Major General Roger W. Burg
Director of Strategic Security, Office of the Chief of Staff for Air & Space Operations
AFA National Symposium on Space
November 18, 2005
Major General Burg: Thank you very much. It's a great pleasure to be here with you today representing Lieutenant General Carrol H. “Howie” Chandler.
As I was contemplating speaking to you this morning, I thought everything's not bad if you get two days outside of Washington, staying at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, and being with all of you. That's a pretty good deal for me.
[Air Force Material Command (AFMC) Commander] General Bruce Carlson, thanks for the great description of what's going on at Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). We greatly appreciate the work that you're doing at AFMC. We wish we could send you more money, but don't count on it right away if that's okay. [Laughter] It's important to know everything the team is doing to make space systems more responsive and more relevant to the warfighter.
General Chandler was asked to speak on the importance of space capabilities to the warfighter, and he is uniquely qualified to speak on that topic because of his work in Alaska as a Joint Force Air Component Commander for Pacific Command, and he and his staff provided me with a very short speech to present to you this morning and I'll try to let you know where I'm deviating from his comments to make them more pertinent, hopefully, to this symposium.
I find myself in a very enviable position, being sandwiched between General Carlson and [Air Force Space Command Commander] General Lance Lord this morning on the agenda. I'm reminded of the geological analogy—between any two mountains you'll find a valley. [Laughter] I'm also happy to be representing General Chandler, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, soon to be the Deputy Chief of Staff for Air, Space and Information Operations. I could speak more about that in the question and answer period if you want to.
I was privileged last week to go with General Chandler and Lieutenant General Walter E. Buchanan III to testify to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Asymmetric Threats and Gaps. General Chandler wanted you to know that his words to the committee were, "whatever the challenge, the Air Force provides the unique capabilities that allow all the services to integrate as a joint force and to team with government agencies and international allies." What he described as "our" Air Force in the 21st century is much more than the integration of air and space capabilities. We, the Air Force, provide the critical enablers that allow any land or maritime element of our joint force to operate at acceptable risk. Your Air Force is passionate about that responsibility.
Our Air Force monitors the earth's air, sea, land, space and cyber domains. We offer persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) and our space assets are on duty 24/7/365. We offer rapid global strike and the deterrent that a global strike capability provides. Not just air and space integration, we are this nation's joint air and space dominance provider, an enabler for every Soldier, Sailor, Marine and Airman.
As AFA Executive Director Don Peterson described, as the Director of Strategic Security, I'm responsible for advocating for a large number of those enablers, each of which is critical to military operations worldwide. Homeland defense, force protection, nuclear operations, counter-proliferation and space operations—it's a very interesting job jar, and one that seems to get a little more full every day.
Each one enables a different aspect of our critical Air Force missions. Of particular interest to those at this symposium is of course space capabilities, to enhance military operations now and for the foreseeable future throughout the Air Force, the Department of Defense, the sister services, the Joint Staff, etc.
I saw some ears prick up when I said the word ‘advocate.’ Were you aware that Air Force spending on capabilities used by all services has risen from about 33 percent of our portfolio in the 1960s to 45 percent as we look forward to the current budget situation? The really striking trend there is that soon roughly half of the Air Force budget will be going to joint enablers, capabilities many of you build that the Air Force provides and operates, but which the primary user of is another sister service. Space capabilities are essential to joint air dominance, but also key enablers of joint and coalition military operations.
Beyond our contributions to smart bombs used to strike targets during combat, space operations encompass the entire spectrum of conflict from combat to stability ops to humanitarian missions. As one of your more famous corporate logos states, "we don't make a lot of the products that you buy, but we make a lot of the products that you buy better." Likewise, space systems make military operations much more effective.
Our job on the Air Staff, which we do when we don't get to come to Beverly Hills, is to continuously engage and educate Congress, the Joint Staff, the staff of the Secretary of Defense, so that they understand the key enablers the Air Force provides to the services and to the nation.
As General Carlson mentioned, Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley's three goals for our Air Force are first, win the war on terror; second, focus on our people; and third, recapitalize the force. Space, as an integral part of Air Force operations, factors into each and every one of these areas. My vector is to ensure that space capabilities and space systems contribute to the Chief's goals.
