After Edward Snowden’s disclosures publicly revealed the existence of a vast array of US spying methods and programs, one could be forgiven for thinking there aren’t more media for American intelligence services to tap.
But some officials at the Pentagon are pointing out, and lamenting, the lack of American eyes and ears on the final frontier.
Admiral Cecil Haney, leader of US Strategic Command, on Tuesday urged the Pentagon to develop a more advanced intelligence program to monitor activity in outer space.
The head of the defense organ tasked with space operations, Haney told reporters that the Department of Defense should be “enhancing our awareness in space” in order to “develop responsive capabilities.”
“We have to be ready for any campaign that extends its way into space,” he said.
“This is what we call the space situational awareness program,” Haney commented. “And this program has to be more than just cataloging things, but really being able to monitor and attribute any mischief that is detected in space.”
Haney specifically pointed to Chinese activities in describing a “threat in space” requiring the US to keep better tabs on lower earth orbit. He pointed to a 2007 anti-satellite weapons test that “created just thousands and thousands of pieces of debris that we are confronted with even today.” Haney also said a Chinese test last summer that didn’t result in any destruction was a cause for concern due to “the whole physics and the demonstration and everything they did.”
“They didn’t hit anything. But quite frankly, that does not mean that that was a failed test,” he said.
Haney declined to get into too many details about the program, and instead simply called for resiliency “in how we operate,” how we cooperate with allies, and with respect to “other mechanisms associated with space protection.”
“I won’t give any further details here because going further than that, it’s pretty classified,” he remarked.
The STRATCOM leader did, however, part ways with some vague details, when he said he believed that the President’s 2016 fiscal year budget offers the Pentagon “adequate funding associated with where we need to invest in, associated with our capabilities for space protection.”
The White House’s budget proposal would allocate $190 billion–a $22 billion annual increase–to “prioritize investments” that include “space,” along with cybersecurity, missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
“Space capabilities are vital to US national security and the ability to understand emerging threats, project power globally, conduct operations, support diplomatic efforts, and enable global economic prosperity,” the Office of Management and Budget said, in its report on the White House’s fiscal plans, claiming that the financial blueprints “help deter and defeat interference with, and attacks on, US space systems.”
Last May, Foreign Policy, detailed deficiencies in American outer space intelligence by chronicling inconsistent official assessments of US capabilities. The publication’s Micah Zenko noted that James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, issued a January 2014 warning about threats in space increasing “during 2014 and beyond as potential adversaries pursue disruptive and destructive counterspace capabilities.” A few months later, Zenko noted, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that the US is “in really good shape with space.”
“I’m more confident today than I was a year ago with where we are going with our knowledge of space activities,” Flynn stated.
Last July, the Air Force launched two high orbit surveillance satellites with “unprecedented” maneuvering accuracy, as part of the space situational awareness program—an initiative that was only first declassified in February 2014. The spacecraft were put into orbit to “perform rendezvous and proximity maneuvers to allow close-up looks” at other satellites roughly 36,000 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, according to SpaceNews. The publication also noted that two more spy satellites are expected to be launched in 2016.
Overt US support for the militarization and weaponization of space is a contentious issue. Last year, the US was among a tiny minority of countries to oppose UN disarmament committee resolutions on discouraging space weaponization. American diplomats decried the proposals as lacking compliance mechanisms and having “significant flaws.”
There mere existence of defensive intelligence satellites is, too, controversial. Two former Air Force officials and defense researchers, in writing about the pair of satellites launched last July, noted that they require “unprecedented accuracy in terms of propulsion and positioning” due to the consequences of any potential mishap.
“A collision will result in significant political and financial problems; moreover, it could produce debris capable of contaminating a large portion of the geosynchronous orbit,” Gene McCall and John Darrah wrote in a report commissioned by the Air Force.
