Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing Examines National Security Space Assets 20170522

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 congress carries out itsna responsibilities for oversight and funding of the programs and activities necessary be to realize those strategies. No less important, strategic success requires increased resources, an end to Defense Budget caps, an end to the yearslong pattern of extended continuing resolutions and a return to strategyfocused resourcing. Today we consider Space Security in an era when russia and china present air raid 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 pair which isis fundamental to deterrence and to the competence 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 a 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 concluded that in times of conflict, attacking u. S. Military Space Systems may make anker resistible and most tempting an irresistible and most tempting choice. Disabusing them of such misguided notions is a strategic priority. S that is why in the the president of defense we are make in the department of defense we are making such a concerted effort to strengthen our Space Capabilities and to denywe aggressors the benefits of attacks this space. We are changing our investments and operations and increasing our partnering with commercial entities and allies. More importantly, we are changing attitudes byou recognizing that space is a warfighting domain and preparing ourselves to deter conflict this space and prevail if deterrence fails. Finally, i want to recognize this committees priority on strengthening National Security Space Organization, management and leadership. This question has the attention of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense. They expect to be presented with sound analysis and a full range of options, and they mean for us to meet the deadline of reporting to congress this june. In conclusion, i want to thank committee for keeping the challenges of securing spacemi before the public. I look forward to working together to insure that we have the right strategy and resources and the necessary programs, posture and organizational structures to sustain deterrence, to prevail if deterrence fails and to increase the incentives nations have to settle their differences by peaceful means. Thank you. And i would add, as the person acting in the job that steve will be doing, nobody is happier to have him come [laughter] than i am. [laughter] thank you. I hear you. Bac be thank you, mr. Hill. Ill recognize myself first for questions. And thisll be a question for anybody thats willing to swing at it. We passed a law about ten years ago that directed how the operationallyresponsive space office would be run. And ive heard that instead of being streamlined, ors options are still forced to go through the traditional pentagon processes including the Defense Space council. So rather than a small number of Decision Makers focused on moving fast with respect to operationallyresponsive requirements and acquisition, the recent decision Meeting Program include over 60 attendees with 54 more than we60 had envisioned. To me, this is an example, this example is indicative of the extremely fragmented Space Organization and bureaucratic kudzu, my word. Youve got to be from the south to know what kudzu is, that comes in and strangles out the life of the dod Space Programs. Its a situation where everyone can say no but no one can say yes. I so how do we fix that . At general raymond be, do you want to swing first . Ill swing first. Im familiar with kudzu. [laughter] chairman, thank you for the question. 60 people were not involved in that decision. As you stated, the law is pretty clear, theres six or [inaudible] members by law. The pdsa has the ability to designate others that are critical to that decision. In this case, i wasnt in the room, but my understanding is that those six were the voting members plus two or three others. That was it. Its under the framework of a large or dse, but the Decision Makers were at the eight or nineperson level. Those were the voting members x the decision actually went pretty quick. Well, i understand, but werent there 60 people in the room . Yes. There were 60 people in the room, but theres also some goodness and transparency of having others there. They didnt vote, they didnt p influence the decision. They were there, and ill tell you after those folks make that decision, a lot of hose folks have to be the one to execute and make sure they have a common understanding, so it was a very small number of folks that was consistent with the legislation that was passed for a small, tight decisionmaking process xh im pretty comfortable that it was a pretty rapid decision. Okay. So six people were the Decision Makers. As i mentioned to you, thereo were six that were by law and then there was a couple to others that were added by the so there were eight people eight or nine. O i wasnt in the room, but it was small numbers. Betty sapp, do you have to have six to eight people to make decisions with your organization . I have at least two people who make decisions one on the i. C. Side and one on the dod side. Theres a lot of people, as you mentioned, who review the package of documentation for sufficiency before it gets to those Decision Makers. And, again, theres a whole lot of staff on the i. C. Side and on the dod side. So a lot of people look at it before it even gets on the calendar for the Decision Makers. The people that look at it,. Do they have the authority to stop it or say no . They have the authority to stall it. Is that the case with the ors, general raymond . Those other people, can they slow it down or stop it . My understanding is that them do not have a vote