Allow me to begin with how space systems are a key enabler that allow the Department of Defense to make sure that we're focusing on that top priority, our people.
For a perspective, consider a common criticism of our service, especially over the last few years in Washington. We only, I emphasize only, have 19,000 Airmen currently deployed in the CENTCOM area of responsibility. That's less than ten percent of what the Department of Defense is providing, the 196,000 Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines in theater.
Now my speech says “short-sighted bean counters,” but I don't think I can use a phrase like that. [Laughter]
Some would have you believe that if you're not deployed, then you don't count. I'm here to tell you that that's absolutely wrong. When we were on Capitol Hill last week, General Chandler made it very clear, and General Buchanan who was there with us, seconded him very strongly—we need to dispel the myth that contributions to the fight are only made if you are deployed. General Chandler and General Buchanan told the House Armed Services Committee last week that, "you don't need to be deployed to be employed."
Last week, General Chandler and I had the opportunity to tell the House Armed Services Committee that in addition to the 19,000 deployed Airmen, day-to-day there are 179,000 Air Force members who are currently employed in some aspect of the Global War on Terror. Airmen right here at home conducting operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for joint force commanders and those deployed in harm's way around the globe and sometimes right here in the United States in places like Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana most recently.
For example, Airmen move over 2,400 passengers and over two million pounds of cargo to the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility (AOR) every day. We operate more than 100 satellites and 98 aircraft, providing actionable intelligence, navigation, weather, warning and communication around the globe. Additionally, we provide command and control nodes and systems for combatant commanders, air defense across our homeland, and immediate response forces to support global special operations missions.
We also operate an ICBM force ready to respond if called upon but today providing the security that we rely on as a nation, providing deterrence. Now these Airmen don't make the evening news, so it's easy to trivialize and forget the vital service that they provide. Let me focus on a few of the vital contributions of specific space forces.
Many more Airmen, Marines, Soldiers, and Sailors would be necessary in a theater if we were not able to rely on satellite communications to allow commanders and units half a world away to view real-time Predator video or to warn of incoming dangers like tactical ballistic missiles. Space is the ultimate reachback capability.
Our commitment to space systems and networked command and control allows the Air Force and our sister services to focus on and protect our most vital resource, our people. When it comes to space capabilities, it takes a really smart, talented team of military civilians and contractors to execute and employ these capabilities. You may not be deployed, but you are certainly employed. It's people like you and the space professionals that work 24 hours a day, seven days a week around the globe that allow us to accomplish our primary mission—winning the war.
The second goal I want to talk about this morning is winning the war on terrorism. After our space-enabled successes in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, the other services are very much beginning to understand the asymmetric advantage that space capabilities provide to air, ground and maritime operations. Not only do space assets enable military operations across the spectrum, from peace to major combat, but they also ensure operations can occur around the world within both permissive and denied airspace.
The Air Force continues to champion the abilities of the F/A-22 Raptor to operate in denied airspace with minimal support. The Raptor is not just a superlative air-to-air fighter, but rather is a solution to countering better integrated air defenses to include the double digit SAM threat. In fact, it is the Air Force who is routinely called upon to implement the highly technical and complex solutions required to operate in and over denied territory.
Space systems provide the ultimate anti-access capability with their ability to look down into denied airspace in any part of the world. There's a phrase here in my speech I'll have to talk a little bit more about: "The sanctity of space." I'll talk about that a little bit later. Space contributes to the consistent presence over regimes that have no desire to allow access to the United States, thus space offers the true high ground.
I get worried when I see phrases like “sanctity of space” because it makes it sound like we all believe that nobody can touch us when we're flying around up there. But we'll talk about that a little bit more later in the presentation.
Together with our national partners in the intelligence community, the Air Force supplies trained personnel to operate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms now considered fundamental to operating and targeting in denied airspace. Additionally, Air Force space systems exclusively provide navigation, communication, environmental monitoring and early warning throughout the battlespace.
Allow me to give you a warfighter's view of each of those four critical missions.
