New Space Force Is at Forefront of Technology

 Aug. 19, 2020 | BY TERRI MOON CRONK , DOD News

The Space Force can learn what adversaries are doing before any other nation knows because of the Defense Department's exquisite intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, the mobilization assistant to the chief of space operations said.

"We can share information over our global communication networks because of the persistence and the global reach that we have,"  Space Force Maj. Gen. Kimberly A. Crider said during a "Tech Up With Women" webinar yesterday.

Because space can offer so many advantages to the nation, the decision was made to focus on it as an independent entity that can work in concert with air, ground and maritime needs and provide complementary capabilities to U.S. national security leadership, she said.

"Space Force … is the latest and greatest thing that's going on, absolutely, here at the Pentagon," the general said. "But I would argue it's the biggest thing that's going on right now for our country in terms of the capability that we bring to bear as an independent service, to protect and defend all of the services that we depend upon every single day, coming from space."

Space Force became a military service Dec. 20. "We have really been launching off like a rocket getting this service in place," Crider said. The Space Force's motto is "Semper Supra," which means "always above," she added.

The services rely on satellite communications, and the availability of those communications anywhere around the world is necessary, the general said. So the Space Force must be able to make those services reliable, resilient and secure for those who need them, Crider said. If missiles are being launched, she said, the United States must know where they're going and must be able to protect any of its forces and assets that are in any domain.

Technology is changing fast, and there's a lot of it, Crider said.

"There are so many areas where we apply technology, and all of our careers and all of our jobs are affected by technology," she said. "So it's really important, and we believe in the Space Force it's very important to have a good, solid level of understanding of some of the basic concepts that are driving our technologies today."

"Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are concepts that are important to understand. It's also important to know when and how to apply them, how they're being used today, and what it means to use artificial technology to help people do their jobs better and more effectively and to allow machines to do things that humans normally would do," the general said.