the budgetary process, then you’re going to have to make decisions and you’re gonna have to make trade offs. So again, like I said, there’s lots of factors that go into it. So I wouldn’t say that the Fiscal Responsibility Act caused any particular issues. I think it caused a fiscal constraint across the department of defense. We complied with it because it’s the law of the land. We took the appropriations or we took the budgeting information we had and we built the programs as best we could.
Audrey Decker
The Space Force is shifting now towards more of a warfighting posture and mindset, how does the 2025 budget reflect that shift? And will it be difficult to make that shift under budget constraints?
Gen Saltzman
Yeah, I mean, there are three main components in my strategy to make sure that we shift effectively to a warfighting footing. The first is in making sure that we can avoid operational surprise that we have complete space domain awareness. We understand what’s going on in the domain. We characterize satellites. We characterize debris all of the objects on orbit, and we’ve invested in FY 25, and making sure that we have both the sensors to collect all the data that we need, as well as the tools to make sense out of that data, our investments in new radars that are coming online over the next few years as well as tools to better aggregate that information, the vast amount of information we get into a meaningful operational picture. The second piece is, like I said , we’ve invested heavily in creating more resilient architectures, because we don’t want an adversary to have an advantage by striking first. And so we’ve created more. We’re progressing and creating resilient architectures for missile warning for satellite communications. So that we can continue to provide those capabilities, even if we were in a contested space domain. And then the final piece, of course, is the counterspace effort to deny an adversary the ability to use space enabled targeting to threaten our joint force in any other domain. And this is the area where I wish we could go faster, but the constraints have been laid out so that we’re not going to be able to go as fast as we can. We’re still investing in those capabilities, maybe just not as quickly as we otherwise could.
Audrey Decker
And you mentioned the proliferated warfighting space architecture in addition to that, you know, there’s just there’s a huge investment in next generation missile warning capability. Do you feel confident that the timeline in fielding that capability will keep up with the threat that you’re seeing?
Gen Saltzman
You know, I’m a military guy, and we always think worst case scenario. So I always want to go faster. I always want more capabilities. But I am confident that we’ve we’ve have a sense of urgency for how fast we want to put that proliferated architecture in place, and the work that the Space Development Agency has done with tranche zero to complete that, that first tranche to put things on orbit and test and put the capabilities together so we can see the data. It’s been remarkable they were able to go from order to orbit in about 27 months. So it’s encouraging to me that we see that sense of urgency and our acquisition community is up to putting things up as fast as possible. It’s a good sign.
Audrey Decker
And while you know we’re talking about Tranche zero, could you talk about maybe the lessons learned so far with having tranche zero in orbit and then also what tranche one will start to deliver for warfighters?
Gen Saltzman
Yeah, I think we’re seeing that we can go fast when we want to go fast. I think it confirms the firm fixed price contract theory that Secretary Covelli laid out and we’re seeing that play out as well. And then probably the most important and underrated is we’ve really demonstrated the capability to provide links to 16 data structures from space that’s going to give us global coverage, global persistence for a very important piece of RF infrastructure.
Audrey Decker
And as you continue to invest in resilient architectures, some have said that the ground segment portion of it is falling, trailing behind essentially, I guess, so. How does the budget you know, address satellite ground segments specifically?
Gen Saltzman
Well, again, I’ll lean on Secretary cavelli. He’s done a great job of reprioritizing how we field full fully burdened capabilities. We have to think about the on orbit structures, we have to think about the link structures and we have to have good ground structures. And what he says is we should build the ground structures first, we can’t wait until the satellites on orbit and then start to let the earth then try to let the ground systems catch up. And so he’s been successful in setting those requirements. And I feel like we’re on a path to make sure we have good resilient ground infrastructure to support the new capabilities that are going to be on orbit.
Audrey Decker
Another budget question. As you mentioned, the Space Force is reducing its launch plans by a little bit in 2025. You mentioned because payloads aren’t ready. Could you talk a little bit why that launch number has decreased? Is that an industry problem? What do you see?
Gen Saltzman
I don’t think there’s a particular problem. It’s just the timelines that come with us estimating what we’re going to need in the future. So the launches that we’re talking about, we buy rockets two years in advance. We’re doing planning and programming and all of the acquisition stuff well in advance of that. So the idea that everything can come together in perfect sequence and create the launch manifest for a given year. There’s just a lot of variables. And so as we get closer to execution, we modify and refine those estimates to make sure that we don’t buy anything that we don’t need or can’t use, and that’s what you’re seeing this year.
