US Air Force,
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.: “Space has become so integrated in the fight, in the way we fight and indeed into our economy and in America,” Gen. Kevin P. Chilton told an audience of more than 500 industry leaders, civilians and military members at the 23rd National Space Symposium here today.
In his speech, General Chilton, the commander of Air Force Space Command, outlined four priorities of the command:
– Preserve and expand the command's ability to deliver space effects to the joint fight;
– Provide safe and secure strategic deterrence for the nation;
– Develop, field and sustain dominant space capabilities on time and on cost; and
– Attract, develop and retain people with the expertise necessary to meet the challenges of the future.
Providing the warfighter space situational awareness is fundamental to preserving the vital communications, weather, warning, precision, navigation and timing that space command delivers to the fight, General Chilton said.
“It's the same thing that an air component commander who's worried about land, air or sea needs,” he said. “You need to be able to discern the cause of a problem that is interrupting the effect that you are trying to deliver. Is it a system malfunction? Is it space weather? Is someone messing with my system?”
The command's vision for preserving space situational awareness, the general said, is to be able to detect everything coming off the planet.
“I want to have focused intelligence invested in our space operations,” he said.
General Chilton said he has asked the Air Force Space Command team to take “a clean-sheet look at what we need for the future, not what we need for the past.”
Expanding the command's ability to deliver space effects is as important as preserving those effects “because that's talking about recapitalization, it's talking about investments and we are recapitalizing in this command,” General Chilton said.
The joint fight, he said, is about delivering effects. “It's not about flying satellites.”
He shared an anecdote about a flag officer from another service who was visiting the men and women of the 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever AFB, Colo. The squadron conducts command and control of the nation's constellation of global positioning satellites.
The flag officer walked up to Senior Airman Justin Froehlich, General Chilton said, and asked him, “What's your job, young man?”
The Airman replied, “Sir, I deliver combat effect to forces around the world from 30 GPS satellites that I command from right here.”
The flag officer took a step back and said, “Those are pretty big words, son.”
The Airman said, “I don't know about that, sir. That's what I do.”
This attitude, General Chilton said, “is what we're all about at Air Force Space Command.”
The future of Air Force Space Command, he said, relies on the command's efforts to attract America's youth to a career in the field of space and invest in their development.
By offering clearer career options and more opportunities for Airmen to earn advanced technical degrees, the command will be in a better position to meet the challenges of the future, he said.
