Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing Examines National Security Sp

Held a hearing on u. S. Military space assets and potential National Security threats. Hyten raymond be, commander of the air force Space Command, was among those testifying. This is an hour and 15 minutes. [inaudible] fiscal year 2018 priorities and posture of the National Security Space Enterprise. Were honored to have the panel of expert witnesses who are leaders in our National Security Space Program to join us here today. And before i introduce them though, i want to take a momento to acknowledge that while i cant imagine there being a better place to work than for the Strategic Forces subcommittee on the House Armed Services committee, apparently somebody thinks theres a better job on washington d. C. We, therell be the thisll be the last hearing that steve will be this his current position. Hes leaving us to go to work for the secretary of defense, be the assistant secretary of defense for space policy x. Be our loss the secretarys gain. So were going to miss him. Hes been with us for a long time, but i know hell do a great job for our country in his new capacity as well. So good luck, buddy. [applause] today we have some witnesses that are very familiar to this committee and do a great job for our country. Hyten j. Raymond general john j. Raymond be, ms. Betty sapp and robert car dill low say what . Oh. Mr. John hill, Deputy Assistant secretary for defense and space policy. St and after we finish this unclassified testimony and questions and answers, well adjourn to a closed session to continue our oversight in an appropriatelysecure fashion. And secretary mattis confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Earlier this year, his official testimony stated, quote while our military maintains capable air, land and sea forces, the cyber and space domains now demand an increasing share of our attention and investment. Closed quote. And 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, and this has left us with a growing crisis to confront this outer space. While i have the full faith and confidence this each of our expert witnesses today, i do not have faith in the tangled bureaucratic structure that they must work with. Meanwhile, china, for example, is advancing rapidly in space and counterspace and has established a new military organization to focus its space, cyber and Electronic Warfare capabilities. Dr. John hamre eloquently stated in an earlier hearing to thismi 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. Again, i couldnt agree more. Ladies and gentlemen, now is the least capable our adversaries will be in space, and now is the time for reform even if its disruptive today w. That, i look forward to hearing all your per spect be is on space priorities and posture, and i thank all of you for being here and working with us on this important foppic. I now recognize topic. I now recognize the Ranking Member, mr. Cooper. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to add my note of congratulations to steve, well done. And i thank you for this hearing, mr. Chairman, and i appreciate especially your focus on strengthening americas Space Capabilities. There is no more important goal. There are many issues before us and before the air force in particular, but im glad werear addressing them in a bipartisan, joint and substantive fashion. M i look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. Great. I now recognize our witnesses. The witnesses were asked to summarize their prepared statements will be submitted for the record. Without objection, so ordered. If you could take your statements and keep them to fiv minutes or less so we can get to questions, thatd be awesome. General raymond, youre recognized. Thank you, chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper. Let me also pile on can and say congratulations to steve. We look forward to having you sitting here next to us next year. [laughter] [inaudible] [laughter] distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you. Its my distinct privilege to lead and represent nearly 36,000 professional and dedicated airmen providing resilient andnd affordable space and cyberSpace Capabilities for the joint force and our nation. Its also a distinct privilege to testify with my friends and panel of experts and close partners. This is a very exciting year for both the air force and air force Space Command n. 2017, september of 2017 our air force celebrates our 70th birthday, and air force Space Command be celebrates their 35th birthday, although as an air force weve been involved this space since the beginning. Weve come a long way and done a remarkable job. Today theres nothing we do, and i repeat nothing we do as a joint force that isnt enabled by space. Integration has been our strength. Ig nevertheless, we find ourselvesd at the intersection of high reliance and vulnerability in the space domain. Today in no Uncertain Terms space is a warfighting domain just like air, land and sea. Potential add very sauers 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 that were preparing 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 nearterm priorities are fourfold. First, in partnership with betty sa be pp, operationalize and provide with a command and control capability necessary to operate in a contested domain. Secondly, we must improve space situational aa wareness, transforming from a catalog aring focus to a warfighting focus required of this domain. Third, we need to transition our Space Architecture into a defendable Space Architecture and provide resilient andresilin defendable capabilities for the current strategic environment that we face. And finally, we need to continually develop air force airmen. I thank you for your support, for your active leadership and look forward to continuing to hook closely with you in the years ahead x i also look forward to your questions. Thank you. Chair now recognizes general book. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooperrer, members of the subcommittee, thank you for your steadfast support of our men and women in uniform, the Space Enterprise and this nation. As this committee is well aware, weve turned an educational corner of sorts. Its now wildly acknowledged that space is critical to our way of life. This, coupled with an understanding of the compelling and pounding threats to our freedom of action in space, is the platform to evolve our National Security Space Enterprise. We dont need a clean slatesp approach, but certainly are an overhaul is necessary to guarantee our freedoms 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 providerap mentality. Our foremost responsibility is to gain and maintain space superiority. This is a prerequisite to protecting and defending this space joint operating area andoi for providing Space Force Combat engagement with the joint forces across the globe. Over the past year weve made substantial progress, especially with respect to all domaines operations and our ability to protect and defend the National Security Space Enterprise. We are better war fighters. There are, however, areas thatsp require continued focus and vigilance. We must continue to normalize operations across the enterprise. This includes Space Situational Awareness as well as improving foundational intelligence and the ability to provide robust indications and warning. 