Navy's Needs in Space for Providing Future Capabilities (2005)

The Department of the Navy must fully support and exploit the ongoing transformation of the Department of Defense (DOD) and intelligence community. This transformation will maximize the integration and use of modern communications, sensing, and knowledge technology. The resultant changes will be revolutionary in enabling U.S. forces to fight more effectively, more efficiently, and with ever more exacting precision. The major investments (measured in tens of billions of dollars) to be made over the next 10 years by the DOD and the intelligence community in fielding the next generation of communications, surveillance, intelligence, and knowledge systems will (if properly executed and exploited by the Services) have a profound effect on U.S. forces. Within this transformation, space will play an increasingly important role. The previous chapters illustrate that the Navy’s current capstone concept Sea Power 21 will directly depend on space support—thus, it is critical for the Department of the Navy to treat space support as a priority. The Committee on the Navy’s Needs in Space for Providing Future Capabilities believes that if the Department of the Navy implements the recommendations made in this study, the Navy and Marine Corps will be better able to transform successfully into an even more effective and relevant force within the DOD.

The committee believes that the Department of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps need to create a vision for Navy space systems and the role of space in future naval systems. The committee proposes a vision in which the Navy and Marine Corps will be positioned to specify, develop, and utilize space systems when these systems provide essential, cost-effective capabilities that achieve the objectives of Sea Power 21.

To accomplish the objectives of this vision, the Department of the Navy will need to continue to use a variety of methods to assure that operational space-

based capabilities are available to and used by naval forces. The Navy will be able to assure that space capabilities are provided to the warfighter through a combination of approaches. As detailed throughout this report, these approaches include the following:

• Increased participation by the Department of the Navy in National Security Space (NSS) organizations;

• Continued support by Navy leadership of the acquisition and operation of Navy-specific space systems, such as the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) and Geodetic Satellite (Geosat) Follow-on;

• Continued Navy utilization of NSS systems, assured through the Navy’s resource contributions to NSS programs and the NSS planning and budgeting process;

• Continued execution and support of Navy and Marine Corps efforts through the Technical Exploitation of National Capabilities Program (TENCAP) to augment existing space-based capabilities;

• Increased participation in the planning, development, and acquisition of space systems developed by other agencies, including those of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency;

• Improved naval space planning, programming, and budgeting activities through a renewed focus on systems analysis, modeling, and simulation to support effective development of space requirements as described in more detail in Chapter 3 of this report;

• Increased and redirected investments in Navy space science and technology (S&T) and experimentation in order to better address prioritized Sea Power 21 capability gaps, consistent with leveraging the S&T and experimentation investments of NSS organizations and other agencies; and

• Establishment of a partnership role for the Navy in all NSS organizations, following the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) model for Navy participation, and thus the achievement of expanded roles for the naval space cadre and expanded interaction in NSS activities.

To successfully execute these elements of the committee’s vision for meeting the Navy forces’ needs in space, the Navy should accelerate the development of and expand the naval space cadre to assure that the Navy has sufficient qualified personnel in these areas:

• NSS organizations—to fulfill Department of the Navy requirements (detailed in DOD Directive 5101.2¹) to participate in the planning, programming, and acquisition activities of the DOD Executive Agent for Space;

• Fleet Forces Command, Marine Corps Headquarters, and the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (in particular, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfare Requirements and Programs)—to develop space-related strategy and operations and associated naval requirements and concepts for space systems, space doctrine, education and training requirements, and standards for space research, development, testing, evaluation, and acquisition;

• The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (in particular, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Resources, Requirements, and Assessments)—to develop Navy-specific space strategies, plans, and programming information for coordination with the DOD Executive Agent for Space, integration into the NSS programs, and to support DOD-wide planning, programming, and budgeting;

• The operational forces (Navy and Marine Corps)—to provide educated recommendations from operators on naval, DOD, and NSS program investments and priorities to support naval warfighters; and

• The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, the Office of Naval Research, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—to lead naval-specific research, development, and acquisition programs to fill naval requirements.

Niels Bohr once said, “Prediction is extremely difficult, especially about the future.” Given the difficulties of prediction, the committee does offer a vision for the future of naval forces engaged in the development and exploitation of space-based capabilities. This vision is illustrated by the following “snapshots,” highlighting the kinds of possibilities that could lie ahead.

Snapshot 1. A joint experiment program including the Naval Center for Space Technology (NCST), the Air Force Space Battlelab, and the Space Test Program validates the fusion of data from a new NCST-designed and -built space-based hyperspectral sensor with airborne active light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor data to demonstrate unparalleled characterization of the littorals.

Snapshot 2. A team of technologists from the Navy Warfare Development Command (NWDC)—deployed with the fleet as part of an annual program to gain a better understanding of current Sea Power 21 capability gaps—identifies an opportunity to provide wideband communications to small ships by adapting an Army-developed Aerostat to solve the antenna-placement and field-of-view challenges facing small ships.

Snapshot 3. The new, airborne moving target indication (AMTI) spacecraft development program under the NSS is headed by a Navy captain and member of the Navy space cadre. The systems engineering team is led by an Air Force lieutenant colonel who received his Ph.D. in space network engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School and is assisted by a civilian aerospace engineer detailed from the Naval Center for Space Technology.

Snapshot 4. Major John Smith, USMC, commanding officer of Company D, 4th Marine Expeditionary Battalion and graduate of the Naval Postgraduate School’s space operations curriculum, develops the operational needs statement for a hypersonic suborbital vehicle to get a quick-response antiterrorism team from the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Virginia, to a classified, Third World location to recover a nuclear warhead from a terrorist training base.

Snapshot 5. The new Chief of Naval Research is a member of the Navy space cadre and has had a tour as a program director at DARPA.

Snapshot 6. Rear Admiral J.P. Jones, USN, Director of Requirements at the Air Force Space Command, is selected for his third star and assignment as commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

The Navy is at an important juncture, with the DOD and the intelligence community transforming themselves to leverage and fully exploit the technical revolutions in communications, sensors, and knowledge systems. Space systems are at the forefront of this transformation, enabling unprecedented improvements in connectivity, efficiency, and precision. With the Department of the Navy’s adoption of the recommendations articulated in this report, its acceptance of the challenges presented, and its provision of personal leadership, the Naval Services will be able to achieve a vision of their future role in space.