Satellite navigation provides an essential lifeline for Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across today's battlespace. Global Positioning System receivers provide four- to six-meter accuracy anywhere we operate to tell our forces precisely where they are. However, what intimidates our adversaries and potential adversaries the most are the thousands of GPS-aided munitions we can place on-target with that same accuracy, usually better. We can do this any time we choose, regardless of visibility conditions, and when necessary even retarget them in the flight of the weapon system that carries them.
Over 15,000 GPS-aided munitions, 5,500 of which were Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS), were dropped in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today our fighters, transports and Air Force special operators continue to rely on GPS daily as we press on to win that fight.
Global communications ... General Chandler relayed to me that in his previous job as 11th Air Force Commander in Alaska he was in a relatively isolated geographic position and he reported to two combatant commanders, two bosses—one in Hawaii and one in Colorado. That made running 11th Air Force a significant challenge. However, weekly videoteleconferences ensured that he kept both bosses informed of the status of his forces and kept him prepared to support operations across the United States and the Pacific. He was very happy to tell me how much he enjoyed that wide band secure MilSatCom and wanted to thank the space community for his opportunity to converse with his combatant commanders each week.
Moreover, the Army and the Marines consistently remind the Air Force that they need more bandwidth to support ground forces. Lieutenant General William S. Wallace, who's the V Corps Commander, said in June 2003 that SatCom is the lifeblood of the maneuver fight for a corps in the attack, a division in the attack, and in many cases the brigade in the attack. I would tell you that last week General Buchanan offered to the House Armed Services Committee that in his opinion, being responsible for MilSatCom in the theater, he would say it's the squad in the attack.
Today, SatCom not only provides command and control, but real-time ISR, streaming back images from Predator and Global Hawk. These images allow decisions to be made more rapidly than at any other time in history—critical, warfighting decisions—and give commanders opportunities to provide a solution even before their forces encounter a problem.
Borrowing a great idea from the global shipping industry that many of you are aware of, our Air Force logistics folks, U.S. Transportation Command, routinely use SatCom for visibility of supplies and logistics tagged with radio frequency (RF) identification transmitters. This space enabler has provided logisticians the flexibility to redirect or reprioritize shipments while they are en route.
Given the way military operations are structured today and our current tactics, techniques and procedures for command and control, we would have a very difficult time going to war without SatCom. In fact, considering the reliance our logistics flow now has on RF ID tracking we might even have a difficult time getting to war without global communications.
Environmental monitoring ... Space capabilities also provide warfighters the ability to see and predict the weather where they are today and where they will fight tomorrow, usually in denied territory. Using data from Air Force and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites, weather support teams provide electro-optical tactical decision aids—weather reports—which help air planners choose the right weapon system, the right flight routes, and the actual munitions to be employed on the target.
For example, the effectiveness of a laser-guided munition is limited by the atmosphere's composition. If the environment is forecast to have some impact on laser-guided munitions, planners can select GPS munitions to increase the likelihood of a mission's success. Additionally, we're educating the rest of the force on the benefits of space weather information. We know that the sun continuously bombards the ionosphere. It changes the nature of the ionosphere. Understanding that is particularly important to ground operations and I applaud the young technicians, the young scientists, talking with General Carlson. We need to have that knowledge of how GPS might be affected by UHF simulation.
Let me go to missile warning. Winning the war relies on Air Force space capabilities to provide missile warning for homeland defense and for force protection. Queuing Patriot batteries proved an essential mission in March of 2003 as space systems provided advanced warning of 20 incoming theater ballistic missiles. Our defense support program satellites, combined with ground radars like the one a few hundred miles up the road at Beale Air Force Base, ensure constant vigilance to protect the homeland, our allies and our forces wherever they may deploy. Missile warning is one of the key enabling missions our sister services have come to expect the Air Force to integrate, process and provide so they can conduct their missions without worry.
As an Air Force and a nation, we cannot allow this mission to last and must ensure that older sensors are replaced with newer, more capable ones.
Along those lines, winning the war also involves General Moseley's third goal, recapitalizing our force, especially our space forces. As the space representative on the Air Staff, I continue to work to educate my counterparts regarding space systems, but that job is getting much easier, I need to tell you. Space systems are flying on every Airman's wing, supporting every mission. We need to ensure space capabilities continue to provide the support every Soldier, Sailor, Airman and Marine has come to expect.
