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National Guard Slated for Big Missile Defense Role
posted: 05:26 pm ET, 16 September 2003
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omahabriefs_091603
National Guard Slated for Big Missile Defense Role
U.S. National Guard troops will provide about 80 percent of the manpower needed to operate the country’s initial National Missile Defense system, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Segment, which is scheduled to be deployed by late 2004.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Joseph Cosumano, commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command and Army Space Command, said National Guard troops would be based at Fort Greeley, Alaska, where the Missile Defense Agency is building six missile-interceptor silos. He said National Guard troops also will be assigned to the missile defense operations center at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo.
The rationale for using National Guard troops is that they typically reside near where they are based, and thus are likely to be around for longer time periods than regular troops, Cosumano said.
"They are not going to move unless we move Fort Greeley," Cosumano said.
The Missile Defense Agency is developing technologies to knock out enemy rockets in the boost, midcourse and terminal phases of flight. Congress approved $7.8 billion for the overall program for 2003. The ground-based missile defense units at Fort Greeley should be set up by October 2004, Cosumano said.
U.S. StratCom Chief Says Bandwidth Not Unlimited
With the military’s demand for satellite services growing exponentially and some officials talking about the need for unlimited bandwidth, the man responsible for finding it says there has to be a limit.
The U.S. military needs a "bandwidth appetite suppressant," said U.S. Navy Admiral John Ellis, commander of U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Neb. "We’re like a kid in a candy store. If it’s there, we’ll use it," he said. Ellis said his concern is that if Pentagon officials give the impression that bandwidth is not a problem, then the people who design satellites and related ground equipment will not take steps to make them as efficient as possible. Incorporating data compression techniques and other technology that minimizes the amount of bandwidth a system consumes, will help ensure that needed satellite services are available when commanders must have them.
"We need to make sure that those who are building our systems understand that there is not likely to ever be an unlimited supply of bandwidth and capacity available," Ellis said. "Even in large quantities, that bandwidth costs money. We need to understand that at the start and not at the end, when we have all these systems and not enough bandwidth to use them all," Ellis said at a Sept. 4 press conference during the Strategic Space 2003 conference in Omaha, Neb. sponsored by Space News and the Space Foundation.
Even if there is enough bandwidth available for all the legacy and planned space systems, the U.S. government would benefit from designing more efficient systems because it would save on the weight and size of the satellites and the cost to build and launch them, Ellis said.
One example of the military’s increasing use of bandwidth is its contract with Iridium Satellite LLC to provide global satellite telephone service to mobile forces, Ellis said. In late 2000, the Pentagon signed a $36 million a year deal with Iridium Satellite LLC, which took control of the 66-satellite constellation after the original operator went bankrupt. Iridium Satellite LLC’s contract with the Pentagon was for two years, with three one-year options.
The Iridium satellites are expected to reach the end of their service life by the end of the decade and Iridium has had a difficult time convincing investors to finance the manufacture and launch of a second generation of satellites. Ellis is not convinced that the U.S. government should commit to keeping the company in business. "The company has made strides in advancing the system, but market forces should play a role [in its future]," he said.
One option for replacing commercial mobile satellite services would be the planned Mobile User Objective System, a system of six military geostationary satellites that will provide communications for ships at sea as well as remotely-deployed ground forces.
Ellis said it is unclear at this point whether the Mobile Objective User System will be able to meet all of DoD’s mobile phone requirements. When asked if the government should help Iridium fund replenishment of its satellite fleet to ensure U.S. forces have all of the mobile telephone services they need, Ellis said he preferred to see the private market solve that problem. Ellis said he hopes the U.S. military’s strong demand for satellite mobile telephone service will convinces private investors that it makes sense to fund the design and construction of replacement satellites.
If Iridium fails to raise the money it needs to launch the next generation of satellites and MUOS alone is not enough to satisfy the military’s demand for mobile communication services, the Strategic Command will have to review its options, Ellis said.
Comments: jbates@space.com
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