Audrey Decker
And will that have any impact on operations? Or would you say you guys are on track meeting all your requirements? So
Gen Saltzman
we’re launching all of the capability that is needed for operations.
Audrey Decker
On satellite maneuvering. Are there funds in the budget? To develop on orbit Servicing Capabilities, like on orbit refueling, or satellite maintenance? Could you talk a little bit about that effort?
Gen Saltzman
That was a very exciting new mission set. And so in this budget, you’ll see it for the first time was starting to invest small amounts but we’re investing in demonstrations and capabilities and to start to explore what you would need on orbit to be able to service and maintain satellites. This gives us some opportunities to explore dynamic maneuvering without regret. These are things that will make our satellites harder to target and more defensible. And so we’re starting that investment process to see how that mission set would play out.
Audrey Decker
And in your talks with industry about this. You know, this technology is pretty hard. Where is industry right now on technology development and when I guess, would you guys hope to see this vision of being able to refuel satellites, you know, become a reality?
Gen Saltzman
No, I think there’s some technical hurdles and the industry is talking about it a lot because everybody sees the value. It’s so expensive to put satellites to develop satellites and then put them on orbit, the longer you can keep them viable on orbit, the better. And so I think there’s a, maybe a keen interest in making sure that they explore those technologies and invest to maintain satellites for as long as possible. So I hear a lot of chatter and industry talking about standards and how to cooperate to make sure that you know, a main Amina satellite can work with any of the satellites that we put on orbit so we can get that collaborative cross flow across industry.
Audrey Decker
When do you expect us to start seeing launches of more refillable satellites that are able to, you know, take that on orbit capability?
Gen Saltzman
Well, you’re probably not going to see anything, at least from a military standpoint for a few years, because the satellites that we have, that are going to launch in the next two or three years have already been built, already being developed are already past their design, point and so you’ve got to wait for the next design cycle to really start to add those capabilities. And so you’re still three or four or five years out from seeing the military taking advantage of those capabilities.
Audrey Decker
Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about the RE optimization plan. In February the Department announced a slew of changes so what does this mean for the Space Force? And what does it mean for the average guardian?
Gen Saltzman
Well, it’s a comprehensive look at how we get ready to make sure that we can meet the threats that we’re likely to and possibly going to face in the future. And when we think about capabilities development, for example, and we’ve just had some of those conversations, what’s the next most resilient kind of constellation? How do you service satellites on orbit? Well, all of that is first design work. And we have to have the right operational concepts. We have to have the right force structure concepts and the right system design structures to make all of that work. And we’ve decided that we didn’t have that consolidated in one command. And so that’s the kind of the thought behind futures command is that they would take on bad experimentation they would do Wargaming and exercising to figure out what the right operational concepts are. And all of that is to inform better, more effective force designs. After that, you have to make sure that you’re developing a force that can use those force designs. So we want to train the Guardians and we want to develop advanced training. We want to invest in operational tests and training infrastructure. We want our readiness standards to be at the highest level so they can deal with threats and all of this you know, requires officers and leaders in civilians and enlisted that understand that the rounds and their systems and so we’re re scoping all of the education, training, and experience opportunities to make sure our guardians are ready. First generation, force presentation, those are all going to be modified again so that we can make sure that our forces and our people are ready and presented to the combatant commanders to do the job when they’re asked to do it. So it’s really a holistic look across the entire service.
Audrey Decker
And the effort like you mentioned, detailed these new combat squadrons. How does that differ from how you present forces today to Space Operations Command?
Gen Saltzman
Well, so important in place is a wholly different construct. You know, most services think about warfighting, you pick up and you go to an austere location and you you fight for for satellites and for space operations in general. A lot of that is done from employed in place. constructs from our bases in the States, quite frankly. And so when we are doing your day to day mission, let’s just say the GPS constellation, when you’re flying the GPS constellation, you’re not being tested by an adversary. So we’re good at Find the GPS constellation when it’s peaceful conditions. But if our operators are always busy fIying the constellation then when do they practice what it might be to try to do that under a contested environment. So we create a force generation model that carves out time in the schedule for those operators to come out of the combat operations, where they’re flying day to day and focus on advanced training. Activities. Once they get up to speed and a little more ready to deal with the threats they might face. Then they rotate back into that combat squadron. And so it’s more about a rotational model that gives the operators time to train for the threat. That’s what the new force generation does.
Audrey Decker
And is that active at being implemented today? Or when will the model be deployed?