in that process. They have, by law, the six that are by law how about the leadup process to get in that room, before it gets in that room pdsa schedules the Defense Space council, and its done relatively routinely. It was done pretty quickly in this process, and i didnt sense a slowdownen on this. Anybody be else want to swing at it . All right. Chairman, ill give you a comment as one of those nonvoting people who was in the room. Okay. What the principle space adviser also did was she used that to tee up a decision that is also necessary which is the longterm solution for whether so ors is an important gap, the ors programor that was before us was an important gap that went pretty quickly. The decision also then said to everybody are we also moving on the requirements process for the longer term which she used that effectively in that respect. Great. All right. In the testimony to the earlier this week, general gold fine talked about the need to integrate space, and the joint staff who is responsible for overall space integration forces, on that joint staff there are 11 air force general officers. Of those 11 general officers, how many space professionals are included, anybody want to guess . Zero. Do you know how many are pilots . That would be nine. Now, if we look at the specificp Combatant Commander, or command according to ucom, there are over 28,000 air force personnele supporting them x how many are dedicated to work space issues . That would be two. We do need to integrate space, i completely agree with the general on that. In our land and sea and cyber obligations, that was what Combatant Commanders do, but theyre also designated to win and fight wars in a general matter. Ok, how to integrate Space Capabilities better into our work plans to me at such people and im interested in your perspective. Thank you. I agree with you. I would like to get more space officers, general officers on the joint staff. The chiefs are very focused on developing joint officers and as a focused area for us as well. When we look across the enterprise, the strategic command, we have to space officers been in that joint jobs strategic command. Im in a joint myself. I serve as my days back of annenberg serves as for the command and command. They have reached back authority back to get that space the tax back out to the theater. As far as joint operations i think were doing a pretty good job and that focus areas the word. You bring up a great. The challenges that we face in the nation today are transregional, if not global. Multi domain, multifunctional. They are not confined to a line on a map. Its not just one geographic commander responsibility its pretty much all the combat and command responsibility for each combat command has whats a coordinating authority for space each of those Combatant Commanders delegated that authority down to the air component of that and the air components around the globe, we have probably, senior space officer call the director of space forces. General can testify to this. We have a senior space officer call the director of resources and he has a staff of about five and every Single Division in aoc we have space professionals embedded in those divisions. What we have done is prioritize putting the weight of effort in those aocs for the combat commanders has designated that authority to and thats we do that multi domain and integration work. Thats the hope of that work. You mentioned that general goldstein was the space advisor. No sir. You the air force for centcom and in that role the centcom commander delegates to have that the authority for donating authority and is aoc or where he operated out of is that multi Domain Center that integrates airspace and cyber into that and thats where we focus a significant portion of our spacn operation. Im sorry to interrupt. I will say that probably in centcom we have a preponderance of officers. If you look at centcom, we probably have eight, maybe 10 space officers there. It is a real win for a win not just we have a direct or spacebar sophist there, but when we embed space officers in isr d. , cpt, that is the win when we start not be an addon, but were big into the processes and we are doing better. Our focus is on centcom. Ill tell you we are Getting Better across the board. Recognize the Ranking Memberb for any questions you may have. N thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to focus in my questioning on how crowdeded spaces and how its going to get a lot more crowded. Mr. Cardozo mentioned in his testimony on page five than in the last 10 years we saw some in like 1500 satellite go a, but in the next 10 years, Something Like 9000. Ik that is 2. 5 satellite today going up in space. Thats amazing. Receiving launches in in india recently appeared 100 z in one launch. So i space gets more crowded, it gets more treacherous. General buck mentioned in his testimony domain name we faced was to breathe. Now we face traffic. We may face that. I am particularly interested in this idea of the nonmilitary space Traffic Management. General Raymond Cummings embarked on a Pilot Program with the faa on that. Thank you, Ranking Member. I testified before to this panel. And share your concerns congested in the underside general buck and his team take about 400 observations a day and to keep track of all of that space Traffic Control for the world and keeps the domains spacebar all. Its very important and generalk buck, its very important for National Security purposes that we have the ability to task those radars, collect the data from those radars to be able to maintain the awareness we need. However, i dont think we need to be the organization that makes the notifications around the world. Ive met with the faa administrator couple of a go and asked