SatCom For Net-Centric Warfare November/December 2010 MilsatMagazine Ka-band Mounted Battle Command On-The-Move Photo courtesy of EM Solutions milsatmagazine pAYLOAD — nov/dec 2010 CHRONICLES intel The Orbiting Vehicles Series: OV2 + Onwards Satellites + Remotely Piloted Aircraft by Jos Heyman ......................................26 Colonel Keith W. Balts, USAF .................04 Iran: Space Launch Capabilities Tiffany Chow ........................................50 COMMAND CENTER Securing Tactical Mobile Networks Martin Roesch .......................................63 James Ramsey, President MTN Government Services MilsatMagazine Editors .........................38 focus The Antenna Challenge William Hafner & James Montgomery .....18 Enhanced Situational Awareness Rick Lober ............................................34 Enhancing Mobility Through COTM Karl Fuchs ............................................45 The Importance Of Compression Sandy Johnson ......................................58 Mission Critical Audio Conferencing Sudhir Gupta ........................................68 2 MILSATMAGAZINE — SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2010 Satellites + Remotely Piloted Aircraft Colonel Keith W. Balts, USAF .................04 Iran: Space Launch Capabilities Tiffany Chow ........................................50 intel Satellites + Remotely Piloted Aircraft author: Colonel Keith W. Balts, U.S.A.F. Vice-commander, 30th space wing, vandenberg afb Advances in technology allow modern in person and on the battlefield, the forces to fight battles at extreme ground commander in Afghanistan distances, separating the shooter communicates with the remotely from the target. Whereas Colonel piloted aircraft (RPA) unit in Nevada Prescott delivered his famous directive while inputs stream in from the A pre-flight inspection of an MQ-1B Predator unmanned aircraft at Ali Base, Iraq. The Predator is a medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft. DoD photo by Airman 1st Class Christopher Griffin, U.S. Air Force. 4 MILSATMAGAZINE — NOvEMBER/dECEMBER 2010 cyberspace domains, identifying them intel Don’t fire until both as media “in which the United 3 you see the whites States can expect to be challenged.” of their eyes... In general, fourth-generation warfare —Col. William Prescott theory also supports this trend by Battle of Bunker suggesting that military operations Command center (Breed’s) Hill, 1775 are more “likely to be widely 4 dispersed and largely undefined.” In light of this relatively new trend, distributed common ground/surface military leaders need to consider system in Virginia and the combined potential second-order effects, air and space operations center in uniquely associated with 1 Qatar. Similar to RPA operations, distributed capabilities, that space operations are distinguished by may detract from the advantages that vast geographic separation between the these capabilities bring to the fight. ground and (space) vehicle segments. Comparing space and RPA operations According to General Kevin Chilton, illuminates several of these effects. commander of US Strategic Command, By leveraging the experience gained space operations are “absolutely global from decades of space operations, in nature and indifferent to physical military leaders can translate applicable 2 terrain or lines drawn on a map.” lessons learned from a relatively Forces able to distribute their operations geographically can gain advantages in force protection, Combat identification for economy of force, flexibility, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) system and personnel costs; however, during time-sensitive targeting such distribution also exposes them to can be messy and may include unique vulnerabilities and challenges. inputs from the distributed With the advantages in mind, the common ground/surface system, military has already fielded many the combined air and space remotely operated systems or has them operations center, the ground under development, demonstrating commander, and, of course, the an evolutionary trend toward more, UAS pilot. not fewer, distributed operations. —Pilot of a remotely piloted The RPA example above is a prolific aircraft flown during Operation one in the air domain; examples Enduring Freedom exist in other physical domains as well. General Chilton has punctuated the growing reliance on distributed operations for the space and MILSATMAGAZINE — NOvEMBER/dECEMBER 2010 5 intel mature unmanned community to a could also benefit from this discussion. comparatively young one. Many of Unlike the recent trends in air, these lessons also apply to remotely land, and sea domains, historically, operated capabilities in other domains. space operations have always been distributed (and remotely operated) Why