Space is new military frontier, says US Air Force general

US dependence on space is growing, and the ability of US forces to know exactly what is happening in space is critical to having assured mission capability, the US Air Force commander of the Space and Missile Systems Centre (SMC) and programme executive officer for space Lt Gen Michael Hamel told the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics space conference last week.

"Truly, space has become integral to every aspect of what we do in military operations today," he told the Space 2007 conference and exposition. "Space situational awareness (SSA) is now the means by which we intend to knit all those capabilities together," Gen Hamel said.

The Air Force Space Command has been conducting a review of space situational awareness assets, many of which are a legacy of the cold war, particularly in terms of sensors. Hamel acknowledged that many of today''s sensors are still fashioned around the geography of the former Soviet Union.

Space situational awareness will deal directly with this by freeing the observer from the Earth''s geography through space- and ground-based sensors designed to detect where and when launches are occurring around the globe. Gen Hamel called it "event-related space situational awareness".

Missile defence can play a support role, he said, and the Missile Defence Agency is looking into how to link data from legacy missile defence systems into the new integrated space situational awareness architecture.

For many years, missile-warning radars have been used as collateral sensors for a space surveillance network, Hamel said. He felt there was no reason that the same thing cannot be done using missile defence systems as collateral sensors for the new SSA capabilities.

"We have to look at ways to knit and net together sensors in a much more operationally responsive fashion, so we can maintain continuous knowledge as events and situations change," Hamel said. A program called Integrated Space Situational Awareness has been submitted as part of President Bush''s fiscal 2008 budget.

Hamel said that from 2009 onwards, there would be increasing investment in the architecture and netting together of sensors. He said that new and advanced sensors, like SBSS (space-based space surveillance systems), will become part of that architecture as special satellites are completed and launched.