Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing Examines National Security Sp

To join us here today and before i introduce them, though, i want to take a moment to acknowledge that while i cant imagine there being a better place to work than the Strategic Forces subcommittee apparently somebody thinks theres a better job in washington, d. C. We this is the last hearing that steve will be in the current position, he is leaving us to go to work for secretary of defense, to be the assistant secretary of defense for space policy. And our loss is the secretarys gain. So were going to miss him. Hes been with a long time. Did a great job and will do a great job for our country in the new capacity, as well, so good luck, buddy. Today we have some witnesses that are very familiar to this committee. General john jay raymond, Commander Air force Space Command. Commander ray buck for space. Betsy sapp, director of National Reconnaissance office and robert cardillo, director of national geospay shallintelligence agency. John heel for defense and space policy. And after we finish this unclassified testimony, and questions and questions, well adjourn to a closed session in an appropriately secure fashion. 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 demand an increasing share of our attention and investment. Closed quote. Now, 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 conviction and urgency to respond to the warnings and this has left us with a growing crisis to confront in outer space. While i had the full faith and confidence in each of our expert witnesses today, i do not have faith in the tangled bureaucratic structure they must work with. China is advancing rapidly in space and Counter Space and established a new military organization to focus the space, cyber and Electronic Warfare capabilities. Dr. John ham ri, former deputy of secretary of defense stated to this subcommittee, quote, we are not well organized to deal with the new challenges of space. The old structure may have been sufficient when space was an uncontested area of operations. That time has passed. Now again, i couldnt agree more. Ladies and gentlemen, nows the least capable our adversaries will be in space and nows the time for reform, even if its disruptive today. With that, i look forward to your perspectives and i thank all of you for being here and working with us on this important topic. I now recognize my friend and colleague of tennessee, mr. Cooper. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to add my note of congratulations to steve. Well done. I thank you for this hearing, mr. Chairman. The focus of strengthening americas space capables. There is no more important goal. There are many issues before us and the air force, as well. I have bipartisan, joint and substantive fashion. I look forward to the testimony of the witnesses. Great. I now recognize our witnesses, the witnesses were asked to summarize their testimonies and so ordered. If you could take your statements and keep them to five minutes or less to get to questions that would be awesome. Genere monday, youre recognized. Thank you, mr. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper. Let me also pile on and say congratulations to steve kitay. We look forward to having you sit here next to us next year. [ inaudible ] disting wishled members of the b committee, 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 and affordable space and cyberSpace Capabilities for the joint force and our nation. Its also distinct privilege to testify with my friends and panel of experts and close partners. This is a very exciting year for the air force and airSpace Command. In september 2017 our air force celebrates our 70th birthday and air force Space Command celebrates the 35th birthday. Although as an air force, weve been involved in space since 1954 since the beginning. Weve come a long way and done a remarkable job in bringing Space Capabilities in joint work fighting. Theres nothing we do in 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 the space domain. Today in no uncertain terms, its a air fighting demesne just like air, land, and sea. Potential adversaries are denying 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 fourfold. First in partnership with betty zap as operational the National Space center and provide them with a command and control capability necessary to operate in a contested domain. Secondly, we must improve Space Situational Awareness transforming from cataloging focus to a fore fighting focus required of this domain. Third, we need to transition our Space Architecture to provide resilient capabilities for the current strategic environment we face. And finally we need to professionally develop air force Commander Airman. I thank you for your support, i thank you for your active leadership and look forward to continuing to work closely with you in the years ahead and i also look forward to your questions. Thank you. Chairman now recognizes general book. Chairman rogers, Ranking Member cooper, members of the sub committee, thank you for your steadfast support for our men and women in uniform, the space center and this nation. As this committee is well aware, we turned an educational corner of sorts. Its now widely acknowledged that space is critical to our way of life. This coupled with an understanding of the compelling and compounding threats to our freedom of action in space is the burning platform to evolve our National Security Space Enterprise. We dont need a clean slate approach, but certainly an overhaul is necessary to guaranteed 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 our threats, we no larger approach space with a simple mentality. Our foremost responsibility is to maintain space priority. This is a prerequisite to protecting and defending this space joint operating area and providing space combat engagement with joint forces across the globe. Over the past year weve 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 continue continued focus and vigilance. We must continue to normalize operations across the enterprise. This includes Space Situational Awareness as well as improving space intelligence and providing well and robust warning. We also must continue the full court press to deliver next generation aware nls 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 time lines. Looking forward we are focused on freedom of action in space. It is imperative on our joint force. As a learning organization we will continue to review our mature our approaches and organizational structures. We can