Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Space Commander Remarks On Space

Good morning, everyone. I am kathleen hicks. I direct the program here. It is my pleasure to welcome you to this event today. Commander of u. S. Space command and air force base in colorado. We are so lucky to have him joining us for a public conversation with Todd Harrison who directs our airspace security. I almost gave you my job. General raymond willau speak fit and then they will have a moderated conversation followed by audience q and day. Very few things that can be considered bipartisan in nature in washington. The concern over space and space threats are one of those. I hope you will join me in welcoming him. [applause] thank you. I greatly appreciate the invitation. More importantly, thank you for your leadership and wise counsel. I always enjoy coming c here. I had to apologize to the team because i always get more out of these engagements then i give. And i continue to work on. About three years ago, a little over three years ago, right before he took the commander position. Since i past held a dinner they held a dinner series and doctor hosted a dinner series where we brought folks in to talk about the challenges in space. I marvel and as i was preparingg for these marks i marveled at what the folks that were in that dinner thing today because we have made a ton of progress and a ton of progress. We have really put the accelerator down and have made great gains. There is still a ton ofe work to do but as i reflect on those conversations and i look at where we are today with the events we have made it is significant and i think the thing that is driving is one simple sentence. Theres 11 words in the sentence. Space is a war fighting to maine just like air, land and sea. It used to be you cannot say that in public space and war fighting in s the same sentence for u. S. Wanted to keep the space domain safe and that is still our goal to deter any conflict from beginning or extending into space but we did not say that public aid. Now every speech i give high say and usually right up front. It rolls off our lips really easily. The invocations are significant and the indication has been driving my battle rhythm for the last three years as we have pretty much changed everything that how we operate in the air force Space Command and that is driving how we build and stand up usbased commanded that is or will be the focus of brief remarks of front and then i really would like to get to book una and dialogue. Its a great opportunity for me to talk about the newest comma command, 11 combat and command under the Space Command for u. S. Space command is more than a command focused on space but is about helping the department get its arms around global integration. If you look at the nationaleg Defense Strategy and global challenges we face we are intimately involved in those conversations. We are the best in the world at space bar b o in august a ceremt at the white house in the rose garden we got better. We stood up this command and this commandnd is singularly focused on the Space Command. That alone provides pretty significant demands but become to work everyday and is not my tertiary or secondary job but my primary job did we come to work everyday focused on this domain providing advantage in about a year ago in august of last year i was told theres a potential that we will stand up at command command and its lease will start planning. K took five people on a tty san antonio, texas walk and by people in the room and said okay, we have to plan this command. In the evenings when i got done with the work there was another reason and i would huddle with the team and and here is how we would build this command opportunity. Its fascinating for me to be given the opportunity to begin planning and to plan that command and stand it up and get it going and lead it is a great highlight of my career. We started with those five and had brought that plan back to peterson and set up a tiger team of about ten people. And for the next year we would plan that command and its pretty unprecedented. If you look at doing all this and one year from planning to standing up in the years its a pretty heroic look. Im proud of that team. Today we are about 400 and over the next couple of months i o think the numbers will raise up to about 500 and headquarters. Many of you know that we had a u. S. Space command back in 19852002. Some might say why did we bring it back or what is different about this command compared to the one that stood down in 2002i as i said in the ceremony that we had it we recognize the establishment of the Space Command and this is a different command custombuilt for a different day and it is purpose built. G it is purpose built to get after the national Defense Strategyde and purpose built for the strategic environment that we face today. If you look at the missions that the president signed in the unified command plan and assigned to meet the commander of u. S. Space command and has a much sharper focus on protecting and defending satellites and not just u. S. Satellites but the u. S. Military satellites. His partner or ally or commercial satellitey is a much sharper focus on offense and defense. Probably the biggest thing is that its a geographic combatant command with an ao arbor spaceman [inaudible] do not have an ao rfid it provided Space Capabilities around the globe and we still do that today but to strengthen that view that space is a war fighting domain as a geographic combatant command within ao are that is 100 kilometers above the earths surface and higher. Thats a big ao are. Really big ao are. Ft to get after that protect and defend peace we custombuilt the command and we stood up a joyce joint task force in the first