Gen Saltzman
It is in various stages. We’ve defined what the combat squadrons are, we’ve defined what it takes to do the day to day mission, and that has preserved some capacity to start the advanced training. And some squadrons have more capabilities to do advanced training than others. That’s why we’re investing in the test and training infrastructures to get everybody to that same level. The
Audrey Decker
Space Force is also setting up a new futures command to assess long term needs you mentioned on orbit refueling could be something that they could look at, could you preview any other you know, new technologies, concepts missions that that the new command might be looking at?
Gen Saltzman
Well, for example, space domain awareness in the geo belt and closer to Earth is one kind of space domain awareness. But as you get to cislunar, what we call x geo of the orbital mechanics change, you have more gravitational attraction, you the math that it takes to understand what’s going on is different. And so it really is a fundamentally different kinds of mission to track what’s going on in CES lunar. So the question is, okay, we know we’re gonna have to do that in the future and much more detail than we do today. So what are the operational concepts? You know, how many squatters do you need? What are the unique sensors that will contribute to that? And that’s the kind of thing that the futures command will put together, and then we’ll wargame it and we’ll do tabletop exercises, we’ll run experiments to figure out precisely what the force design needs to look like to take on that mission.
Audrey Decker
You mentioned exercises which I which I wanted to ask about which what progress is being made on incorporating guardians into joint and combined exercises and kind of what I guess if you could give an overview of the missions and the concepts that you guys are focusing on integrating into exercises
Gen Saltzman
Great question. For years we’ve included space professionals and joint exercises, or whether that was US Strategic Command when they own the space missions, certainly now in US Space Command. We do a lot of exercises drills rehearsals with US Space Command, but we’re adding capability to actually integrate more effectively into the regional combatant commands and the work they’re doing. There’s some good examples out in the Indo Pacific and keen edge and Pacific century back to back exercises in 22 and 23. That allowed us to really understand when we start to try to create space effects that are specific to a region. What are the command and control structures, how much capacity do you need to bring forward versus what can you do from the rear? So we’ve learned a lot of good lessons about what it takes to really integrate regional space capabilities into the warfighter.
Audrey Decker
The Space Force recently set up its fourth service component at a combatant command Europe and Africa. I was wondering if you could detail which command the Space Forces potentially AI next to setup in and you know, eventually if you do want components at all of the combatant commands? Do you have enough resources to do that or kind of what is the outlook there?
Gen Saltzman
Well, we know we need to set them up and all the combatant commands, and it’ll be a question of which goes first because of what we have currently. For instance, US Special Operations Command. There are guardians there now that are a part of the team, but they’re not really developed enough to stay there as a full component yet at US Special Operations Command. So do we start there? Or do we go someplace like US Cyber Command, or we don’t have as many guardians we’ve got to sort out it’s a very important mission. Now a very important mission and we’re very keen to make sure we have the right kind of integration into the US Cyber Command. But like you just mentioned, I’m trying to balance. I don’t want to set up a service component before we have the resources for them to really do their job effectively. So I would say our focus probably in 24 is going to be about taking the service components we have now and make sure that you reach that fully operational capability. While we’re doing that, we’ll be doing some mission analysis to explore what the next best set of service components are to establish.
Audrey Decker
And could you kind of detail I guess any of the lessons learned so far in the four that you’ve already set up?
Gen Saltzman
They’re extremely valuable. The combatant commanders love them, their their tasks saturated because immediately people see the value there. They’re doing security cooperation events, they’re doing training, they’re doing exercises, they’re involved in planning drills to make sure that space is incorporated into all the operational plans that a combatant commander has. So the demand signaling the thirst for this kind of expertise is is very high. And now we’ve just got to make sure we have the right people with the right training and experience to send out there to get them to the right level of operational capability.
Audrey Decker
Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about current operations. Spacebase sensors play a role in airstrikes. So what lessons is the SpaceForce drawing from the war in Yemen and US allied missile strikes against Houthis?
Gen Saltzman
Well, as you said, intelligence is fundamental to any effective air campaign land campaign. See campaign in the Space Force as a critical element to the joint force involved in all of those activities will go into the specific kinds of information that we provide, but that’s what it comes to. That’s what comes from being an integrated part of the team. So the service components help make sure that the other components land, air sea, understand what space can provide, so they can ask for the right kinds of information. And then our job is to make sure that we go find the right sensor, find the right agency, the right tasking authority to make sure that information flows smoothly. It flows on an operationally relevant timeline and gets to the right person at the right time to be used effectively.