As you in the audience all know, we can and should evolve our space systems to provide even faster communications, better insight for warfighters on the ground, and more rapid, flexible solutions for theater commanders. We have only just begun our evolution in space. Like in the early days of air power, the main benefit space assets provide the warfighter today is the ability to sense and observe in denied areas. Our future lies in taking a critical look at where we are today and projecting that look into the future for space capabilities.
Today's satellite communication architecture was designed for large stationary units, but we already know that smaller, more mobile forces require instant access to a myriad of different sources. Tomorrow, our global communications architecture will be a network-based grid where any unit of any size can transmit and receive to or from any other unit across the grid.
We advocate, educate and promote the need for and the capabilities of the transformational satellite communication program daily. We have very significant proponents inside the United States Army backing us up with a firm requirement for a network satellite communications capability, ultimately bringing the internet into space as fundamental to their comm-on-the-move concept for the future maneuver warfare force.
Today, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities from space have predictable overflight times and are designed to provide a strategic look for the nation. Tomorrow, tactical space ISR capabilities could and should be dedicated to the theater commander.
Regarding the Space Radar, our desire is that it will support national decision-makers with valuable intelligence while simultaneously responding to the theater commanders as they execute their operations.
Tomorrow, as General Carlson alluded, we will have the ability, we must have the ability, to replenish satellites in days and respond to new missions rapidly. This will require a transformation of our launch systems to shorten lengthy processing times that extend beyond the current physical limitations of chemical rocket propulsion.
Today, with more and more nations relying on space capabilities and our military dependence on those systems, we must dispel the belief that no one can harm our space assets. We must make protection of our vital capabilities a key priority to ensure our continued dominance in space. Thus we have a three-pronged approach to tomorrow's space control. First, we have to enhance our space situation awareness sensors and tools; second, we must continue to develop defensive techniques for protection of both military and commercial space assets; finally, the Air Force must be prepared to employ offensive techniques, but not necessarily weapons in space, to counter an adversary's attempt to use space capabilities against us.
I'll go back to the Chief's three goals: winning the war, supporting our people, and recapitalizing the force. We at the Air Staff are advocating and educating the advantages of space capabilities and military operations across the Department of Defense. As we focus on our people, let's focus on the great work all of our Airmen do in this great Air Force, and be proud that the space capabilities many of you helped bring to fruition like global communications, provide the reachback necessary to reduce the number of folks we have to put forward in harm's way. Winning the War on Terror is a must. Space systems are a key part of that solution.
Finally, space systems don't last forever. Recapitalizing the force is just as necessary for space assets as it is for tanks and ships and airplanes. The Air Force has the market cornered on air and space power. Air power is easily identifiable and understood. People understand that airplanes get old and need to be replaced. Space requires the same effort.
The Army and the Marine Corps are counting on the ability to network small units; we need advanced military satellite communications. Theater commanders continue to expect more ISR. The proliferation of space capabilities makes space control and protection of our own assets a must.
I want to thank the Air Force Association for hosting this conference so that we can champion space integration into military operations, discuss what space systems can do, and provide a glimpse into the vast opportunities that the future holds. The talent and brain power in this room is incredible. I'm honored to be a part of taking space capabilities to the next level.
From my meeting with the House Armed Services Committee last week I would also pass on one last message. Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA), Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) and the leaders of the Subcommittee on Asymmetric Threats appreciate the work of our military and those who support our military and they wanted us to make sure that we passed that message to you. The contribution of our country's space capabilities is essential as they look forward to the future that the Congress must provide. There is truly no limit to what we can accomplish when we work together.
It's my great pleasure to be here representing General Chandler, and I'd be happy to take any questions that you have. Thank you. [Applause]
Q: How do you see the current relationship between our Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) coming along, and how do you see that affecting us downstream?
Major General Burg: I'm glad you saved all the hard questions for the end. [Laughter]
I think you all know that we recently revised the responsibilities of the Under Secretary of the Air Force, and when Dr. Ronald Sega gets here he'll tell you he has a different relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office than his predecessor had. We have a Director of the National Reconnaissance Office solely responsible for the NRO at this time, Dr. Donald M. Kerr.
