Space Priorities – USA Gov Policy

Secretary of the Air Force Barbara M. Barrett said Feb. 27 that successfully launching the Space Force while also modernizing the Air Force, strengthening ties with allies and partners and ensuring a culture of trust for Airmen and their families are the priorities that will drive the service into a successful future.

“Our priorities can be summed up simply,” Barrett told an audience of more than 2,000 Airmen, industry officials and retirees at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.

“We need a modern, smart, connected, strong, Air and Space Force to deter and defend against aggression and to preserve precious freedom and peace,” Barrett said in one of her most high-profile appearances since becoming secretary. “We have that in the United States Department of the Air Force today.”

Space systems underpin virtually every weapon system in the Defense Department’s arsenal, a senior DOD official told Congress.

But many systems were designed for an era when there were fewthreats in space, Dr. James H. Anderson, performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said today at a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. This is not the case today, he added, as China and Russia both seek to be able to deny the United States and its allies the advantages of space.

China and Russia are developing sophisticated on-orbit capabilities and an array of counter-space weapons capable of targeting nearly every class of U.S. space asset, Anderson told the House panel. They are expanding their space capabilities, he said, and have created military space forces that they are training and equipping to prevail in future crises and conflicts.

The United States is responding by “transforming its space enterprise, fielding resilient architectures, developing space warfighting expertise and working closely with allies in combined operations,” he said.

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The fiscal year 2021 defense budget request provides $18 billion for space programs, including $111 million to support stand-up of the U.S. Space Force, Anderson said. It also provides funding for the new space combatant command — U.S. Space Command — and the Space Development Agency, which will accelerate the development and fielding of military space capabilities necessary to ensure U.S. and allied technological and military advantages.

In his written testimony, Anderson said the United States is actively pursuing opportunities with allies and partners to build combined space operations and interoperable, or even integrated, architecture. The flagship of this integration is the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with embedded British, Canadian and Australian exchange personnel working side by side with U.S. personnel.

“We have recently added Germany and France to the Combined Space Operations initiative,” he noted.

Space Force Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations, also testified.

“We can no longer assume that our space superiority is a given,” he said. “If deterrence fails, we must be ready to fight for space superiority.”

U.S. Space Command, along with the Space Force will deter aggression from conflict and do so from a position of strength, the general said. “Accordingly,” he added, “we will remain ready to defend U.S. and allied freedom of action in space. We will deliver space combat power for the joint and coalition force and we’re going to develop joint warfighters to serve in, to and from the space domain.”

Photo: Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett delivers remarks during the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 27, 2020. The three-day event is a professional development forum that offers the opportunity for Department of Defense personnel to participate in forums, speeches, seminars and workshops with defense industry professionals. (U.S. Air Force photo by Wayne Clark)

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.