Air Force Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw, commander of Combined Forces Space Component Command, U.S. Space Command, and deputy commander of Space Operations Command, U.S. Space Force, provides keynotes on “Challenges of U.S. Space Force” during the virtual University of Washington Space Policy and Research Center Symposium, November 6, 2020.
Transcript
He’s joining our symposium from. Actually, I’m not sure where he is physically located, right at the moment, I think in Colorado, though, Um, but first, I would like to thank professor stubs for his land acknowledgment in Australia, and I’d like to echo it with ours here from the University of Washington. We acknowledge the coast Salish peoples of this land on which we gather the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bans within the Squamish, Tulalip and Michael shoot nations. We respectfully acknowledged their stewardship of this land throughout the generations. Also, please note the Q and a sidebar, uh, in who’ve A has a community tab, and we’re asking our speakers to continue answering questions from the day over in that community area. So the questions from the prior session’s they’re gonna get shifted over there, and then we can continue with the Q and A over in that area. Okay, So, Major General Shaw is an alum of our University of Washington Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. He is commander of the combined space Sorry. Combined Force Space component command of U. S Space Command. I am very pleased to announce that major General Shaw has been confirmed by Congress for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General. Well here, where he will serve as deputy commander to United States Space Command in Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. As commander of U S Space Command’s combined Force Space Component Command, he leads more than 17,000 joint and combined personnel with a mission to plan, integrate, conduct and assess global space operations. We are so fortunate to have him with us here today, especially this week, we will give him a big, virtual welcome home to the University of Washington. And before we go to Major General Shaw, I want to remind the audience to submit your questions in the Q and A. And we will have some time of the end for a few questions with Major General Shop. And I will now hand it off to you. So just go off and you’re ready to go. Okay. Well, hey, thanks so much. And hello from just further down the coast from Seattle here on at Vandenberg Air Force Base in central coast of California. Um, and I’m good to join you today, and I wish I had heard the it looks like it’s a terrific schedule that you have today is part of the symposium. Wish I’d heard what Senator Cantwell had to say earlier. A swell is the first panel, and I think you have a couple more coming after me. So I’ll do my best to maybe try to knit together some of the thoughts that you’ve probably seen and you have very proud to be, Ah, Husky alum. Uh, one of the best years of my life was spent a little over here doing my master’s program up there at U W. Um, you know, we got to get the Huskies going this year. I think they were supposed to play this weekend. Got canceled, You know, it would be good Thio least see him on the field. Um, and hope Hope we do before the holidays. Air out. Um, so I thought I think that I just have a little bit of time. I thought I’d do a few comments upfront. I really look forward to some Q and A that might be out there. I think the topic is challenges of a U. S. Base force, and I thought I’d talk a little bit about that that. I think the first question we should ask is, Why is there a United States Space Force today? And why and why do we have one? Um, and you know, the immediate answer that is, Congress established by law last December, and we’re still in the process of developing a Roman embryonic stages here, the United States Space Force. But more fundamentally, we have one because we now have acknowledged that space is a war fighting domain that were our capabilities are under threat. It is no longer the benign domain that we’ve known through most of my career in the United States Air Force. And it’s a response to that. I think another question it comes from, that is should we should be surprised that space is a war fighting domain on DWhite, is that And I think that’s a symposium all by itself. Probably the answer, that question. But I think the beginning of that answer is that it is now a contested domain and that potential adversaries, the United States and its allies are actually developing three capabilities to threaten our space capabilities on orbit. Why does that happen? Well, we acknowledged today, and I think you’re symposium theme, no matter what panel is talking, will acknowledge it that human activities are more dependent on space and mawr, uh, dynamic in space today than they have ever been. And this this is exploration. This is commercial. This is civil. But it’s also security and potential adversaries have noticed that into conduct modern warfare and to project power in today’s world, you rely on space capabilities to do that. Number one number two. Our potential adversaries have noticed, at least in years past, that we have not protected and defended our space capabilities. We built them as if they were going to operate in a benign domain, and it doesn’t take a lot to put that logic together to see that now those capabilities are under threat and in the evolving doctrine of potential adversaries, there was maybe one of the first things that would be attacked in a potential conflict. And so that’s where we are today. We’re now in a situation where we now need to look at not only continuing to deliver space capabilities for society and for joint warfighters around the globe. Now we actually have to go and protect and defend them ourselves so happy to take questions. But I think that’s the really, really short answer to why we have a space force today. I think one could argue that it was not only necessary but inevitable that this would happen at some point and any domain