accept no less because the speed and complexity of future fights demands operational 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 and your advocacy. I look forward to our continued partnership. Thank you, mr. Buck. Youre recognized for five minutes. Thank you, chairman and Ranking Member cooper and distinguished members of the sub committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here from the national recog nins innocence nro. We are the foundation the u. S. Global situational awareness. We contribute to global intelligence, military and Homeland Security operations while simultaneously assisting with the formation of National Policy and achieving diplomatic goals. We provide director support to u. S. War fighters, help protect u. S. Borders and contribute significantly to isis and other Counter Terrorism operations worldwide. The foundation of nro and our contributions are our people. Our people are behind every Mission Success and provide the direct support we provide to the cadet and commands, their service and functional components and deployed tactical units. The integral work force is not just dedicated to mission but empowered to innovate. We instill a culture of innovation and risk tolerance in everything we do. Invasion comes in many forms including 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 make sure we fully leverage capabilities. The nro is a flat organization fully capable of successfully delivering an increasingly capable, integrated, resilient and affordable architecture. We have control of every function required for the rnd that enables us to stay ahead of targets and threats to the acquisition of new space and ground capability to the adaptations used to respond to capabilities to respond to new and changing Mission Imperatives in the field. Were performing extremely well. All 15 of our major acquisitions agree, meaning theyre meeting or exceeding cost performance metrics. This year we received our eighth clean management audit. 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 Capabilities is a challenge. Those adversaries are making space a priority, investing heavily and accepting the risk necessary for rapid progress. The u. S. Has not been keeping pace. I believe we have not made the investment that indicates space is a priority, are fundamental to the u. S. National security space is a failure is not well tolerated. Or to improve their resiliency. National security space 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 to threats. We must have processes that are integrated, that move faster, and demonstrate a 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 nro inspired by this committees efforts to address the barriers to change and the pace of change required to advance National Security space. The nro and the broader National Space community have people with a 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 Recognizance Office its people, and its mission. Thank you. We now recognize mr. Car delo for five minutes. Thank you, Ranking Members of the committee. I too am pleased to testify before you today with my distinguished colleagues as a member of the National Security professionals. Nga is the primary provider of the space intelligence and the intelligence community. Our support to military services, combat and commands and war fighters include safety to navigation, precise targeting, disaster recovery, and tailored intelligence support just to name a few. I also have the job of being the functional manager. And i strengthen the overall sbe prize by ensuring those combatant needs are met through future ventures. More specifically, the capability document which serves as the frame work to translate those needs into the key sbe prize functions and capabilities that our analyst require to resolve our most vexing intelligence challenges. Now global provides an monitoring these challenges and provide national, tactical leaders the intelligence and Early Warning needed for decision advantage. It leverages the exquisite capabilities of national to hold strategic targets at risk. It also integrates the capabilities of our International Partners to fill gaps in our enterprise. Now the explosion of data has driven the 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, machine to Machine Learning and artificial intelligence, we believe we can out mate 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 1,500 in the last few years. Nga will partner with the nro to engage with and access the most mature of these new space via the commercial activity. Through it, we will identify and evaluate emerging commercial, data and services against those needs that we capture and maintain. In closing, the National Security Space Enterprise is vital to ngas ability to provide far fighter and policymakers. To give them the decision space and operational time they need to do their job. Timely relevant and accurate is only possible through the combined efforts of the i. C. , the department of defense emerging industry and allied partners. Im happy to address any questions you might have and am pleased to be here. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Cardelo. Mr. Hill, you have five minutes. Thank you for the opportunity to testify here today with my distinguished colleagues. In the months ahead understanding and addressing the implications of the grow ing threats in space is critical as this administration prepares the president s new National Security strategy and the National Defense strategy and as congress carries out its responsibilities for oversight and funding of the programs and activities necessary to realize those strategies. No less important strategic success requires increased resources and end to Defense Budget caps and end to the years long pattern of extended continuing resolutions and to return to strategy focussed resourcing. Today we consider Space Security in an era when russia and china prevent antiaccess, aerial strategies intended to prevent or counteru. 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 between divided nations. But americas space posture underwrites deterrence by enabling the usa military to fundamental to 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 deterrents 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 resigh lance on Space Systems that many perceive as vulnerable. Leading to an unstable situation which some concluded that 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 Mission Assurance of our Space Capabilities and to 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 rec