Transcripts For CSPAN Hearing Examines National Security Spa

Witnesses who are leaders in our National Space program to join us here today. Before i introduce them, i want to take a moment to acknowledge that while i cant imagine there being a better place to work than for the Strategic Forces subcommittee, apparently somebody thinks theres a better job in washington, d. C. We this will be the last hearing that steve cotay will be in his current position. Hes leaving to go to work for the secretary of defense, to be the assistant secretary of defense for space policy. Our loss is the secretarys gain. Mr. Rogers i know hell do a great job for our country in his new capacity as well. Ood luck, buddy. Today we have some witnesses that are very familiar to this committee and do a great job for our country. General j. J. Raymond, lieutenant david buck, ms. Betty zap, director of National Reconnaissance office and robert cardillo, director of the National Intelligence space agency, mr. John hill, acting secretary of defense for space policy. After we finish this unclassified testimony and question and answer well adjourn to a closed session to continue our oversight in an appropriately secured fashion. In secretary mattis confirmation hearing his official testimony stated, quote, while our military maintains capable air, land, and sea forces, the cyberand space domains demand an increasing share of our attention and investment, close quote. I fully agree with the secretarys statement. Our military and Intelligence Leaders have been clear in their warnings, some going back many years, that our use of space could be taken away from us in the next military conflict. However, we have not moved with the conviction and urgency to respond to these warnings, which has left with us a growing crisis to confront in outer space. While i have the full faith and confidence in in each of our witnesses here today, i do not have faith in the tangled bureaucratic structure they must work with. China is rapidly advancing in space and counterspace and established a new military organization to focus its space, cyber, and warfare capabilities. Dr. John hamry eloquently stated in an earlier hearing to this subcommittee, quote, we are not well organized to deal with the new challenges we face in space. The old structure may have been sufficient when space was an uncontested area of operations that time has passed. Gain, i couldnt agree more. Now is the time for reform, even if its disruptive today. With that, i look forward to hearing your perspective on space priorities and posture and thank you for being here and working with us on this important topic. I recognize my friend and colleague from tennessee, mr. Jim cooper. Mr. Cooper thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to add my note of congratulations to steve, well done. I thank you for this hear, mr. Chairman. I appreciate especially your focus on strengthening americas Space Capabilities. Theres no more important goal. There are many issues before us and before the air force in particular but im glad were addressing them and i have in a bipartisan, joint, substantive fashion. I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. I now recognize our witnesses, the witnesses were asked to summarize their prepared statements which will be submitted for the record, without objection, so order. Take your statements and keep them to five minutes or less so we can get to questions that would be awesome. Genere monday, youre recognized. Genere monday thank you. Let me also say congratulations to steve cotay, we look forward to having you sitting here next to us next year. Distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you as the commander of air force Space Command. Its my distinguish my distinct privilege to lead dedicated airmen providing resilient and affordable Space Capabilities for the nation. Its also a distinct privilege to testify with my friends and panel of experts and close partners. This is an exciting year for the air force and Space Command. In september of 2017, our air force celebrates our 70th birthday and air force Space Command celebrates the 35th birthday. Although as the air force we have been involved in space since 1954, since the beginning. We have come a long way. Today there is nothing we do, and i repeat, nothing we do as a joint force that isnt enabled by space. Integration has been our strength. Nevertheless, we find ourselves at the intersection of high reliance and vulnerability in the space domain. Today, in no uncertain term, space is a war fighting des moines just like air, land, and sea. Potential adversaries are developing capabilities to deny us access to and the benefits of the space domain. Let me be very clear. We do not want a conflict that extends into space. But one way to keep that from happening is to make sure were prepared for it and be able to fight and win that conflict if it were to occur. I think it shouldnt be lost on anybody that our Space Program is the envy of the world. My near term priorities are four fold. First in partnership with betty sapp, operational at the space center and provide them with command and control capability to operate in a contested domain. We must improve space Situational Awareness, transforming from a cataloging focus to a war fighting focus required of this domain. Third we need to transition our Space Architecture into a defendable Space Architecture, to provide resilient and dependable capabilities for the challenges we face and we need to