Some in Washington think that the momentum in the black space/white space community is pulling towards disintegration. I want to assure you that while that may be the perception of some, it is not the perception, or not the goal and certainly not a desire, of the leadership of the Air Force. The Air Force wants to make sure that we continue to integrate black and white space and continue to have a very strong relationship between the Air Force Space Command, white space capabilities, and the NRO’s black space capabilities.
It's not going to be a simple solution, but I assure you that the objective of the leadership is to knit that together in a way that we achieve success in the integration of black and white space.
Q: You mentioned briefly the change in the title of the XO. Could you expound on that a little bit?
Major General Burg: Sure. General Moseley sent a message out to the commands and the Air Staff recently directing us to organize along what we call an A Staff Warfighting Headquarters Organizational Construct. So instead of having two letters like XO and XP and IL, we will have numerical designators, the A-1, the A-2, through the A-9.
General Chandler's responsibilities will be changed in that he will be the A-3/A-5 and will be responsible for air, space, information operations, and planning, but not programming. That will continue to be the role of another organization on the Air Staff, the A-8.
There will be an A-2, a Director of Intelligence. But the Director of Intelligence will not be responsible for information operations. That will be an operator responsibility.
So as we go through this transition to the new A Staff, each of the major commands will be going through that transition, too. For those of you with longstanding Air Force or Air Staff ties, you will see some new designators, but you will see the same people responsible for similar responsibilities, just in a different organizational construct.
Q: Should the Air Force be more aggressive in developing offensive space superiority systems? Or can defensive space superiority capabilities adequately defend our satellites?
Major General Burg: Wow. This is an open forum, right? So I'll really be good about answering that one.
There are three key elements to space supremacy. Space situation awareness, knowing what's going on; defensive counter-space, being able to protect the space capabilities we have come to depend on; and offensive counter-space, being able to deny an enemy the opportunity to either use space in a way that suits their requirements if we want to deny them that capability, or to effect how we use our own space systems. The priorities there have to line up.
I have a story I tell about space situation awareness that I think is probably very understandable for this community. As the newly assigned Vice Commander of the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, I had recently been trained to be a MilStar crew member. At that time, all of our commanders were mission ready in one weapon system or another. I had been in there about a week, and you know what happens in most wings, the wing commander goes on the road and the vice wing commander gets to pretend that they're running the wing. [Laughter]
It was 2:00 o'clock in the morning when an emergency phone call came in from the command post. “Sir, command post here. We've got ForceOps on the line.” Force Ops, MilStar, important. “They need to do an emergency station keep with MilStar 2.” “Okay, what's the problem?” “Well, it's coming into a conjunction with TelStar 601.” That's space speak for mid-air. [Laughter] ‘Conjunction,’ bad thing.
So my mind is calculating and I say, ooh, MilStar 2, $1.2 billion, important; conjunction, mid-air, bad thing. “Okay. So tell me where are we now and what's our closest approach?” “Well, sir, by the latest calculation, we are currently at eight miles separation, plus or minus 13.” [Laughter]
We need to improve our space situation awareness capabilities.
I'll stop there. [Laughter]
Q: In Washington we've got a lot on our plate with the budget problems that we face on Capitol Hill and also with the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Could you give us a couple of comments about the QDR and how you see that process moving along?
Major General Burg: This year's Quadrennial Defense Review is, in my opinion, the most significant collection of policy reprioritizations that we've seen in the Defense Department in my career.
I think that you all need to expect that the outcomes of the QDR will have significant impact across the military and the corporate world that supports the military.
The budget drills that we're working right now are very significant. The feeling in Congress, the feeling in the Defense Department, the feeling in the White House, appears to be that we need to do more, but we can't afford to do what we're doing right now. We have to cut the Defense Department's budget. QDR will be a part of that process.
I know that I am very happy that I am not Ray Johns today. Ray Johns is our programmer. I wouldn't take his job for any amount of money that you could try to throw at me. It's incredibly difficult what he's going through right now.
The Chief and the Secretary are trying to advocate for critical capabilities, at the same time recognizing that the budget's going to get smaller and that QDR is going to re-orient priorities. The details will probably come out next month as we finalize those decisions, but I assure you it's a tremendously significant activity and it will not have insignificant consequences.
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