time we had an operational level component focused on that protect and defend mission. Thats been very helpful. As we are a geographic combatant command we are planning to have integrated planning elements that will embed in all the combatant commands to help us stay connected with those commands. Again, that is purpose built because the challenges we facege in the future will be global challenges and will require all combatant commands working together. On we have a stronger connection with ourur allied partners and have made great, Great Strides over the last few years but im proud of where we are when we stood up to command again, purpose built a combined Space Force Component and before i was a combat commander of a joint space and when we stood the stop we made it a combined commandment we operated off of the same order out of the same c2 and that will provide huge advantage to the folks for us and our partners. We also have additional authorities. Space policy directorol mandated will be come back with authorities usbased command me to do those missions sweep of those together very helpful those will be approved here in the very near term. Again, ties to our partners but there are several partners idus like to focus on but one is our joint war fighting partners. Again, as our national Defense Strategy states the challengesng we will face in the future will be global challenges. Talent and the pacific is not just [inaudible] but that will require all the combatant commands to be handle those challenges. Im convinced in the future if we were to get into conflict with a competitor we will have to fight for space seniority. Thats a joint war fighting challenge that will require other combatant commands to be supportive of meth and our u. S. Police plan. Aour partnership with our allis have talked about this and over the last of years we have increased the training opportunities with our alliesas and we had exercised with our allies into wargames with our allies and we stood up a combined Space Operation and we now turn the joint for Space Component command into a combined base force command and i see great, by the way, rate hosted payloads with allied partners and allied japan putting a host of payload on the satellite and doing partnerships with norway as well. As examples, we also have a close relationship with inter agency and our relationship was intelligence and community has never been better but our relationship between us and them is at an alltime high. We have a standard shared strategy and a shared concept of operation and we managed c2 center of the National Space Defense Center and i will tell you its because ive given over the last couple oft years we hae preschool to about this grade and we spent a handful of hours a week or so ago and i will tell you im changing that. We have made some really significant gains based on the datasharing that we were able to do based on having Situational Awareness tools and we have made Great Strides. And our partnerships with commercialer industry. I see this as a big growth area Going Forward. We have commercial Integration Cell combined Space Operations center and i see great steps ahead and be able to leverage this and i talked about this and say this is a bad term to use but this explosion in commercial space and theres great opportunities and so if we built this command we are loading it to meet the national Defense Strategy and if you look at the national Defense Strategy and the priorities of the strategy, rebuilding the and reforming the apartment those are all things that usbased command ties intot our priorities for the command are five and we laid out five priorities first, we will transitionin space or fighting response woollies for u. S. Strategic command to usbased command in full and weve done that or did that starting 29 in august and so we are response will for Space Operations and wa do that day today. I tell you notas only have we nt missed a beat but weve enhanced the game. We are leading this and going to full Operational Capability and moving out with a sense of b urgency to do that. We are already doingre operatio. One of the thingsdy are the requirements in a component doesnt have a requirement function and combatant commandos who sewer building out a requirements team. I will tell you may be one of the most important things that we do early on is to rebuild that intelligent function that atrophied once the usbased command stood down and 2002 went away. The most significant thing and highest priority action is planning. And not just planning by ourselves but planning in concert with the combatant commands on the world. That is why we are building and in fed with the other combatant commands. The other one to expand partners and the last one is going space war fighters but thats a twopart problem going Space Operators and understanding war its billing will unite might have traditional war fighters whogr have a traditionl understanding of space. What is our progress today . Got gone from five people to about 500 and we are building a team and we are proud of how we have brought this Team Together and gotten to move really quickly. Weve gone throughui a joint manpower validation process to figure out what the command will look like. We have hired integrated planning elements leads i and stand up to first integrated planning almonds both at indo pay, you, and a stretch, workry with north, as well. Weve worked reached out to other combatant commands and we are linkedin with u. S. Strategic commands and as you can imagine north, indo pay, and now africa, appreciated that engagement. We are embedded in the global integrating piece of the Department Store plane in wargames and exercises as part of not only playing in it but leaving that effort