if he would join us in developing a Pilot Program if you will to see if we can inform this Going Forward. General buck has the lead in pulling this together. An update of where we are. I iraq out of the team and how far weve come here to talk to. Your mail directly and weve agreed to begin a Pilot Program. I expect the Pilot Program to begin in the summer, probably august timeframe. I do agree with general braynon. There are some aspects that are not inherently military family devoted them to a civil agency. Safety flight, debris management, norms of behavior. I dont think those are inherently military. Its important to make a distinction between space Traffic Management and spacen situation awareness. For me, as a war fighter, one a need this Mission Awareness ofio what an object is, where its going, what its capabilities are, vulnerabilities are, those types of things. But i dont need to be doing i dont think are things like notifications for conjunction assessment and norms of behavior that better suited for civil agency and that is where we are going come as error. Let me at some color to your remarks for a general raymond said in a calm fashion Something Like that. We are protecting billiondollar satellite from a piece of shrapnel that may be traveling at 33 miles an hour but could destroy the machine and for that we did not even a thank you no. Its kind of the main thing wein provide Worldwide Service and a little appreciation. Plus as we said when we consider load shedding a suburban aymara folks that doesnt necessarily need to be borne by them. Not all some countries do sense to talk more to us. Others dont. We are really doing because they want to keep the space demand for all use including a spiritan that is the emphasis behind now. We need to build operating space in its array of helping make sure we can do that. Its also an essential truth telling function. See looking at the downing of the ukraine, there is a worldwide debate dispute over what caused that plane to crash. Even though we have excellent air Traffic Control in most parts of the world, there isro still a significant dispute and when it comes to separating news from fake news and propaganda coming in outcome in the domain it would be nice if we established a sort of Gold Standard of truth that we would know if there was to breathe. We would know if it was some thing less benign than that. I am worried that while i hope the Pilot Program to talk to a good start this summer, i hope that well soon have the standard but even with air traffic we are having difficulty isolating when it should be with all of our plain radars andul things like that in easier thing to prove. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I think, mr. Chairman, thank you for all the Great Service you provide. Follow up on a question we touched on in our conversation yesterday. The bmc to a remain concerned about repeating the same mistakes with prototypes and custom Government Development efforts were prioritized over utilizing proven commercial capabilities, which unfortunately i to cost overruns. Ove can i take your commitment that you will prioritize the utilization of commercial capabilities to the extentnt yo practicable for Samantha Lynn with development for the truly unique military requirement to reside in the commercial marketplace. Im a big proponent of commercial data. Y i said for many years in front of this committee that we need all sources of data fromom commercial all the way up to the highend. Our strategy Going Forward on the commandandcontrol system in the reference is to do just that in a consortium to help us develop those requirements. Youve got the iphone and thenin you have at spirit open standards so while players can play in feeding us that data and to do so quickly. We have to get it in the Defense Center as quick as they possibly can. Et therefore, what we did is we switch the program in a cave that to the air force Capabilities Office who is 30 deadness. They have already taken the capability, built a system, has a consortium approach in this works very well. We are fast forwarding the capability they given it to whoh can move rapidly and authorityns dented in the air domain and let this will allow us to do is get at the multidomain. The whole purpose Going Forward is to enable commercial data and other source that is to be integrated to give general buck the data he needs to do the mission his responsible for. If i could just make a comment along the same lines. Thank you, member cooper stressed the importance of domain awareness. Its really important that we just nontraditional data into our network as well. That is a hard game to do, but we are making progress. Sometime will bring a capability called nontraditional preprocessor that will begin to allow ingestion of commercial data so i think that is a move in the right direction for domain awareness and nontraditional peer thank you, both. Changing gears, ive heard some rumors about insufficient funding for gps in a fiscal year 18 requests. What are we doing to keep this Important Program on track . We have not submitted the 188 budget Going Forward. We have in my opinion a Pretty Healthy gps constellation andal weve got 31 operational satellite under her bed. 31 operational. We are moving forward with the program also as many folks have testified previously would not be the Model Program would holdr up as the standard that we are clearly not out of the woods yet and i wont do comfortable until that capability is operational on the office floor for general lacks team to operate. Im pretty comfortable where we are but the relatively healthy gps constellation on orbit and progress being made. What does that mean for the budget for next year . The budget is released nexttf week. Bu i prefer not to speculate on what might be released until that gets released. And 40 seconds am going to give you a huge question. You refer to the commitment we made for space Going Forward. What can we do better as a country to show that commitment and resolve . I think we really need help on the budget side. Not just investment in space, but the ability to use the investment as we are fielding new things to improve our resilient to you, it is hard to move ahead with the names under a continuing resolution. So that is slowing the pace of progress even after we get it out of the executive branch. So, you can help a lot on thatft front. Thank you so much. I would echo that if a on behalf of air force base. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california for any questions you may have. Im going to forgo the usual gps backup. I assume that its moving along and if not they will be appeased of legislation that will move it along perhaps even faster. Not exactly sure how far to go with this. S, there are certain activities going on. Im not sure we should be talking about them here, but i i would like to take data because i think it integrates with most of what is being discussed here. Just in general, and integration of information in a variety of sources, and this is some name that is happening just in general. Your views on that progress. In general, its going really well. In fact, largely the model i use to make a decision to go with the approach we talked about in the Battle Management control and command conversation. Id be more than happy to talk more in the closed session. I think ill let it go at got that point. I have one more. We picked this up yesterday and going on a plane for the next decade of critical assets that need to be developed and employed in the approximate cost of those. We need to have a longterm vision of where we are going to deploy perhaps the most essential asset of all, which is our financial resources. I have not seen such a display of those things that we and you come the military and general and the air force specifically in the space area needs, wants, must have. I think it is essential that we look at that. There will be insufficient money for everything, particularly the tax cut. And so, we are going to need to make some tough decisions about prioritization and that means 10 years minimum so they can say okay, these things are funded, those are not. So mr. Chairman, if we could move in that direction so we have that vision. I would welcome the opportunity to come back and walk you through the Space Enterprise vision. That is our longerterm vision. It is the inner row. I do this every time i can. But t two minutes, eight seconds. Go for it. B i would be more than welcome to come back and walk you through the vision and the priorities as we see them in ato formula not. Where some of this yesterdayt general goldstein, abouty Different Directions or at least a different set of priorities for the future. Much of it involves your work so i wanted to get a fix on that and other things that we may a not. Thank you for that. I didnt mean to cut you off. I met you at two minutes in ameo second to answer. I do want to take your time. Off the field more questions. Chair now recognizes you for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. When you think about thewhen consortium, general raymond come in baby talk about of the National State defense banner. That consortium of course is trying to rapidly develop a capability where we are currently may be lagging behind. Of course, everybody on this committee fully supports that effort. In the meantime, and is there and affect a gap that needs to be filled at the commercial could help with and maybe general luck, if youd like to enter that as well. Thank you, sir. Good seeing you, always. I mention the data processor. Thats a step in the right direction. The ability to ingest some of the nontraditional, that helps. We also have spss online right now. That is being extended at the life by matt has extended past the dates are classified, but that is extended plus provide best the capability as well. I think those three things together give us the capability to fulfill that gap. Just as a general statement, more data is better. We need data from across the fact drum and we do get across the full spectrum. We develop partnerships and weve got over 50, 60 different sharing agreements with partners largely oneway sharing, but there are twoway sharing pieces of that. Hat stro more ability to ingest the data that will take off. More is better. I would like to continue on what the Ranking Member was talking about. The effort to create a partnership with the faa for state situation awareness specifically. Can you share with us how that has been funded and is it coming out of your budget, their budget, is this Something Congress should do to help . My understanding is theres going to be in a flight 18 budget requests coming out of the faa. Im hesitant to say that because im getting in the faa lane of the bed. There is a funding request for a team coming out, but i dontnd have specifics on it. Thats good to hear. Again, i know that is not your land. Now th i dont want to get you in trouble. S i think this committee would be very supportive of that partnership. Right now, we have heard testimony over and over again how we are providing free Situational Awareness to the entire world and all the commercial part is in at the same time, the tasking that it is imposed on our war fighters has been problematic to the extent they hear this from some other members of congress that they want and i urge you use the word so shut if they want to commission but not defending. I want everyone on this committee to know the air forces never funded to