that humans have ventured into. Inevitably there arise, and we adventure into those domains for many reasons we want to explore. We want to explore economic opportunity. We do it for security reasons in their own right. Um, but inevitably, as humans who and other domains security challenges follow and then security needs and requirements, uh, follow the follow that to address those. And in some ways, I think we’re seeing playing out today in the space domain, uh, a similar evolution that we’ve seen in other domains of human experience. So what does it take, what’s on our plate from a Space Force perspective? Now, I should point out that I actually wear two hats, and the current job I’m in the first is I am the deputy commander of Space Operations Command, which is the United States Space Force Organization headquartered now in Colorado Springs. That’s that’s focused on the organized training equipped side of the business the same way we have an Army or a Navy, UM, or an Air Force. We now the space force. It’s a service that actually recruits, trains people, develops and acquires capabilities and presents them to a joint force. I also wear a hat on the United States Space Command side, and this gets a lot of confusion. Sometimes in the general public, what’s the difference? But that’s how we is. A Department of Defense or organized to conduct or fighting activities is through combatant commands such as Central Command or Centcom or European Commander. You come. We now have the United States Space Command. I wear a hat, and that organization, as well as an operational commander and the Combined Space Operations Center here at Vandenberg Air Force Base is my command and control center for directing space operations across the globe for the benefit of our war fighters and their allies. So that’s what are fortunate. I got four challenges real quick to kind of lay it. I think moving forward that might help help drive our discussion in the Q and A. The first is if we didn’t need it before we shorten it now, and that’s what we call space domain awareness. We need to understand what’s happening happening up in the space domain. It’s getting more complex by the day, uh, in a literal sense on that every time we see a new launch into orbit, whether it’s the Chinese, which recently launched a few satellites into orbit or its space six launching 60 satellites at a time is part of a StarLink constellation, their arm or arm or satellites, payloads and active platforms operating in orbit than we’ve ever seen. And it seems to be accelerating. Then, at the same time as I mentioned before, there may be threats in space we haven’t had to face before mischief, things that we need to look out for on non predictable ways that we need to have a better understanding of what’s going on in space. And even the event horizon that we’re looking at in space is getting further away from us. It used to be we just looked out as far as the geosynchronous belt. That’s kind of all we needed to do, because that’s where our capabilities were operating that we were depending on. But now it’s it’s expanded essentially to the lunar sphere. I think that’s our new area of operations that we need toe, understand what’s going on in and in future years. It will expand even further than that, and it Z it’s significant we can do the math right. The volume of the sizzle inner sphere is immense when compared toa say the earth’s oceans. And that’s the volume that we need to understand three activities that are going on within and it’s a challenge. But we need to do that right. The second challenge is we need to continue to deliver space capabilities to the joint warfighter and two and four national Security needs the same way we’ve been doing when it was benign domain. We still need to be delivering that. I spent most of my career ensuring that warfighters around the globe, whether anything from special operations teams to nuclear command and control, that the space capabilities that enabled those capabilities were there when needed. We need to continue to do that, and that demand signal is not decelerating. It’s accelerating, so that’s a key challenge for us mover. How do we do that? And it’s not again just for the United States. It’s also for our allies. We work closely together with them than ever before. Space dependencies in an integrated fashion needed more than ever before, and that is a media focus for us. Third Challenge have already alluded to is so Not only do we need to understand what’s going on in space and keep delivering space capabilities, but now we need to be prepared to protect and defend those space capabilities against potential attack. Um, happy to talk about some of the details and some questions, but I think many have seen, at least in the press, even this year, about activity that Russia is conducted in low Earth orbit. That’s definitely been concerning to us, uh, going back 13 years to a Chinese, a SAT test that was fairly public and and the development of capabilities in that time frame and going forward by our adversaries continues. And so what are we doing about that? We need to make our capabilities more resilient than they’ve been? I’m font of saying that are are large satellite, so we put in geosynchronous orbit, are the equivalent of supertankers or make a container ships in space. They’re built for efficiency. They’re not built to withstand attack or to evade attack. We need to think about think a new about how we can continue Thio to deliver space capabilities, but in a new way and then four challenge. Probably the most important one is how do we develop the talent that the space Force is going to need in the years and decades ahead, and many of you that are part of this imposing today, particularly Academica. You’re you’re on the actually the front lines of that particular challenge. What? What do we need the nation to develop in terms of this talent across the many ways that we would partner, whether that is within the United States based force department defense or within the commercial sector or within academia? How do we do that? I’ve alluded