should we compare space and due to the unique physical attributes RPA operations? Of all the terrestrially of, technical challenges peculiar to, based remotely operated systems, RPAs and risks in the space domain. currently make up the preponderance of those systems distributed across As General C. Robert Kehler, significant distances — that is, outside commander of Air Force Space the immediate area of responsibility. Command (AFSPC), remarked during Operators of other remote systems a visit last year to Creech AFB, are in fairly close proximity to the Nevada, home of Air Force RPAs, “We vehicles they control, but those understand remote split operations in systems may grow more distributed AFSPC. We have been operating UASs over time; thus, their communities for many years. It’s just that those The final phase of the training is held at the MQ-1 Predator Formal rainingT Unit (FTU) at Creech AFB, Nevada, where students learn to fly and fight with the MQ-1 Predators. Photo courtesy of USAF 6 MILSATMAGAZINE — NOvEMBER/dECEMBER 2010 UASs fly outside the atmosphere, Nevertheless, the crisscrossing intel and we fly things that are more evolutions of satellites and RPAs than 22,000 miles away. We do that distinguish the two. On the one hand, 5 with remote split operations.” space operations began in a distributed mode but have grown closer to the Military space operations do involve fight by deploying new systems and 6 Command center several manned weapon systems, expertise into the theater of operations. especially ground-based platforms RPA operations, on the other hand, performing space-related missions. Examples include launch vehicles, MOS space situational- awareness sensors, and space- control systems with a direct physical, rather than a remote, connection to the weapon system; however, this article addresses satellites because they represent the preponderance of space operations and are, in essence, remotely operated space vehicles. Satellite system architectures closely resemble RPA architectures as both consist of control segments, vehicle segments, and the links connecting them. MILSATMAGAZINE — NOvEMBER/dECEMBER 2010 7 intel offers a framework for 7 comparison and analysis. A DOTMLPF analysis of space operations reveals some recommendations that can help remotely operated communities in other domains better prepare for future distributed operations. Doctrine Despite the importance of doctrine to military success, especially the effective employment of new technologies, military personnel have noticed a lack of an overall doctrine for 8 RPAs. The uniqueness of these Global Hawks aircraft and other remotely operated systems warrants specific guidance to address distribute key elements of traditional shortfalls and differences in existing air operations away from the theater. doctrine. Current command and Despite their differences in capability control (C2) doctrine posed significant and operating domain, space and RPA challenges to space operations in the operations share enough characteristics late 1990s and early 2000s as space to make them worthy of comparison as capabilities became more integrated examples of distributed operations. with traditional military operations. Background, Two nuances, unique to space Analysis, and operations at the time, forced leaders Embedded in-theater and in US-based space Recommendations organizations to re-examine With the space community’s more existing C2 doctrine for establishing than five decades of experience in command relationships. First, space distributed operations, what lessons units can create effects within the apply to the RPA community? The traditional area of operations without doctrine, organization, training, the need to fully deploy or undergo materiel, leadership and education, a change of operational control personnel, and facilities (DOTMLPF) (CHOP) to theater. Second, space construct used by the Joint Capabilities capabilities can create effects across Integration and Development System, the entire area of operations — even across multiple areas of responsibility 8 MILSATMAGAZINE — NOvEMBER/dECEMBER 2010 simultaneous effects across intel traditional areas of operations. Organization During the past two decades, space expertise and organizations evolved within geographic commands in order Command center to better integrate space capabilities into traditional military operations; advise senior theater leadership on space capabilities; and plan, coordinate, and execute theater space operations. The speed and effectiveness of this evolution depended on the location and organizational affiliation of General C. Robert Kehler, commander the space personnel involved. of Air Force Space Command Initially, very few space-savvy personnel simultaneously or within the same existed