provide Situational Awareness to the entire world for free. That is not ever been in yourop Mission Description and that is what church doing by default out of the goodness of your heart. The reality is we need to protect their own assets and we all know that. So i just want to reiterate the fact that if we can create a Situational Awareness environment that can be led a civilian agency and free your manpower to actually be focused on fighting winning wars, everybody on this panel would fully support that effort and if we need to do an appropriation, that is something we should be advocating war. So without, go ahead. I agree with everything you said. I just want to also make sure that restate the criticality of National Security Space Mission is to make sure they have thee Space Situational Awareness. Absolutely. I agree there is a role for others, but its critical to ouc National Security that we maintain the capability of the awareness. 100 air force must allow a Space Situational Awareness and of course i 100 agree with that. Not just the conjunction analysis, but a warning thatt takes a lot of the manpower away. Im at it. With that, mr. Chairman, yield not. Mr. Larsen for five minutes. Thanks. I was good jump in on this given the Ranking Member aviation subm committee on transportation and writing the faa bill, i would be reluctant to have the satellitet retracting dumped on the day as well. Youre not saying thats happening. Youre not saying that. Im more concerned that Congress Gets out over the tips of the skis on this and the science that without money or help rather than negotiate a solution. I think it probably is a better place for it in fact. One question im sure the faa would have is the Ranking Member is what can it get from it, from doing the act to video supposed to another set of the duties. My discussions with dr. Neil and his staff as they see this as a real opportunity to do things that are more like air centric, establishing norms of behavior, established patterns for safety of flight space so they, not to speak for faa, but my conversations with them have left me to believe there is some goodness in this and they are anxious to take on pacific aspects of the space Traffic Management position. Thats great. I look forward to hearing at some point i talk to staff about getting out together to discuss this so i wouldnt call it adult oversight on this. But certainly some oversight. Theres a lot of debate going on right now in the faa aboutut reorganizing overall and tossing this into the mix if it going to get done in context of all the other things trained to do with the faa is important. It thats my main point. Thanks a lot. Youre back. Mr. Gentleman from colorado for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General raymond, the air force has briefly expressed the rocket System Development is a better way to maintain our dominance in space, therefore the air force will fund a rocket system versus only rocket components. That should tell us how you see the government collaborated with industry and funding the Rocket Development reservation about industry shed with the criteria . Thank you for the questions. The air force strategy remains threefold. First of all, it is critical you have that. The second component is that we were like to support competition and we see the benefits of the f competition and the third aspect of that is we would like to get off the already 180 engine. That strategy remains the same. We are investing in services. We procure services and thats ravaging remains the same. General reyna, i understand that price is an important consideration in any procuremeno after, but in my experience, other fact yours are alsoe cost important given the payloads and how essential they are touring National Security. Can you discuss at the air force evaluate and include this procurement decisions qualitative items such as reliability or maintaining the industrial base. All that comes to play. Its not just cost base. The full spectrum analysis. There is a high bar we go through for certification. We would not put on contract a launch if we didnt think it was going to be assured to get onit this base. Sp its a full range mission by mission. Some are more complex thanothe others. Anybody could answer this. It is my understand the. Spacebased infrared system is the current in primary and not it to detect Ballistic Missile defense that and we are dependent since the 70s. Are there other systems envisioned that may be further classified brief. How robust or the other systems and how vital is the worst daysr to our Space Mission . . Let me say this is a National Security. Its probably one of the most Critical Systems that we operate and the wing up at berkeley, the wing led by colonel dave muller is a premier organization as it is extremely critical to the success of that mission. I was just up there a month or so ago and theyre doing great work. As we look to the future, we look to make the constellations more resilient and i would have further conversations with the. [inaudible] to get into more specifics. General but, you reference the position of training are satellite officers from a technician based focus to a war fighter based focus. I think this depicts the increasing counterspace efforts of our adversaries and the threats they pose to our National Security. You go into detail regarding the training to counter these threats and the transition to a war fighter focus. What i was referring to was the Space Mission first contract that we had implanted in the wings, its complete is this space i have completed the transition. Currently an attorney for space thing undergoing the same transformation. What this does in the Space Mission towards construct for form at a time we have space crews that are in the fight focused on the current sitesp while the other portion of thee crew force of these things are f focused on advanced training, tact pics, techniques and Procedure Development for the future fight and how they can codify those into their. Turn. Thats what i was referring to. Really proud of the progress weve made in the way ahead in general raymond does some of this. I would also that its broader than space for spacing. We are integrating joint exercises and the exercises called red flag in the wargames that are joined international, we just developed a spaceflight construct. So it is developing depth of space expertise, but also working multidomain integration. This is integrating air space and cyberfor the goodness of our nation and we will protect them. Both. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentlelady from hawaii for a minute. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General raymond, ive got to. Admit im thinking about Missile Defense as well as your role in the triad system. As. Questions for me. Worst of all, what i couldnt get past was this one paragraph and if you could explain this to me. In your testimony on page three you talk about the first seven months of your command, you were aggressively pushed implementation of the basically af at pc and the National Reconnaissance nro space and provides vision with the new space or fighting contract. The were starting with the paper turning the Space Enterprise mission into reality. What im interested in is what is this war fighting constructs that you are talking about in terms of space . Thank you. Its nice to meet you. Its the shared vision for moving forward on how do you make the domain, our architectures more resilient to be able to survive the contested domain that we find today. The warfighting construct really talks about severalin things that weve talked about this morning. St it takes that vision and builds it up. How do we plan to operate together. And be so thats the foundation of this, and West Virginia worked very closely weve worked very closely with the nro to develop that. Theres another layer thats also the part we just talked about on developing and training our forces, the Space Mission force construct is part of that. How do you develop the partnerships that we need both interagency with our commercial partners and with our allies to be able to respond to the strategic environment that we face today. Before you pass me on, let me explain to you why, why my curiosity. Because this mr. Hills testimony in mr. Hills testimony, maybe ill bypass be ms. Sapp, no offense. S mr. Hills testimony speaks about the, quoteunquote, threats that we hear about all the time in here, russia and china. He also speaks about a2ad and the concerns that we have. And he says both will continuee to pursue a full range ofhe antisatellite weapons as a means to reduce u. S. Military effectiveness. S. So what i thought you were going to tell me about the war construct was that it was in line of that in other words, where we think about the oceans, the land and so forth, this is another layer of, quote, war that we must be ready to fight. And i, quite candidly, im not sure when you have russia and china that can undermine everything in terms of diplomatic, this nice kind of cooperation that were all talking about here, i really would like to know to the extent that you can tell me here today what exactly does this all mean in terms of our military, andnd what do you need when you come to see us in order to fight that battle. First of all, we dont talklk about a war this space. We talk about a war that extends into space. This isnt space is that, is that something thats unrealistic . I mean, is it conceivable that we could actually have, quote, war this space . In other words, could our satellites be the first target . Because once you take out our satellites, you have basically destroyed our Effective Communication mechanism. So could they not be we have a first line of offense against us . If you look at what some of our potential adversaries are are talking about, theyre talking about a full range of capabilities that range everywhere from reversible jamming of communication and gps satellites like we have seen all the way up to the direct descent asat that we saw from china in 2017 in 2007. Our posture is we want to deter that. We have no interest in fighting that fight. T and as i said, one way to do that is be prepared for it. The space warfighting construcf develops the partnership, the plans, the concept of operations, the training needed to be able to respond. And the seconds that i have left, mr. Hill, would you like to comment on it . Because its your testimony that the point, and i say in my testimony, theres scant evidence that anybodys looking for a war in space. It is about the trees trial issues terrestrial issues that they have, political differences that countries have. And it is their conclusion that if they want a military option, they have to be able to act in space as well. And as youre suggesting, thatth could be early. Thank you, mr. Chair. I yield back. I thank the gentlelady. The chair now recognizes mr. Franks for five minutes. Well, thank you, mr. Chairman, and thank all of you for being here and all you do for the cause of human freedom. General raymond, just a quick, direct question. Do you believe its fair to say that space has been weaponized . I believe its fair to say that space is a contested domain just like and its a warfighting domain just like air, land and sea. Do you believe we need a her robust, defensive Space Sensor Layer to adequately identify the latest in emerging threats to our space assets . I think its imperative that we have a level of domain awareness thats required to