Space Command seeks more efficient use of space-tracking and missile sensors

WASHINGTON — In its latest role overseeing the nation’s network of missile-defense sensors, U.S. Space Command plans to make more efficient use of those assets, officials said June 7.

 Gordon White, Space Command’s deputy chief of world sensor management, said the recent realignment of responsibilities approved by President Biden in April is important since it puts one command answerable for the sensors that track missiles and likewise threats in outer space.

During a call with reporters, White and Col. Mark Cobos, deputy commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, sought to make clear confusion over last week’s announcement that Space Command is taking up latest missile defense responsibilities.

Space Command, they stressed, isn’t getting within the business of responding to missile strikes or shooting them down. That continues to be the responsibility of regional military commands if an attack happens overseas, or of U.S. Northern Command if the USA were targeted. 

What’s changing is the oversight and management of sensors used to detect missile launches and track them in flight. 

‘Convergence of space and missile defense’

Previously U.S. Strategic Command managed the sea-based and ground-based radar systems used for missile defense, and Space Command was answerable for the missile-warning satellites.

Under the brand new arrangement, Space Command is the general sensor manager, which allows it to prioritize assets so that they may also be used to trace space debris and rival nations’ satellites. 

“We’re seeing a convergence between a whole lot of features of the missile defense and space missions,” Cobos said. 

In the approaching years and a long time, DoD will deploy dozens of sensor satellites in low and medium Earth orbits to trace hypersonic missiles, he said. As adversaries advance the technology and develop more sophisticated weapons, the U.S. will need to raised integrate its sensor data to characterize these fast-moving vehicles.

“We’re seeing within the operating environment a bit little bit of a shift. I call it the evolution of warfare,” said Cobos. “U.S. defense systems have caused a proliferation in missile technology that’s getting more advanced, more maneuverable.”

White said Space Command will seek “higher integration and fuzed data for higher characterization of threats. This helps all theaters defend their areas.”

“Lots of the sensors we use for space are the identical as missile defense and missile warning. Lots of that’s coming together, which creates a singular harmony for the commander of U.S. Space command to give you the option to oversee the planning for all that,” he said. “This may drive some unity in the best way we approach those missions.”

Sensors needed for space domain awareness

The Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense (JFCC IMD), which now reports to Space Command, runs an operations center at Schriever Space Force Base, Colorado. Slightly than having to route information through Strategic Command in Omaha, Nebraska, it now sends it on to Space Command’s joint operations center at Peterson Space Force Base, near Schriever.

“This helps harmonize operations, especially as missiles fly through space, which is Space Command’s area of responsibility,” Cobos said. 

Sensors at sea, on the bottom and in space support missile defense, and the theater commands operate them at regional level. But with Space Command in charge, there will likely be “major efficiencies in how those sensors are used when any person isn’t shooting a missile on the U.S.,” Cobos said. “About 99.9 percent of the time they will likely be doing space domain awareness.”