Closing Bell - Manifest Space: Warfighting in Space with U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman 4/20/23

Episode Date: April 20, 2023

Space is critical infrastructure, integral to many aspects of daily life. That’s why military experts worry it could be subject to the first strikes in a major conflict. Morgan sits down with the new head of the U.S. Space Force, CSO General Chance Saltzman, from the Space Symposium in his first interview since ascending to the service's highest-ranking military role. They discuss the Space Force’s efforts to secure space, partner with private companies, and develop new technologies as the military’s youngest - and fastest growing - branch works to counter China in this new era of space competition. For more Manifest Space, listen and follow here: https://link.chtbl.com/manifestspace

Economic opportunity is skyrocketing across the space industry. But it brings risks. Military experts worry space could be the new front line of future conflicts. Look no further than Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started with cyber attacks on space-based communication networks. It speaks to the critical nature of this infrastructure to daily life, a dynamic and sharp focus to the U.S. Space Force. I think we're on, like I said, the precipice of this infrastructure to daily life, a dynamic and sharp focus to the U.S. Space Force. I think we're on, like I said, the precipice of this new era,

where because launch costs are coming down, because of our manufacturing of satellites to smaller satellites, it's opening up options to put new missions, new activities, new capabilities on orbit that we didn't think about 10, 12 years ago. General Chance Saltzman is the U.S. Space Force's chief of space operations, only the second ever to lead the three-year-old's military branch. In this episode, we discuss the threat landscape in space. Think dazzlers and killer satellites. How the CSO is leveraging the work of commercial space companies and what it all means for the budget. I'm Morgan Brennan and this is Manifest Space.

General Saltzman, thank you so much for joining me today. It's an honor and a privilege to speak with you. Thank you, Morgan. Glad to be here. All right, so you're joining me from the Space Symposium. It's one of the biggest space conferences of the year. You have addressed the conference as well. What was your key message? Well, I started because I wanted to describe so much has changed in the space domain recently. So I want to describe how I thought we were in a new era of space. And that's because the threats that we face to our on-orbit capabilities from our strategic competitors has grown substantially. The congestion we're seeing in space with tracked objects and the number of satellite

payloads and just the launches themselves have gone at an exponential rate. And so I think we're in such a new era of space that I wanted to make sure that we were thinking about our processes and procedures differently and that old processes wouldn't be as successful as new processes. And we've got to start innovating. Okay. You know, space is a war fighting domain. Look no further than Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year to see how critical it is to the commencement of any conflict. So how has that added to or changed this very dynamic that you're talking about, these new processes

where space is concerned? Well, you know, as an observer watching, I see a couple of trends that are interesting. One is commercial augmentation. We're seeing the Ukrainians being able to use commercial satellites to great effect. We're also seeing that the Russians are attacking space capabilities because of how critical space capability is to modern life, really, and certainly the way of war, the Russians are attacking those systems. And finally, they're not just attacking systems on orbit. They're attacking the systems in cyber. So we know we have to be able to leverage commercial capabilities, manage how critical these assets are and protect them, and also protect the critical ground nodes from cyber attack. So it raises the question, how do you do

that? How do you secure space effectively? How do you bring some of those new technologies and capabilities on more quickly? And how do you continue to respond to a threat that evolves, whether it is a Russia or a China or something else? How do you continue to respond to a threat that is changing in real time, given how fast the technology is changing? Yeah, it's a great question. And I'd like to say the answer to the question is really why the Space Force was established. We are training our operators, we are training the guardians to answer just those questions, to do the equipping, to do the acquisitions that build systems that are resilient, that are arrayed in ways that are hard to target by an adversary. By

making them harder to target, it creates more deterrent effect so that our adversaries are less likely to try to attack us. That's one way we're getting after it. The other way is just taking advantage of the enormous innovation and skills that our young guardians bring and continuing to enhance their training, enhance what they know about the domain, so they can more effectively operate these very resilient systems. So you are joining me from Space Symposium. It has been much more military-focused in the past. But this year, a lot of commercial companies and space startups and investors on site and in attendance as well. How does it speak to this increasing partnership,

this, as you just put it, augmentation of the Space Force with the private sector? I think it just speaks to the fact that it's such an exciting time to be in the space community. Whether you're military, whether you're in civil space, whether you're in commercial industry, it's an exciting time because of the pace of change and the opportunities that exist. The partnerships that I'm seeing that are playing out here at this symposium really underscore that this is a team sport, that none of us is going to be successful going it alone. And then more to the point, I think, is how fast we're innovating. I've always said that one of the asymmetric advantages of America is that it really is an innovation engine for the

world quite frankly and our industry partners are proving that every day and I'm just looking to make sure that I lower the threshold so I can take advantage of as much of that as possible. So how are you doing that? What are some examples? Well we've started to do what we call reverse industry days where we invite industry partners to come in and just listen to us describe our challenges, the things that we're facing, so they have an insider look at some of the problems that we're trying to overcome. We are establishing commercial services offices, which is kind of like a front door, so that if a commercial partner has an idea, they know exactly how to bring it to the Space