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 p. As a learning organization, we will continue to review and mature 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 birthright, it must be secured and it must be preserved. This requires constant vigilance, strong partnerships and active participation. I thank the committee for your leadership, for your advocacy, can and i look forward to our continued partnership. Ms. Sappp youre recognized five minutes. Thank you, chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper. Thank you for the opportunity to be here on behalf of the National Reconnaissance officer or nro, were responsible for developing, launching the nations overhead reconnaissance architecture. We are the foundation of the u. S. Global Situational Awareness. We contribute to military and Homeland Security operations while simultaneously assisting with the formation of National Policy and achieving diplomatic goals. We provide direct support and contribute significantly to the fight against isis and other Counterterrorism Operations worldwide. The foundation of nro Mission Capabilities and contributions are our people. Our people are behind every Mission Success and enable the direct support we provide to the combatant commands, their service and functional components and deployed tactical units. The nro work force is not just dedicated to mission, but talented and empowered to innovate. We instill a culture of innovation and risk tolerance in everything we do. Innovation comes in forms to include using existing capabilities differently, developing new apps for our space and ground systems and developing the new capabilities critical to closing intelligence gaps. Were also working with our Mission Partners to insure we fully leverage commercial products, services and capabilities. The nro is a small, flat, end to end organization fully capable of successfully delivering an increasingly capable, integrated, resilient and affordable architecture. We have control of every function required from the r d that enables us to stay ahead of targets and threats to thing by decision of space and ground capability to the operations required to use, adapt and upgrade those capabilities to to respond to new and changing Mission Imperatives in the field. Were performing extremely well, all 5 of our major 15 of our major system acquisitions agree meeting they are exceeding or meeting cost schedule performance metrics. We received our clean Financial Management audit demonstrating our ability to properly manage all resources entrusted to us. And we continue to improve our collection capabilities and the resiliency to stay ahead of targets and threats. But staying ahead of the adversaries who threaten our space stabilities a challenge. Those adversaries are making space a priority, investing heavily and accepting the risks necessary for rapid progress. 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 disconnected, and none of them moves quickly. Failure is not well tolerated even in the research and Development Activities requirede to keep our Space Capabilities relevant and vital or to improve their resiliency. National security spaces is a team sport, and everyone on the team those in the executive branch and in the Congress Must do all they can to advance its capabilities and improve its resilience the threats. We must have be 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 changes required. The nros inspired by this committees efforts to address the barriers of change and the pace of change required to advance National Security space. The nro and the broader National Space community have people with the talent, commitment and passion necessary 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, its people and its mission. E thank you, ms. Sa, p. Chair now sa,. I too am pleased to testify before you here today with my distinguished colleagues, and as a member of the team of National Security professionals. Nga is the primary provider of Geospatial Intelligence for the department of defense and the intelligence community. Our support to military services, combatant commands an war fight beers includes safety of navigation, precise targeting, Disaster Recovery and tailored intelligence support just to name a few. I i also have the job of being the functional manager for the more National System of Geospatial Intelligence. And i strengthen the overall enterprise by insuring that coat combatant command needs are met through future overheaddare architectures. More specifically, the. Com ukes which serves as a framework into the capabilities that our analysts require to resolve our most vexing intelligence challenges. Now, global persistent provides an architecture to monitor these intelligence challenges, enables nga to provide national and tactical leaders the intelligence and Early Warning needed for decision advantage. It leverages the exquisite capabilities of the National Reconnaissance office the allow the combatant commands to hold targets at risk. Now, the explosion of data has driven the geonet discipline beyond the limits of human interpretation and explanation. By combining all of the data now available to us and to use, with the use of algorithms, automated processing, machinetomachine learning and artificial intelligence, we believe we can automate as much as 75 or more of the rote tasks we perform today. This will free our analysts to spend more time and focus on those hard intelligence problems. Getting to that point will require significant investments in our i. T. Architecture as well as in our research and development. Not only is that data exploding, conservative estimates over the next ten years predict that over 9,000 commercial satellites will be launched compared to fewer than 1,500 in the last ten years. Accordingly, nga will partner with the nro to engage with and access the most mature of these new space via the commercial gee activity. Through it, we will identify and evaluate emerging data and services against those needs that we capture and maintain. In closing, the nationalalca security Space Enterprise is vital to commanders and policymakers to give them thee decision space and the operational time they need to do their job. Timely, relevant and Accurate Information is only possible through the combined efforts of the i. C. , department of defense, emerging industry and allied partners. Im happy to address any questions you might have, and im pleased to be here. Thank you. Gh thank you, chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper,r, distinguished members of thes. 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 president s new National Security strategy and the National Defense strategy and as