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Australia-funded WGS-6 Seen as Model for Future U.S. Military Constellations
/.../Todd Harrison, director for the nonprofit Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, /../ said including allies on future space programs offers benefits including stability, cost savings and improved interoperability.
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Let Air Force Run the Military Satellites, Watchdog Argues
Here’s a crazy idea for the Pentagon: consolidate all of the military’s communications satellites under the command of one service, the Air Force. That way, program offices and their budgets will fall under the same chain of command, saving the military -- and the taxpayers and the satellite makers -- a whole lot of time and money.
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Vulnerable Military Satellites Creating a ‘Maginot Line’ in Space
While the possibility of anti-satellite weapons, jamming and cyber-attacks aimed at the U.S. military’s fleets of communication satellites is making them vulnerable to adversaries, declining defense budgets constitute an equal threat to the space architecture the services rely upon, according to a report released July 24.
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U.S. Space Systems, MILSATCOM ‘Have Critical Vulnerabilities,’ Report Says
The U.S. military depends heavily on its space-based assets, and perhaps the most important component of those capabilities are the military communications satellites that allow global command and control of combat forces.
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Transforming Satellite Communications in an Era of Austerity
The United States should adapt its military satellite communications architecture to the new strategic environment where US dominance of space is far from assured, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. In a forthcoming study, Harrison argues that the United States should transition from a "two tier" MILSATCOM approach that focuses on protected and unprotected assets to a three-tier setup that includes a middle level that provides a lower level of protection for more tactical users. This could include using hosted protected payloads to expand capacity at a low cost, he told reporters during a briefing in Washington, D.C., on July 23. The lowest tier in this arrangement would encompass non-essential communications that the Pentagon could purchase via service agreements rather than maintaining as an organic capability, he said. The Defense Department should also consolidate the management of its MILSATCOM programs to cut back on costs and avoid requirements creep, said Harrison.
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Pentagon Chief Can’t Offer Hope In Budget Cuts
The audience gasped in surprise and gave a few low whistles as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent pay cut on most of the military's civilian workforce, probably will continue next year, and it might get worse/.../