to that that what are the king greens that are those partnerships? And I spent a lot of my time working on those partnerships. The first and foremost, I’m fond of saying in my joint title on the combined Force based Component Commander, as you heard in the introduction combined, means working with coalition forces. That means allies, and I’m proud of that part of my duty title, and I spent a lot of my time trying Thio work more closely with allies. Broaden the teams that we work with and do that together. And that’s an essential ingredient. Commercial partnerships, I think arm or important, us than ever before at all stages of capability, development as well as operations. I’m proud of the fact that we have a commercial integration sell here assed part of the Combined Space Operations Center here at Vandenberg that involves right now 88 companies in agreement that actually participate in operational awareness and, um, and communication of what they’re seeing their systems, if any threats or interference emerge, and then what we’re seeing. And we share that collectively, and it helps us all react more quickly to ensure continued delivery of space capabilities where they’re needed and then academia. We’re going to see more of this moving forward. I just had the opportunity earlier this week to go upto Cal Poly just up the road here in San Luis Obispo, where the aerospace department there is doing some terrific work with small SATs on. We’ve actually started a year ago, a research and development agreement with Cal Poly. Just an example right here, close to Montebourg. I see that happening on a much larger scale in the days ahead. Um And then, you know, those partnerships don’t they also expand to other parts of our government? Um, just in September, the space for standard agreement with NASA on how those two organizations will partner more in the days to come as human exploration ventures further back to the moon and beyond. And there are ways we will need to do that together, better understanding what is going on in the sizzle. Owners fear today, Um, the people in my command here at Vandenberg Air Force Base are part of the team that provides notifications to NASA. If the International space station might be in danger of running into a piece of debris and low earth orbit, Um, that same cooperation and teamwork will extend into the lunar sphere. When we’re sending astronauts, there is part of the Artemus program and the Gateway Initiative on DSO. I expect that we’ll Seymour partnerships Andi and greater investment from wider, wider actors in the overall enterprise that we’re part of in the days ahead. Okay, I think I’ll stop talking there on DSI What’s on the minds of those in the audience. But I really appreciate the opportunity to be part of this today and and thank you so much. We’re so pleased to have you with us. We do have some questions that have come in, So I’m gonna read these off based on where they’re falling with the votes. So as you’re entering questions, if people wanna vote them, that’s what’s coming up to the top of the screen here. This one’s actually been in since before the panel. When you look at our adversaries space warfighting capabilities, namely China, India, Russia, how much catching up do we have to dio? Are we currently losing its space for readiness compared to our adversaries? Yes. So I let me say that we’re still the best in the world when it comes to space. Nobody delivers precision navigation and timing in so many ways than we do. Nobody does satellite communications, prettier milk dot com like we do or missile warning from space. We’re still the best. What we need to do is to make sure that as we go, that potential adversaries don’t get to the point where they’re able to deprive of the deprive us of those capabilities at the beginning of a conflict. So I think we are moving forward with the next set of space architectures that will be more resilient. Uh, that will introduce, um, or a greater complication to an adversary that’s trying Thio deprive us of those capabilities. And I think we’re on the right pace right now. To do that, it’s just going to take continued attention. And resource is in the years ahead of us to stay number one in space. Mhm. Great. Thank you. And, uh, okay, I’ve got a got to pin these while they Okay, So, um, how can we police the use of into the top? There we go. Three use of anti satellite weapons to prevent a cascade of space debris rendering low earth atmosphere unusable. Yeah, so I mean, let me start by saying nobody wants a war that extends to space. I mean, I don’t think the United States Navy wants a war on the high seas. I don’t think the U. S Army wants a war of They are the purpose of us. United States Space Force first and foremost is gonna be to deter any kind of conflict that may begin or in or extend into space. And so you know where we’re headed now is, is we have potential adversaries that air aggressively, as I mentioned before going after such capabilities and doctrinally looking to do that. That kind of activity early in a conflict because of a perceived vulnerability. Onda dependency, um, on behalf of the United States and its allies. So the best thing we can do now in terms of deterring that is to again make our capabilities so resilient that there isn’t a perceived benefit to going after those. And that becomes part of, I think, a deterrence picture that if we do it well and I’m fond of saying this if we do it well, not only do we deter a war in space, we deter war, period, because our space capabilities are so resilient that it becomes not even feasible for potential adversary to begin a conflict that they know they will probably lose because we won’t lose our space capabilities. The question those a little bit more specific. I do think that, uh, we should be concerned about any adversary that continues to do what China did in 2007 and what Russia appeared to do earlier this year. And that’s testing kinetic capabilities. Uh, in space, the Chinese event did cause debris. The Russian event was appears to been the test firing of a space torpedo. It didn’t hit a