operate just like in any other warfighting domain. Should the u. S. Space should we treat space as a warfighting domain . Space is a warfighting domain just like air, land and sea, and we need to treat it that way. Yep. Should the u. S. Develop defensive capabilities to counter kinetic attacks against our Space Security architecture . It is an imperative, in my opinion, that we develop resilient architectures to be able to operate in the contested environment that we face today. General buck, do you have any thoughts on that . Space is a warfighting domain, and if you look at the other domains air, land, sea they have defensiveothe capabilities, they have other capabilities. We cant afford to treat space any differently. Is it fair to say that someo of our nearpeer adversaries offensive Space Capabilities have outpaced our ability to defend our space assets . And i might ask the two of you. [inaudible] that makes sense. All right. Do you see, and ill throw this out to the entire panel, do you see value in establishing an annual capstone training exercise, sort of the equivalence of the red flagan only, say, a space flag event for Space Operators . We have had our first space f flag this year. Although its nascent, were having the conversation, and were moving in the right direction. I see this first space flag ase the first of many to follow. General raymond . I agree. [inaudible conversations] as i mentioned earlier, thats important, but theres the other aspect of it that ite got to be how do you integrate air, space and cyber together, and how do you integrate it with not just air, space and cyber,to with the land and the sea. So theres other opportunities in addition to space flag that provides that capability as well. Io and those are spacespecific war games, those are the global series, on and on. The jspoy and the snstc integrated space into the larger fight, so im really proud of that effort. Mr. Chairman, i think id probably leave the rest of my questions for the classified session. Thank all of you so much to, and thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank the gentleman. Gentleman from california, mr. Carb hall, is recognized for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. And thank you to all of you for being here today. I represent vander berg air force base and recent hi had the great recently had the great privilege of joining general buck on a tour of the facility. The j, poc facility in addition to other facilities there. I guess for my colleagues is and just for me, for it to sink in, you can never hear it enough, could you share, general buck, the contribution of the Vandenberg Air force base jspoc to our National Space strategy and capability . And perhaps close with how that relates or what the nexus is to the new jspoc this colorado. Thank you, sir. Good seeing you again. We have two primary command and control centers. At Vandenberg Air force base, we have the joint Space Operations center. In this operation center, we have commercial partners, we have our allied partners. Theyre doing the daytoday, heavy lifting support to the terrestrial fight. When a Combatant Commander needs space support, space effects, they go to the jspoc, and they provide military satellitete communications, precisionde navigation and timing. All those space effects, and they do it better than anybody else. The National Space Defense Center is responsible for looking up, protecting the space joint operating area, if you will. So jspoc at vandenberg right now, the National Space Defense Center in colorado responsible for protecting and defending the space joint operating environment. And i would pile on that today the jspoc is the operational dod Space Command and control facility. Period. And they do spectacular work. Ive had the privilege of being stationed at vandenberg four times. Second lieutenant j. Raymond showed up in 994, and they are absolute wonderful airmen. And not just airmen, but joint partners that keep that domain safe for all, provide a critical capability to all the warr fighters around the globe and is the only operational dod space center that we have today. Well, it was extremely impressive, and i just want to thank general buck for his being so hospitable and giving me an opportunity to interface with many of the troops and many of your command team there. It was just, it was a great visit. It was a great learning opportunity, and i just really appreciate what you do. Sir, it was our pleasure. An thank you for joining us there. I thank the gentleman. Chair would like to ask a few her questions before we go into closed session. Talk a little bit about launch. General raymond, how long do yog plan to maintain the delta iv . And id like for you tolike for differentiate between delta iv medium versus delta iv heavy, and do you plan to keep the heavy specifically until a new launch vehicle is certified. And if so, how . Yeah. Theres three delta iv mediums that are left, the final launch is scheduled in fy19. We have seven more delta iv heavies, six of those are National Security space launches, one of those is a nasa saw launch x theres an option for one more. Final launch will be in fy23, and were comfortable we will have a new capability online to be able to support the requirements Going Forward. You just heard, ms. Sapp, him make reference to the National Security payloads. How important is it to your mission to have the delta iv heavy or an equivalent available . Its essential to my mission that theyre available in the near term. I tell you, general raymonds mentioned the partnership between us in the nsdc and in operations. We couldnt have better launch partners than we do in the air force. They have taken care of our mission. We buy on their contracts. They made sure