By Jim Garamone, DoD News, Defense Media Activity /
Published April 29, 2015
WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Space is absolutely vital to the
American way of life and it is also vital to the protection of the nation, the
commander of Air Force Space Command told the Defense Writers’ Group here April
28.
“The job of the United States military is to prepare for the
threats you see, and the threats that may be coming,” said Gen. John E. Hyten.
“We’re aggressively looking at our current capabilities and our future
capabilities to figure out what we have to do to prepare for those threats.”
The threats are real. In 2011, China demonstrated an
anti-satellite capability by destroying a satellite more than 500 miles in
space. Russia and China have looked at laser weapons and at microsatellites.
The weapons are still in development, Hyten said, “but they are very close to
fruition, and we need to be prepared for that.”
Moving forward, the Air Force is looking at the next
generation of satellites and ensuring they will be more resilient and have more
defensive capabilities built into them, he said.
“As we look at our response options we are going to ensure
we have real-time command and control capabilities in our command and control
centers,” the general said. He also promised to build up the command and
control centers, and noted that the fiscal year 2016 budget request asks for
funding for this.
Change is coming
Hyten said he aims to shake things up in the space world.
“We’ve become very comfortable in the status quo,” he said.
“(Air Force) Space Command was created in 1982. So it’s the oldest stateside
major command in the Air Force.
“When we started, none of the stuff we operate existed. We
had weather satellites, radars, early warning systems -- that was it. The
people in my command have basically developed the capabilities that
fundamentally changed warfare forever, and we won’t go back,” Hyten continued.
“Now the hard part is convincing my Airmen and the culture
at large that we have to change,” he said. “The biggest concern I have is not
pushing down new ideas, but pulling up new ones out of some very innovative
people who are just growing comfortable with the status quo. We have to get
back to that sense of innovation, back to the ways of creating something new.”
Hyten said he wants people to try new methods and exploit
new technologies. He wants people to look at older technologies in new ways and
perhaps with new purposes. He mentioned chip scale atomic clocks -– small
accurate timepieces that can be used for a number of military applications from
preventing improvised explosive device detonation to ensuring uninterrupted
communications.
As the commander of AFSPC, Hyten also has responsibility for
the service’s cyber mission. Cyber protection is part of every decision on
space systems, he said.
“There are millions of probes every year into our networks,
from every corner of the world,” he said. “One of the reasons we have a very
robust network and a very robust cyber protection capability is because of
those continuous probes.”
Hyten said the probes originate with nations all the way
through criminal networks to just curious individuals. “If you think you’re
safe in cyber, then when you wake up tomorrow everything is different,” he
said. “Cyber changes that fast, you can never feel too comfortable in cyber.”
Improved efficiency
The command is well situated to move forward, the general
said. “Seven or eight years ago, think about space programs … all the programs
were fundamentally broken,” he said. “Disaster.”
The space programs all had overruns, Hyten said.
“We weren’t launching anything. We weren’t delivering
anything,” he said.
But over the past four years, the space investment budget
has gone from $8 billion a year to $6 billion, “and we didn’t cut a thing out.
We actually took money out of the budget and kept delivering all the
capabilities,” he said.
These included such programs as the space-based infrared
system and the global positioning system block two satellites, Hyten said. “We
actually added the space fence into that portfolio,” he said, adding that the
once “out of control” evolved expendable launch vehicle is now under control.
“Now as we look at the threats we have to pursue, all -- up
to the president of the United States -- have recognized we have to put money
into that capability,” the general said. “The administration has announced an
additional $5 billion coming at our response to the threats we see out there.”
A
new report describes the results of a National Institute of Justice-sponsored
research effort to identify and prioritize criminal justice needs related to
digital evidence collection, management, analysis and use. Digital Evidence and the U.S. Criminal
Justice System: Identifying Technology and Other Needs to More Effectively
Acquire and Utilize Digital Evidence, presents specific needs to
improve utilization of digital evidence in criminal justice. Several top-tier
needs emerged from the analysis, including education of prosecutors and judges
regarding digital evidence opportunities and challenges; training for patrol
officers and investigators to promote better collection and preservation of
digital evidence; tools for detectives to triage analysis of digital evidence
in the field; development of regional models to make digital evidence analysis
capability available to small departments; and training to address concerns
about maintaining the currency of training and technology available to digital
forensic examiners. To read the report, go to http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR890.html.
A companion document, Interactive
Tool for Ranking Digital Evidence Needs, presents the prioritized
needs and allows users to see how their priorities would change when the
importance of different digital evidence objectives are changed (http://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL175.html).
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