Force so we can work together to operationalize their ideas. And it's really about talking early and often in our capabilities development process so that we can work together on joint solutions. So one of the things that gets talked about is this idea of space resilience. What does that mean from a satellite constellation perspective? And I think just as importantly, what does it mean from a future launch perspective, since I know you're looking to potentially bring more companies on with their future rockets as well? Absolutely. The key to resiliency, one of the keys to resiliency that we're able to take advantage of are two factors. One, the lowering costs of launch. And this is the innovation in the industry, again, that's allowing the per pound

to orbit. Those costs are coming way down. So we can conduct more launches for less money. Each of those launches is actually launching more satellites because the technology associated is shrinking. We're able to put smaller satellites on orbit. This allows us to have much larger constellations that are refreshed on a much more quick timeline. So we used to launch a satellite and think, 10 to 12 years before we can replace it. Now we're thinking more in terms of three to five years to replace it. This is a tremendous engine to help with that innovation. And so what are some of the, I guess, additional innovations and technologies that you're looking

to cultivate and field right now based on the dynamics you're looking to cultivate and field right now based on the dynamics you're seeing in space and some of the activities or tactics that adversaries are using in real time? Well, one of the ways that we have to improve our capabilities is how well we're able to manage data. Our sensors on orbit, the amount of data that we need about what's on orbit, it all comes down to how well we can manage the data that we're collecting on our capabilities and on adversaries' capabilities. And a lot of this is software. A lot of this is decision support tools.

It's about tools that help us visualize what's going on in the domain. And these are all software-defined capabilities, and industry really leads the way on that and shows us how we can give operators a better picture of what they're facing on orbit as all of the data comes in and starts to paint that picture. As I hear you talking about data and software, it makes me wonder how closely you're watching this artificial intelligence boom, this emergence we're seeing of things like generative AI and whether there are military applications? Well, I think we have to watch it very closely. I talk more generally about automation because I have so few guardians, relatively speaking. I need them working on things where

I need their critical thinking skills, where I need a person to be able to make a decision. And I think there are things that could be automated, whether it's using artificial intelligence, machine learning, machine-to-machine interactions, all of that that allows me to automate some of the routine tasks that I have guardians currently doing, which would then free them up to do the more complex thinking skills. And I know I just touched on this, but to circle back on it again, like, what are some of the real-time threats? What are examples? I mean, you hear about, I've heard, read terms like cat and mouse, for example. We obviously saw that Russian ASAT missile test a year and a half ago. The hypersonic launches we've seen, test flights we've seen from

China. What are some of these activities that are happening to the extent you can disclose them right now that that makes your job that much more urgent well they come in two forms both physical threats as well as what I'll call interference threats you might call it jamming for for lack of a better term but we're seeing both China and Russia have demonstrated physical attacks with those anti-satellite missiles that they've launched against their own satellites. We're also seeing traditional jammers of satellite communications of the GPS constellation. We're seeing lasers both on orbit and on the ground. Things like dazzlers that interfere with a camera on orbit from collecting imagery of the ground. We're seeing

satellites on orbit that actually can grab another satellite, grapple with it, and pull it out of its operational orbit. These are all capabilities they are demonstrating on orbit today and so the mix of these weapons and the pace with which they've been developed is very concerning. Are we developing these capabilities too or just deterrence possibilities against them? Well my first goal is to deter a conflict from extending into space. And so by being more resilient, by training my operators to the tactics that allow our missions to continue, I think we can create a deterrent effect which prevents a war from extending into space.

But my job is to think about all kinds of contingencies and be ready to provide the president with full spectrum options should that should deterrence fail. And of course, all of this funnels into the budget and the trajectory of the budget. Your budget request is 30 billion dollars for fiscal 2024. It represents, I believe, what, a 15 percent increase versus what's currently in effect for for 2023. How how confident are you that you are going to see your wish list realized? Well, I'm very happy with the budget. It really speaks to the fact that this administration and Congress as well supports the fact that space is critical to our nation, both in terms of economic

prosperity as well as military capabilities. And I think the budget supports that fact. I think it's worth noting that the $30 billion that we're getting is about 3.5% of the Department of Defense's budget. So we're a pretty good bargain considering the criticality of those space capabilities and what we're delivering in terms of missions. Yeah, and it certainly speaks to this public-private partnership and the way you are working with the commercial sector to, I would imagine, drive down costs as well. I guess looking out to the longer term, how do you expect the space industry and the space domain to continue to evolve?

And what does that mean for everyday people who maybe don't realize how much space is touching their lives? I think we're on, like I said, the precipice of this new era, where because launch costs are coming down, because of our manufacturing of satellites to smaller satellites, it's opening up options to put new missions, new activities, new capabilities on orbit that we didn't think about 10, 12 years ago. And so I think the commercial industry, I think Americans writ large, maybe even globally, the citizens are going to start to realize how many more capabilities they're able to get from space as opposed to what might be more expensive in terms of ground networks, terrestrial networks. I think internet in space is here and it's only going to grow, for example. So I'm really looking forward to seeing how the commercial industry will drive new activities in space.

General Saltzman, it's so great to speak with you. I so appreciate the time. Thank you for joining me, the CSO of the Space Force. Thank you. It's been my pleasure, Morgan. Thank you. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.