continue to develop air force Space Command airmen. I thank you for your support, your active leadership, and look forward to continuing to work closely with you and i look forward to your questions. Mr. Rogers thank you. The air recognizes general. Members of the subcommittee, thank you for your steadfast support of our men and women in uniform, the space intervise and this nation. We have turned an educational corner of sorts. Space is a way of life this compounded with understanding the threats of space is the platform to evolve our National Security Space Enterprise. We dont need a clean slate approach. Certainly an overhaul is necessary to guarantee our freedoms in, through, and from space. This is a challenge because our National Security Space Architecture and processes were largely conceived to provide services or commodities during an era when our most significant coorbital threat was debris. Given the emerging threats, we no longer approach space with simply a Service Provider mentality. A foremost responsibility is to gain and maintain space superiority. This is a prerequisite to protecting and defending space joint operating area and for providing space for combat engagement with the joint forces across the globe. Over the past year, we have made substantial progress, especially with respect to all Domain Operations and our ability to protect and defend the National Security Space Enterprise. We are better war fighters. There are, however, areas that require continued focus and vigilance. We must continue to normalize operations across the enterprise. This includes space sitchation Situational Awareness as well as improving foundational intelligence and the ability to provide robust indications and warnings. We also must continue the full court press to deliver next generation battle space awareness and command and control capability. At the same time we must review and update the associated authorities and rules of engagement for operations in space. And we must continue, we must continue to push on fielding required capabilities on operationally relevant timelines. Looking forward, we are focused on maintaining freedom of action in space. It is an imperative of our joint force. As a learning organization, we will continue to learn and review our approaches and organizational structures. We can accept no less because the speed and complexity of future fights demands operationally agile organizations. Every challenge is an opportunity and we have many opportunities in space. Freedom of action in space is not a birth right. It must be secured and must be preserved. This requires constant vigilance, strong partnerships and active participation. I thank the committee for your leadership, and for your advocacy. I look forward to our continued partnership. Mr. Rogers thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to be here on behalf of the National Reconnaissance office or n. R. O. The n. R. O. Is responsible for operating the overhead surveillance architecture. We are the foundation of global Situational Awareness. While simultaneously assisting with National Policy and achieving diplomatic goals. We provide direct support to u. S. War fighters, help protect u. S. Borders and contribute significantly to the fight against isis and other Counterterrorism Operations worldwide. The foundation of this is our people. Our people are behind every Missions Success and enable the direct result we provide to combatant command, and deployed tactical units. The work force is not just dedicated to mission. The talent and empowered to innovate. We instill a culture of innovation an risk tolerance in everything we do. This comes in many forms to include using existing abilities differently, developing new apps, and developing new capabilities critical to closing intelligence gaps. We are working with our Mission Partners to ensure we fully leverage commercial products, services and capabilities. The n. R. O. Is a small, flat, endtoend organization fully capable of successfully delivering resilient and affordable architecture. We have control of every function required from the r d that enables us to stay ahead of threats to the acquisition of new space and ground capability to the operations required to use, adapt and upgrade those capabilities to respond to new and changing Mission Imperatives in the field. Were performing extremely well. All 15 of our major system acquisitions are green. Meaning they are meeting or exceeding cost, schedule and performance metrics. This year we received our eighth consecutive clean Financial Management audit, demonstrating our ability to manage resources entrusted to us. We continue to improve our collection capabilities and the resiliency to stay ahead of targets an threats. Staying ahead of the adversaries who threaten our Space Capabilities is a challenge. Those adversaries are making space a priority, accepting the risk necessary for rapid progress. The u. S. Has the u. S. Has not been keeping pace. I believe we have not made the investment that would indicate space is a priority or fundamental to the u. S. Our requirements budget and acquisition processes are diskecked and none of them moves quickly. Failure is not well tolerated even in the research and Development Activities required to keep our Space Capabilities relevant and vital, or to mprove their resiliency. National security space is a team sport and everyone on the team, those in the executive branch and in congress, must to all they can to advance capabilities and improve its resilience to threats. We must have processes that are integrated that move faster, and that demonstrate greater risk tolerance. We must recommit to space as a National Priority and imperative. This committee has been out in front trying to drive the hanges required. The inroads made to the n. R. O. Is addressing this change. The n. R. O. And broader Space Community have people with the talent, commitment and passion to take us forward. We only need to empower and enable them to succeed. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee thank you for your continued support of the National Reconnaissance office, ts people and its mission. Mr. Rogers thank you. We recognize mr. Cardillo for five minutes. I too am pleased to testify before you here today with my distinguished colleagues as a member of the team of National Security professionals. N. G. A. Is the primary provider of Geospatial Intelligence or geoint. Our support to military services, combatant command and war fighters include safety of 1 2 fwailings, precise target, Disaster Recovery and tailored intelligence support to name a few. I strengthen the overall enterprise by making sure combatant command needs are met through specific architecture. The geoint enterprise serves as a framework to translate those into Key Enterprise functions and capability ours we require to solve our most vexing challenges. Global persistent geoint provides a framework to monitor these, enables n. G. A. To provide tactical leaders, the intelligence and Early Warning needed for decision advantage. It leverages the exquisite capabilities to allow combatant commands to hold strategic targets at risk. It also enables our partners to fill gaps in our enterprise. The explosion of data has driven this beyond the limbs of human interpret eags and understanding. By combining all the data with the use of algorithms, machine to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence we blove we can automate 75 or more of the rote tasks we perform today. This will free our analysts to spend more time on and foe couns the hard intelligence problems. Getting to that point will require significant investments in our i. T. Architecture as well as is as well as in our research and development. Not only is the data explode, conservative estimates predict that over 9,000 commercial satellites will be launched, compared to few than 1,500 in the last 10 years. Accordingly, n. G. A. Will partner with the n. R. O. To engage with and access the most mature of these new space via the commercial geoint activity. Through it we will evaluate emerging commercial geoint data against those needs we capture and maintain. In closing, the National Security Space Enterprise is vital n. G. A. s ability to provide advantage to war fighter commanders and policymakers. To give them the decision space and operational time they need to do their job. Timely, relevant, and accurate geoint is only possible through the combined efforts of the department of defense, emerging industry and alryed partners. Im happy to address any questions you might have and im pleased to be here. Mr. Rogers thank you. Thank you, chairman rogers, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today with my distinguished colleagues. In the months ahead, understanding and addressing the implications of the growing threats in space is critical as this administration prepares the new National Security strategy and National Defense strategy. As congress carries out its responsibilities for oversight and funding of the programs and activities necessary to realize those strategies. Requires anrtant it end to Defense Budget caps, an end to the years long pattern of continuing resolutions and a return to strategy focused resourcing. Today we consider Space Security in an era when russia and china present antiaccess area denial strategies intended to prevent or counter u. S. Intervention in crises or conflicts and to undercut our ability to secure our interests. Diplomatic solutions remain our preferred option to settling the differences that divide nations. But american diplomatic influence rests on the credibility and capability of our military power, which is fundamental to deterrence and the confidence of our allies in knowing that they do not have to submit to the coercive pressures of large and powerful neighbors. Americas space posture underwrites deterrence by enabling the u. S. Military to project power globally, respond to crises rapidly, strike swiftly and precisely and command forces in multiple theaters simultaneously. Potential adversaries know well our reliance on Space Systems that many perceive as vulnerable. Leading to an unstable situation in which some have condition colluded that in times of conflict, attacking u. S. Military Space Systems may make an irresistible and most tempting choice. Disabusing them of such misguided notions is a strategic priority. That is why in the department of defense we are making such a concerted effort to strengthen the in addition assurance of our Space Capabilities and deny aggressors the benefits of attacks in space. We are changing our investments and operations and increasing our partnering with commercial entities and allies. More importantly, we are changing attitudes by recognizing that space is a war fighting domain and preparing ourselves to deter conflict in space and prevail if deterrence fails. Finally, i want to recognize this committees priority on strengthening National Security Space Organization, management, and leadershi