Audrey Decker
And in Europe, or two years into Russia’s war on Ukraine. Could you talk about from a space perspective some of the lessons so far learned there
Gen Saltzman
Tons of lessons there. It started on day one when one of the first attacks we saw from the Russians was and was a cyber attack on the ViaSat ground network. So they wanted to achieve a space effect, but they attacked the ground network. This is a reminder to us that when you are trying to protect a satellite capability, you not only have to protect the satellite, you have to protect the RF links that connect and the ground network. So that’s definitely been a lesson learned. We saw that commercial augmentation can be helpful and supported especially when you need extra capacity or in a contested environment. So I think commercial augmentation is something that we saw his value. The proliferated nature of the starling constellation that was brought to bear has been much more resilient. And so it confirms our thinking that proliferated lower earth constellations can be more resilient in the face of, of a thinking adversary. But one of my favorite lessons is that just because you have all the right equipment doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful in a military campaign. The Russians had very capable hardware, very capable weapons systems. But I think what we saw was they didn’t necessarily have all the operational concepts. They didn’t necessarily have the logistics and sustainment. The combined arm tactics. They didn’t know how to work together. They didn’t know how to do C two at echelon, the way that our forces are capable of. So as a reminder to me that I can’t just buy the best satellites, I have to also be able to train and give experience to our guardians so they know how to operate in those contested environments when things aren’t going as well as we want to.
Audrey Decker
On Russia, there has been a lot of hubbub lately about the potential for Russia to want to put a nuclear weapon in space. How concerned about that are you and you know, how does the US enforce norms rules if Russia does in fact, put a capability like that in space? Well,
Gen Saltzman
I don’t want to talk about the specifics of of that threat. I just want to refer you to the NSC on the fact that it was an anti satellite capability that’s been confirmed. And it’s really not surprising to me because I’ve seen Russia and the PRC invest heavily in operationalizing threats on orbit. I see a number of capabilities, whether it’s grappler satellites that the PRC has, whether it’s the kinetic, you know, the, the nesting dolls that we saw that the Russians developed, these are capabilities they’ve demonstrated. And so there is no doubt there are weapons on orbit that are designed to take away us space. capabilities. That’s why the Space Force is so focused on getting it’s optimized for that kind of contested domain, give our operators the test, the tactics that the training, the reps and sets, I like to say to practice their tradecraft because we know that our adversaries are going to have those kinds of capabilities and to deny us space.
Audrey Decker
On China, what would you assess is the strongest threat from them now I’ve seen also reports that China’s trying to build out its own proliferated architecture a Starlink like capability. So they also are proliferating you know how concerned about how concerned are you about that?
Gen Saltzman
Well, proliferation is is a written more resilient architecture. So and in any kind of great power competition, there’s going to be give and take, there’s going to be back and forth. We have to stay apprised of what they’re trying to do and we have to figure out how we’re going to counter it. What’s most concerning to me about the Chinese is they have built a number of different categories of weapons and they are operationalizing them at a tremendously fast rate. We’ve got to keep pace with that. We’ve got to keep an eye on them. We’ve got to monitor what they’re doing. We have to invest, we have to train, we have to make sure that we can counter those activities as they unfold.
Audrey Decker
Specifically on SpaceX. There have been some reports in the media that SpaceX is withholding broadband internet services in Taiwan. Have you heard of these reports? And to your knowledge, has there been any breach in contract there?
Gen Saltzman
I really haven’t heard anything about that. I can tell you that. You know, I’m not worried because we have contracts with SpaceX, and they’ve never failed to meet one of those contract obligations.
Audrey Decker
And while we’re on, you know, using commercial services, we’re also awaiting a commercial. The commercial strategy from the Space Force which you said is coming soon. When exactly are we going to see that you think?
Gen Saltzman
I don’t know if I said yesterday, it would be too late for me. We’re working fast on it. Here’s the balancing act is we’re getting so much high quality input from any number of our viewers that are looking at both inside the Pentagon and outside the Pentagon. I’m trying to incorporate it all I’m trying to, you know, separate the wheat from the chaff. Make sure there’s good hard hitting information in there. But at the same time, recognize that at some point, we got to stop with the good ideas. We got to publish the document and move out. But I think it’s in really good shape. I’m hopeful that in the coming weeks we’ll be able to share it with our industry partners.
Audrey Decker
And I know you can’t describe everything that’s in the strategy but kind of Could you walk me through your conversations with industry and you guys how you’re figuring out which missions might be more government focus versus Industry Focus, which you know, missions are you guys lot looking to outsource kind of your conversations along those lines.
