{"id":52516,"date":"2023-10-18T20:52:30","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/space-force-gen-saltzman-proliferated-leo-shows-mettle-in-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2023-10-18T20:52:30","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T12:52:30","slug":"space-force-gen-saltzman-proliferated-leo-shows-mettle-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/space-force-gen-saltzman-proliferated-leo-shows-mettle-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force Gen. Saltzman: Proliferated LEO Shows Mettle in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations for communications and other uses are demonstrating that they can endure and adapt to adversary assaults, such as jamming, the head of U.S. Space Force<\/strong> suggested on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing evidence that proliferated Low-Earth Orbit constellations are resilient against attack,\u201d Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said during a Center for A New American Security forum. \u201cWe are seeing it in Ukraine. There\u2019s just evidence of it. We knew that to be the case, theoretically. It\u2019s nice to get combat feedback that says we\u2019re on the right path. We are investing heavily to take our \u2018no fail\u2019 missions like missile warning and nuclear command and control and making sure that we are putting together resilient architectures that create targeting problems that our current capabilities don\u2019t have. We think that\u2019s gonna not only be more resilient but have a deterrent effect on even trying to dismantle those missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inaugural Space Force budget request in fiscal 2021 was $15.4 billion, and this year\u2019s fiscal 2024 request is $30 billion \u2014 a near doubling that Saltzman said is a reflection, in part, of the recognition by Congress of the need to protect space operations through \u201cresilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

SpaceX\u2018s Starlink communications constellation in LEO has proven to be of significant value to Ukraine and its military forces, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk\u2019s geofencing limitation on Ukrainian military access to Starlink, depending on his whim, has raised eyebrows \u2014 concerns that Saltzman said he does not share.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe write contracts with SpaceX, not Elon Musk,\u201d Saltzman said. \u201cWe have several contracts in place with SpaceX that clarifies all of our intentions in the full spectrum of operations. I have no reason to believe the contracts wouldn\u2019t be fulfilled completely. We\u2019ve had plenty of discussions with multiple vendors along these lines, how does this work as we go through competition to crisis to conflict. We do expectation management. We put those details in the contract and then we expect that we\u2019ll follow through, and I have no reason to believe we won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new missile warning architecture is an example of the Space Force\u2019s proliferated constellation push. The service\u2019s fiscal 2024 budget zeroed research and development funding for one of the three planned geosynchronous orbit (GEO) Next Gen OPIR missile warning satellites by Lockheed Martin, as the Space Force posits that having a band of many, smaller satellites in lower orbits will complicate an adversary\u2019s anti-satellite targeting and improve deterrence against adversary ballistic and hypersonic missile attacks.<\/p>\n

On the launch side of the space \u201cresilience\u201d equation, last month\u2019s VICTUS NOX demonstration points to rapid launches to replace damaged satellites or to respond to crises, Saltzman suggested on Oct. 18.  In the launch, a Firefly Aerospace Alpha rocket lifted a Boeing Millenium Space Systems\u2019 space domain awareness satellite into LEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of VICTUS NOX,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is gonna be one of those things that I think makes it in the history books when we look back at what the Space Force added.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unencumbered by the larger Department of the Air Force stable of non-space needs, Space Force was able to focus on the rapid launch \u2014 from warehouse to operational orbit in a week\u2013and make it happen despite the \u201cmassive checklists\u201d needed for launch, Saltzman said on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s tactically responsive space,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s something you can respond to irresponsible behavior on orbit, and the response is directly connected to that irresponsible behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was first published by Defense Daily<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Proliferated Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations for communications and other uses are demonstrating that they can endure and adapt to adversary assaults, such as jamming, the head of U.S. Space Force suggested on Oct. 18. \u201cWe are seeing evidence that proliferated Low-Earth Orbit constellations are resilient against attack,\u201d Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}