target, but it looked like it was a practice run and could have, if wished. Um, I think we just need toe to be on guard against that and call out those, uh, activities when we see them. Thank you. Okay. Next question. You’ve laid out some very pragmatic reasons for creation of the Space Force. However, many people in the space science community perceived the creation of space force as an act of aggression and militarization by the US and feel it threatens the peaceful activities of space science. How can the space force benefit from how come the space force benefit space science? Yeah, I think that I know. I appreciate the question. I really do. Um, and, you know, I grew up Azaz, uh, before even went to the Air Force Academy for undergraduate to the University of Washington to study astronautics there being a real space nerd and excited about space. Um, and again, we No one wants to fight. That extends into space. I think the way to think about that is that the space force isn’t there isn’t all about war fighting in space. It’s about security. And I don’t think those that are exploring the oceans would would think that the Navy or the Coast Guard are working against them. It’s all part of security in the domain where human activity is increasing, and I think it’s a natural evolution of that activity. And so I guess I would ask that to think about it is how come the space Force work in partnership with other organizations to provide security? And how can we have a robust dialogue that talks about How do we prevent a war from extending to space through deterrence and through effective security needs? It’s thank you. Okay, as you organize, train and equip the US space Force, what are some of the training challenges you’re encountering? Do you ever see a space related training center like the Army’s National Training Center that trains are B. C. T s? Yeah, we know it’s a terrific question, and there’s a and it’s a it is a challenge for us. So another analogy I like to use. I’ve been using these maritime analogies. As you know, most of my career. We had the equivalent of a merchant marine right delivering capability to the fight over benign domain that that those capabilities weren’t under attack way. Need to keep doing that right? That was challenged. Number two. We need to keep delivering that space capability wherever it is needed. We got to keep that that merchant marine spirit alive. That’s why we do space today in the department defense. But now we also since under threat. In addition to this merchant Marine, we also need a Navy that’s new. And that’s the challenge, the training challenge we’re having to now overcome. So it’s not about simply educating about how do you operate space systems, um, in a benign domain, effectively and try toe really deliver effects down to the terrestrial spheres. Now we have toe revise our training program and our talent management that was challenged. Number four um, we have to revise that geared towards Hey, we need to think about how do we actually protect our capabilities in space and react at the speed of war to threats that we did not have to worry about for, and that’s a short answer to a much longer question. But I hope that gives a flavor for what? What we’re now focusing on is understanding threats. How do we respond to them? What are the four structures and architectures that we’re now going toe shift to that? Aren’t, uh, supertankers American Container ships? And then how do you operate those, um, in in the continuum of conflict? Great. Thank you. All right. So our next question is, what would organizations and countries be fighting over in space? Would it be primarily better control and monitoring of the planet or objects and satellites in space? Um, I think so. Yes, it could be, um, any of those things in the near term in the in the near foreseeable future. I think the challenges in space are going to be similar to challenges that at sea again. I’m returning to this maritime metaphor. But let me let me explain, uh, because operations in those domains have implications on what’s happening where people live on land or where where states have territory. And so it s O that competition is all based on How is it affecting operations on DSA? Cure it e interests for nations within their borders and around their borders. It’s the same space. It’s expand to that. That’s why potential adversaries air looking to take out. So So for example, uh, if if we were operating uh remotely piloted aircraft or drones in the arena of a potential conflict that were being commanded, controlled by satellite communications, um, and potential adversary very logically could say, You know, I don’t like what that drone is doing or what it could do. It could be a e. I consider that a threat, and I’m gonna go after its commanding control link and maybe attack the satellite. Uh, that is commanding. Controlling it might be too hard to go after the platform, but they may be think they could go after the satellite. Just one of almost countless examples of why we might see uh, an adversary tried thio to to deny us our use of our space capabilities. Great. Thank you. Here’s a good technology question eyes, nuclear propulsion and energy. A key priority for the space force. Or what can you say about that that, uh so, man, if I were But we’re back at school, I think I’d be trying to say, How do we get around the rocket equation? And Newton’s third Law? Is there a new propulsive technology that we just can only dimly see that can get us away from the tyranny of the rocket equation? Right. Um, it’s always you got to take all your propellant with you and there are limitations in terms of physics, of how quickly my exhaust velocity, how quick what my exhaust velocity could be. That’s our struggle when it comes to propulsion. And there’s propulsion experts in the audience that probably would correct what I said a little bit to 100%. Um, yeah, I think I think anything that changes that equation is gonna be not only helpful this space force, but helpful to space. I think NASA would want that the commercial industry want that anything that