we had delta ivn heavy coverage with a lot of transition margin to get to a new booster. So we have just been very satisfied with their support. But you heard general raymond say he believes that by 2023 we will have a replacementbout 202l certified. I hope so too. But if we dont, do you believe that we should let the delta iv heavy go before we have an alternative certified . I believe we have time to see how the new programs mature before we cannot go back on the delta iv heavy. I wouldnt carry it in the near term. Again, weve got them funded through launches this 2023, so we have some time here to maketh the right decision for the nation. That was a lawyerly response. [laughter] as a lawyer, i appreciate that. Separately, general raymond, since the air force originally developed its strategy to invest in the development of commerciallyviable launch vehicles, theres been another entry in the market. Blue origin announced its starting to get commercial customers for their new glenn launch vehicle, and maybe they will compete for the launch Service Agreement funding. Has this changed your strategy, and do you think the governments role, its the governments role to build a new commercial launch vehicle the if they are already being built by the commercial sector . Chairman rogers, it doesnt affect our strategy at all. Our strategy remains three things, as i mentioned, aassured access to space, competition and get off the rd180 engine. Our Acquisition Strategy is flexible and encourages mutt billion competitors for multiple competitors. And were not building commercial launch vehicles. What do you know about the be4s testing setback that we had in recent days . Was its power pack completely destroyed x how does this impact your schedule . My understanding, chairman, is that the blue origin has announced that they conducted a test that resulted in the loss of a power pack test hardware. Obviously, that mishap is regrettable, but it isnt unprecedented in the development of isnt uncommon in development efforts. I think this adds credibility the our strategy to make sure that theres multiple engines being developed. Th i think it we have visibility, pretty significant visibility into ulas processes, although its ulas final, ultimate decision. And then once that decision is made, obviously, the air force is a significant customer of that launch service and will do its own independent review. Excellent. Chair recognizes the Ranking Member for any final questions he may have. Thank you, mr. Chairman. General raymond, in your testimony on page 12 you mentioned that gps3 has been completed and is . In storage with an initial launch capability date set to occur in spring 2018. That struck me as unnecessary be mothballing of a perfectly good satellite. Why the delay . Theres a couple of pieces that were still working on. One, obviously, were working on making sure we can command and control the gps sat device, and then also theres work to be done on integration work with the launch provider that will launch that satellite. Is this customary, to have a year or more delay in launching a satellite . There are satellites that have been in storage significantly longer than that. Its not uncustomary. Well launch it when its safe and ready to do so, and we can get it onto orbit and then command and control it. And as i mentioned earlier today, earlier in the hearing today we have a pretty significant gps constellation on orbit as we speak. So this is not an issue of assured access to space. Its an issue of making sure that we can command and control the capability when its on orbit and then working the final details for them to deintegrate with the launch vehicle provider that will launch it. Okay. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank the Ranking Member. The committee will now go into a brief recess as we move to a secure location for the classified portion of this briefing. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] today representatives of california and Washington State participate in a discussion on how to get more women to run for political office. The center for American Progress action fund event is live at 10 a. M. Eastern here on cspan2. And live at 1 p. M. Eastern, well show you a conversation on finding solutions to global poverty. Well hear from barbara pierce bush, ceo and cofounder of Global Health corps, transportation secretary elaine chao and chelsea clinton, vice chair of the clinton foundation. Its part of a a conference hosted by a group that implements antipoverty programs. Watch both events live today here on cspan2. Tonight on the communicators, Terrell Mcsweeny of the federal trade commission talks about key issues facing the internet including the recent Malware Cyber attack on some 150 countries, internet security, privacy and regulations. Ms. Mcsweeny is interviewed by Axios Technology reporter david mccabe. What would you say the greatest challenges are with policing this whole new landscape of devices . So one of the challenges is always going to be keeping up with the new ways this which technology is being used to, you could say, surveil or monitor or gather very intimate information about people. As our connections become more intimate as they are in our bedroom and on our body and in our childrens bedrooms and, you know, giving precise geolocation out about us, i think it becomes even more important the protect that kind of consent so that people are aware of whats happening to their information. Watch the communicators tonight at eight eastern on cspan2. Florida congressman neil dunn recently sat down with cspan for a house freshman profile interview. He represents the second Congressional District of florida. Congressman neal dunn, what were you doing before you joined