for the department. Weve enhanced our engagements with our allies and wets briefed the military committee at nato oito get a more formal relationship going. Nato is about to declare bases and operational domain and that will be more important that we have that linkage. On the planning side were developing the Campaign Plan for space that will be done here at the beginning of next year. We published our firstst integrated [inaudible]s we have much more of a influence on the budget, if you will. Again, thats much more heightened voice of the combatant command level that we were and the list goes on and on but you get a sense for where we are headed. F we are ready now and going stronger each and every day and we are in line with the direction for the national Defense Strategy and building a worse to respond to the competitive congested and contested strategic environment that we face today and have a great opportunity as we tell our team that we are not wedded to the past but starting from scratch and we can build this command in a way that gets after the challenges we face. With that i think i will close and open it up for a dialogue bird i can appreciate the opportunity to be here andhe im extremely proud of the sailors, soldiers and marines that im privileged to lead. I cannot be more proud of how quickly they come up on the step and provide an advantage to our nation not just to our nation but allied partners as well. I like to take a minute and introduce the chief or hes a Senior Advisor for the command as well. Thank you for the opportunity and look forward to the dialog dialogue. [applause]al general, i want to say thank you again for coming here to see sis and to share your thoughts. I wanted to start with a basic definition question because i was telling a friend earlier what are you doing monday morning and im doing this event with the commander of the United States Space Command and she asked me what was his job before that and i said well, hes a commander of air force Space Command and the question was whats the difference and so you know can you help to find for folks what are the rules and response abilities of c the air force Space Command and United States Space Command and how are they different in the how they function . Great question. That is when i get quite frequently. Not only did i get a new job but kept my old job as well. [laughter] i get to yell at myself from one hat and ive done that over the last couple of weeks like how could you be so stupid . Its fun to have that conversation. He back in the 80s there was a law done called the Goldwater Nichols act. It divided the department into two functions but one is an organized train, equip and another was a war fighting function. Services to organize, train and equip and in my air force Space Command hat i trained business and read secure satellite, trade operators and the c2 capabilities to build and conduct those operations but we focus on organizing, training and equip. In that hat int worked [inaudib] the joint hat in the war fighting hatch was joint business andas usbased command falls under the war fighting side. We now have a u. S. Space command that is a war fighting so its a completely different function. In my air force hat i organized, trained and equipped air forces and present them to my self in u. S. Space command to execute. I also will have an army and that is called a [inaudible] i will also have an Army Service Component and marine Service Component and it is two different functions in two different roles but theres a close partnership. Thinking ahead to the future one thing Congress Still debating and considering is whether or not to create a space force and if you could talk about how the space force would be different absolutely. Let me state im eager for congress to pass this and daa so we can have a space force. In both hats or both functions the organized, train, equip function and war fighting function the u. S. Is looking to elevate space. Oo to have an entity that is singularly focused on a space domain. In the war fighting hat we did that when we took the Component Command that used to work for Strategic Command and elevated that to its own command. Similarly on the organized train, equip side todaye, air f force Space Command is a major command working for the air force. We are looking to elevate space and separated from the air force and have a singularly focused service focused on this domain and the way it was envisioned as was similar to where you have a secretary of the air force that would have both chief of staff and space force and to staff of the air force that would work for the secretary of the air force. Just like the navy side of secretary of the navy that has chief of Naval Operations on that navy side. And if so, u. S. Space command putting on that hat for a minute, you mentioned in your remarks how its different at this time. Used at u. S. Space command and it was a functional command and now its been reestablished as a geographic command. One of the roles that was a geographic command was that they put together operational plans within their area of response abilities. Centcom, operational plans and in the middle east, you calm, and opaque, and is the u. S. Space command developing operational plans that are exclusively for the space doma domain . Absolutely. As you mentioned that the prized hot highest priority activity that we started with building the Campaign Plan first. We made great progress on that and again early next year that should be done and then as we build our planning teame we are beginning the work on doing. The thing we will work really hard to do is to do thatom development in concert with the other combatant commands and that and that is why those integrated elements are so i