can, um, make maneuverability in the lunar and the solar sphere mawr effective and efficient and, uh, faster mall for it. I think I answered a very generic way, but I think there are some nuclear propulsion, uh, technologies out there that at least um changed the game a little bit in terms of efficiencies and and such compared to what we’re using doing with the ion propulsion today. Definitely interested in those kinds of things moving forward. But I think we all should be. It’s not just for space force. I think it’s for anyone who’s operating, operating in space. Good. Good question, man. We should have a panel next year. Just just that. Just that issue. I think the nuclear one because there’s some definite policy issues that come up with that, too. Because if there’s no way to do nuclear in space without it coming off the planet to get there unless we anyway, I’ll stop, e I think some others would correct that. Are we talking fission or fusion? Right, Right, Right. And what? Yeah, I think we’ve got a great topic for next year. We’ll make a note of that. Um, okay. And let me do one more question here. So our top one here, we just have, like, three more minutes. How do you anticipate the US Space Force will continue to separate itself? Or how do you I think it might be a word. Is either, Uh, canoes separate itself from the U. S. Air force economically and structurally, to create a service culture that is strategically minded rather than simply bolstering current American strength and winning battles. Yeah. Okay. Whoever asked that question, you know, we need you can work for the space force, because that’s exactly the problem. I think the General Raymond is the cheapest space operations is working on. This may take a little more than three minutes. Uh, that’s fine. We actually have a going to a break after this. If you wanna take more than three years, reality check here in the United States, Space forces extremely small and probably will be for many years to come. And much of what the US based force is going to do is going to need to rely on the United States Air Force in many, many ways. I give an example here at Vandenberg Air Force Base. You know, 100,000 acre plot of land here, the space force footprint. Well, I should be relatively small. Right, will be those operating, um, the launch range and participating space related activities. But you still need ah, large number of security forces folks to patrol the entire base. We have a large civil engineering squadron to take care of all the infrastructure on the base. I mean, I could go on and on. There actually be farm or Air Force people here on Vandenberg Air Force Base. Even if it comes becomes Vanderburgh Space Force Base. At some point, then Space Force people. And that’s going to be the way multiplied across the the space force footprint for many years to come. So therefore, in space force are going to be intertwined for a long time. Let’s be clear on that, um, there’s other operationally to We don’t want to disintegrate literally right disintegrate the progress we’ve made in integrating air operation space operations in the same way we will need to continue integration space operations into maritime and land operations in the future. So in that way, we need to continue to work closely together. However, at the same time, the space force is going to have to evolve its own independent identity and culture, the physics air different in space. The culture will be different on how we grow. That talent that I talked about with challenge number four, the tactics and techniques are going to be different. Um, even the way that we operate our forces today, even when it before space force, we knew it was different. Air forces tend to be tend, by and large, to be expeditionary in nature. You know, they train, uh, in the United States, and then they move overseas to where they’re needed. Um, space forces are employed in place. You know, the operators we have here to Vandenberg Air Force Base or at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado or Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado are doing their global and X a global missions from those locations. And then they go home that night, right when they’re done doing it, or that morning when they’re done doing the midnight shift. That’s a difference in mindset. Just one example of how space force is Over time, it’s culture is gonna have to kind of stand by itself, develop its own, built its own thinking along those lines. So I know there was more than three minutes. There’s a really good question, but there are a lot of moving pieces. Someone which are dependencies on the Air Force will have for a long time to come. Some are integrating operational integration needs with the air Force that will want to continue to nurture. But there is also. And don’t. I’m not belittling it. There is also a strong need for independent thought and evolution of the space force from the Air Force. How we manage that altogether, You ask to re sources question That’s part of that, right? How do we you know there’s a Space Force control? Some most I think, will control. Most of the resource is needed to operate Annenberg Space Force Base when it’s called that. And the Air Force will do that on behalf of the space Force. But the space force kind of controls those resource is same thing. So good question. Not a completely sufficient answer by helping give you feel for the complexity of it Moving forward. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Major General Shock. And, um, that was just great. Thank you so much for joining us and sharing, um, your perspective about the national security side of of space. Um, this has been a great morning, and we have another great afternoon plan, So there’ll be three more panels this afternoon, right? Now we’re gonna give everybody a break to go get something to eat, visit the exhibition hall and do some networking, and we will reconvene for our next session at 1 p.m. Pacific time for those who are not in this zone for enabling sustained human presence on the moon. We’ll see you then. Thank you.