Gen Saltzman
It’ll seem kind of simple, but to some degree, the most important thing we’re doing is coming up with a common vocabulary to how to describe what it is we want to buy. So that when we sit down with industry, we’re not talking past each other. That’s going to be an important step and then they want to see in priority order. How do you prioritize what industry should be investing in? Like you mentioned, what is it that we think is inherently governmental, that we’re not interested in contracting out for industry to provide those services, but where are the areas where we can really expand Sally communications, space domain awareness data, there’s a whole set of categories for services and data and analytics that we want to just maximize and optimize. And so I think what you’ll see in the strategy is us defining those terms and then prioritizing the kinds of things that we want from industry.
Audrey Decker
Frank Covelli has spoken numerous times about industry saying, you know, you guys gotta stay on track on schedule on cost. What this year do you want to see from industry and kind of if you could maybe describe, you know, are there any ways that you think industry could improve or is it more just like a conversation?
Gen Saltzman
Well, you know, it’s, it’s really good, because this is this is the hardest thing to do is to project, you know, a high tech system in a contest environment that we’ve never had to contest before and get it right right out of the gate. And this is this is a tough set of analytics and so really, it’s a it’s a two way street. One is I can make the requirements so complicated, that the contractors in the industry struggles to meet just the basic requirements. And sometimes we have a tendency to do that we want the perfect and that jeopardizes getting what’s good enough. And so this is a two way conversation and that’s why I think it’s important that we we do have that collaborative approach with industry. What can you do, what do we need? Let’s share our discussions about what your challenges are, what my challenges are, and see if we can collectively establish the best way to move forward. And that’s what we do when we sit down with with our industry partners is try to have that broader discussion before we dive into the specifics.
Audrey Decker
Along those lines. As the Space Force shifts to a more warfighting mindset. You guys know you’re going to need to have to use commercial capabilities in war time. Is the commercial strategy going to maybe detail you know how the Space Force will use commercial capabilities in wartime? How might those contracts been drafted? Or have you guys started to talk to industry about that?
Gen Saltzman
The good news about this particular strategy which will evolve over time, but in this particular case, we know where we need extra capacity, rather than us buying it. We’d like to just have the industry provide it for us. So always buy where you can before you build your own. So where we need extra capacity is the kind of things we’re going to lean on where we think they can use data and provide analytics that saves us manpower or new tools. They would have to process the information we want to lean on that as well. Yes, we know we’re gonna use commercial capabilities in all phases of competition, crisis, and conflict. But again, this is about contract negotiation and be very clear about how we’re going to use the information and have had no pushback from industry on helping us build those kinds of architectures.
Audrey Decker
Got it. So Will Will we see language along those lines in the commercial strategy?
Gen Saltzman
Yes. And in terms of here’s what we’re looking for, here’s the priority that we’re looking for him and here’s how you can best provide those capabilities. We’re
Audrey Decker
coming close up onto our time, but I wanted to hand it back over to you and ask you know, looking forward to the upcoming year. What are your priorities? What are you looking out for? What are you most excited about? And yeah, if you have any concluding statements
Gen Saltzman
This year I’m really focused on guardians. I have come to the conclusion as I tour around again, as I said, buying the best systems in the world is great, and that’s always an advantage. But it’s our guardians. It’s the training they bring to bear. It’s their innovative spirit. It’s the way they view a problem and can find three different ideas to solve it that I never would have thought of. And I want to see how we can take the best advantage of that to give them new experiences, give them opportunities to learn from industry, to learn from other services, so that by the time they’re old, like me, they think about space in an entirely different way. I want to put tools in their hands this year so they can start to practice. They can ask questions themselves, rather than forcing questions all the way up to the leadership and they can solve problems at their level. That’s really when I’m going around and asking how we can start to put really the kinds of capabilities where they can solve problems themselves, rather than just identifying problems to their leadership. They’re hungry for it. And I’m just trying to take advantage of that this year.
Audrey Decker
General Saltzman thank you for your time and insights today. And thank you for everyone who joined us online. Please stay tuned for our next event where my colleague Lauren Williams will be speaking to the deputy commander of Space Systems Command. For defense one I’m Audrey Decker exec has been leading the way
Date
- Mar 12 2024
- Expired!
Time
- 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Local Time
- Timezone: America/Phoenix
- Date: Mar 12 2024
- Time: 7:00 am - 5:00 pm