PACAF Airmen share best practices with ROK space team

by Capt. Brian Ladd
PACAF Space Branch

12/15/2012 - JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii  -- Members of Pacific Air Forces' space forces met with visiting members of the Republic of Korea, Deputy Chief of Staff Planning team, to discuss space successes and challenges, Dec. 7, 2012.

Maj. Gen. Kyeong-Doo Jeong, DCS for Planning Republic of Korea Air Force headquarters, led the group during the visit on Dec. 7, which also marked the 71st anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941 attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Jeong said he witnessed the 71st commemoration ceremony and that the sacrifice made by the U.S. was tremendous, but today is the basis for world peace.

"The U.S. is the foundation for space, and a lead nation for global nations," he said. "They have built a foundation to make American leaders for global peace."

During the visit, Jeong and his staff received a space mission brief and 613th Air Operations Center tour to assist in establishing best practices for their developing space program and approaching space launch.

During the meeting Jeong showed interest in the U.S. space acquisition process,

"The ROK is very interested in how the U.S. conducts space operations and how the U.S. would be able to assist them in their emerging space program," said Capt. Brian Ladd, Deputy Chief, PACAF Space Branch.

The ROK is placing a greater emphasis on developing their civil and military space programs. Currently, they are in the later stages of preparations for an indigenous satellite launch and early in the development of their military space cadre.

"This meeting presented the opportunity to display the successes and shortfalls that PACAF has experienced with space and how, through a continued and expanded partnership, the shortfalls can be turned into successes," said Ladd.

This is the first meeting of U.S. and ROK space forces since the signing of the terms of reference agreement on Oct. 23, 2012, by the U.S. Department of Defense and Korea Ministry of National Defense Space Cooperation Working Group.

DoD will seek to expand space-related cooperation with international partners, building and sharing space capabilities with these partners to the extent practicable and leading combined space operations, including space-support operations.

"As the ROK expands their space capabilities, the cooperation with the U.S. in areas such as space situational awareness space-support operations will display to the other foreign nations our dedication to the responsible and peaceful use of space", said Capt Ladd.

The PACAF territory comprises approximately a third of the globe and has seen an impressive increase in nations adding space capabilities. "The responsibility to identify all of the threats to space assets in the Pacific is a responsibility that needs to be shared by all of our partner nations, to include the ROK," said Ladd.

This working group will identify the areas that the two nations can come together to enhance operations and capabilities.

"As the ROK increases their space capabilities the working group will enable the U.S. to share our lessons learned on space operations," said Ladd.