Space Security and Strategic Defense – A Renewed Importance

Some of the most credible, experienced voices in foreign policy and defense have made repeatedly clear that the current global security landscape is one of the most unstable and unpredictable that our nation has ever faced.  The panoply of challenges we face is daunting – from asymmetric warfare, terrorism, and grinding political and criminal insurgencies to ever-pressing cyber threats, humanitarian crises, and the exponential growth in military capability of adversarial states.  Of course, this dynamic, rapid-changing and complex reality is forcing policy-makers to have new discussions about budget priorities, response, and innovation. 

It is a given that U.S. national interests in space will only grow more important in years to come, and the significance of space to U.S. national security cannot be overstated.  From ensuring unbroken strategic command and control functions for U.S. leaders and detecting strategic threat activity – to the precision delivery of tactical ordnance and ISR, space is fundamental to our national defense.  And while some may not be keen on making space a new or expanded military domain, peer and near-peer competitors may not be leaving us with a choice. 

Looking ahead, the U.S. Air Force will play a central, if not the most central role in a recharged national focus on shoring up our strategic defense – particularly in space.  Of course, the strategic value of space, and our dominance of it, in support of national security has been long known and appreciated.  The beginning of the Cold War saw a focus on strategic defenses to counter the Soviet threat and form a credible nuclear deterrent, with the U.S. Air Force largely supporting two legs of the nuclear triad.  The space race began, and while there was an interest for both superpowers to appear to oppose the militarization of space – and to even cooperate on civilian space science endeavors as relations thawed, like the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project – its value for countless defense purposes could not be ignored. 

Fast-forward to 2017: While North Korea and Iran are not the Soviet Union, the threat they pose is real and must be countered effectively – and the complex dynamics of both concerns have quickly renewed the criticality of space.  Unfortunately, the U.S. Air Force has the challenge of playing “catch up” from a planning and funding standpoint, and its current slate of programs have suffered greatly from budget sequestration in recent years.  The balance that must be struck is to ensure the effective and efficient delivery of current programs while investing in technology and capabilities over the horizon – and in orbit – that maintain advantage over our competitors and adversaries.

On the bright side, the U.S. Air Force has in its new Secretary – Heather Wilson – a visionary leader who has rapidly moved to address the key challenges facing the service with fresh ideas, and a priority emphasis on innovation.  Secretary Wilson’s stated upcoming initiative to bring the military, industry, and academic worlds together in these pursuits should certainly produce synergies that would otherwise not be possible when working separately.  Increasing the budget in early stage and applied research directed at this grouping of participants will be necessary to bring innovative ideas to a developed reality.  Her approach is spot-on, not only because of the diverse array of threats facing the country but also knowing that simply getting back to a state of normal operations will require new thinking and creativity. 

In addition, she has also made immediate and direct reference to the importance of space to all aspects of national security, including strategic defense.  As various strategic threats and their unsettling acceleration drive change in defense planning, not only should the role of space in national defense demand priority attention, but it is where innovation will be key to mission accomplishment.  After restoring readiness as her first priority, the desired innovation that forms Secretary Wilson’s second highest priority should result in strategic defenses becoming more robust and more focused on countering, exploiting, and gaining clear advantages over the innovations of our potential enemies.  In essence, we are in a new space race with numerous other competitors, a reality that we must accept and address.    

On strategic defense specifically, what will be needed first and foremost is a deployed, comprehensive, redundant, resilient, and highly reliable anti-ballistic missile defense system.  Recent THAAD successes in testing demonstrate our progress and the major improvements we have made in this technology.  Most importantly, however, a fully comprehensive system with overlapping and redundant capabilities to ensure missiles of all types can be engaged with a very high reliability of outcome is still in the future, and it will almost certainly involve space-borne assets that must not only be highly reliable and operational but protected as well.  The U.S. Air Force will be challenged on how to go about further developing these technologies and systems – all the more reason why Secretary Wilson’s approach is warranted now. 

In the end, the renewed strategic threat and uncertainties about near peer competitors are real and present and our capabilities to ensure the security of the U.S., our interests, and our allies must be part of the larger scheme of funding, resourcing, provisioning, and training for the U.S. Air Force to meet its commitments to the nation.  Additionally, investing more in early stage and applied research to accomplish these goals is absolutely necessary to build capabilities that outpace the innovations of our potential adversaries, regardless of what the final structure of a modern strategic defense looks like.  For the good of the service and the country, Secretary Wilson has set the right and realistic tone to ensure current commitments are maintained at a higher state of readiness while preparing to move ahead against the challenges we confront in the air, in cyber, and in space.  The renewed importance of space security and strategic defense requires nothing less. 

Dr. Richard McCool, Ed.D, is a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel, F-16 combat pilot, and Senior Business Development Executive with ten years in the aerospace industry.