Thompson touts Space Force acquisition achievements in exit interview

Gen. David Thompson of Washington spent his final moments in uniform just as he had for the past four years: explaining the job of the U.S. Space Force.

On December 14, the now-retired deputy director of space operations left the Pentagon for the last time and headed to Indiana to deliver the winter commencement address at his alma mater, Purdue University. Before offering the standard blessings and career advice, Thompson delivered what essentially became a speech that Space Force officials would give to the public.

I know there’s a question on your mind today, and it’s this: Space Force? Is this really a thing? “I thought it was just a Netflix series,” he said during a Dec. 17 speech.

He went on to explain that the service operates the GPS satellites that power the mapping apps, mobile networks and banking systems they rely on every day. He then talked about how the Space Force’s communications and weather satellites and their role in tracking Earth orbiting objects to warn of possible collisions.

For much of Thompson’s 38-year career, these missions have been at the heart of U.S. military space operations. But he said the Space Force’s role will grow in the coming years as threats increase in orbit and on Earth, and as commercial innovation introduces new capabilities and ways of operating.

Thompson recently spoke with C4ISRNET to discuss how the Space Force is laying the foundation for this growth and what resources are needed to support it. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When you think back to the early days of Space Force, what were the most difficult aspects of establishing the new service, and which aspects went more smoothly than you expected?

The first thing I want to say is that Air Force Space Command conducts a large number of combat missions every day. So the first thing we do is try to figure out how to keep the tasks going, keep the plans going, keep these processes going, make sure that none of these tasks or activities fail.

We had this wonderful plan, a huge plan for how we were going to build this Space Force. Essentially, the plan says, after the law is signed, give us one year to plan and prepare to establish the United States Space Force, and on the first day of the second year after the law is signed, we will establish the Space Force force. Well, the law says, no, you’re a Space Force member from day one.

The second thing the law requires is that you will be incorporated within 18 months. Now, that’s all the law says, so we have to define the rest. But what we’re saying is, okay, we need to establish an approved organizational structure for the entire Space Force within these 18 months. It has to be resourced, which means all the people, support and other things need to be part of the plan. So that’s probably the first big thing we did to achieve that goal.

I think the second major achievement is that we’ve gained tremendous momentum in changing our architectural approach to space systems, moving from a relatively small number of very powerful and very expensive satellites to a proliferation of constellations that may someday number dozens , hundreds of satellites, thousands of satellites, each much cheaper and much less capable, but collectively the constellation is just as capable, maybe even more powerful. And it’s very resilient, as it resists degradation under attack.

So when you think about the design work that we’ve done, we’re already in the middle of missile warning and missile tracking. We have completed the design of the spatial data network and are currently in progress. We are also looking at other ways to do this. I think it should have been done under Air Force Space Command, but I don’t think it would have happened as quickly without the Space Force and a service chief saying we have to move in this direction.

The third is to introduce organizations and personnel from other services. Now, this certainly hasn’t been without its ups and downs. We have a process for inter-service transfers, as they’re called within the Department of Defense. But really, it’s designed for one or two people here, a few people there. At one time we were serving 700 people a year. So we have to figure out how to do that. Like I said, it hasn’t been smooth sailing along the way. But I think another success was how we were able to create this large-scale process, bringing in a lot of people from other services.

In creating the Space Force, Congress pushed hard to improve space acquisition systems. What progress has the service made on this front?

Our relocation volumes are significant in some areas and not enough in others. On the one hand, people will criticize us for not moving fast enough, and on the other hand, laws and policies and regulations beyond our control do not allow us to act. We have some responsibility for that, but I would say I think you’re seeing some incredible work right now.

You may be following some of the Space Development Agency’s efforts and how quickly they are progressing. They have more work to do to prove that they will continue to do this and do it again. I would say that they’ve proven that very clearly so far. But they must continue to build a successful record.

A similar situation exists at the Space Rapid Capabilities Office in Albuquerque. When you see how quickly they moved and what they delivered, you can see they did an outstanding job. And then Space Systems Command is also working to accelerate their process. I think they have the furthest way to go because they’ve been doing this for years and a lot of the processes that are clearly defined by law and policy that are slowing us down are plans that they ended up executing. But they’re also trying to accelerate.

In what ways is the commercial sector helping to drive changes in the services’ views on purchasing new satellites and other space capabilities?

For many years, especially in the national security space, we have built satellites the same way automakers built customized passenger cars 100 years ago. They’re delicate, beautiful, expensive, and powerful, but you can only build them one at a time. Many of these companies have now established satellite production lines and are building hundreds of satellites.

This does three things. It demonstrates how satellites are built on a serious production line. The second thing is that it reduces the cost of technology. Then there’s the speed at which it travels.

The Space Force’s budget has more than doubled since its creation. Do you expect funding to continue to grow?

Space budgets need to increase because more missions are migrating to space. Space connectivity goes far beyond traditional satellite communications and we must put it in place. We have openly discussed the need for tracking and targeting systems, and next will be ground moving target designation and air moving target designation. Some of these missions are accomplished in benign environments or environments where we have air superiority, and they have to be moved to space. Therefore, we need to work to protect our use of space and prevent adversaries from exploiting it.

It’s all about growth in mission. So the budget has to be increased. The challenge is that in this environment, defense budgets may not grow as dramatically in the near future as they have recently. So how much growth we will see will depend on how much the nation can and will spend on defense, and how much of that it is prepared to allocate to the Space Force.

As the service seeks to evolve and modernize its current architecture, officials have said they hope to move to a more resilient system by 2027. What progress is the Space Force making?

I would say [2027] It could very well be an inflection point. In some areas, we are still a long way from that point. In some ways we will be firmly in the middle of the pack, and in others we are just getting started. Some of this is simply a function of the resources put into it and the work to be done.

We’re not going to get it all done, but global missile warning, missile tracking architecture to track emerging threats like hypergliding vehicles and maneuvering superiors and other things, it will be very close to being done in that time frame. Our spatial data network, will include some space development agencies, some commercial capabilities and some of our own capabilities, I would say by then it will be midstream, which means there are many, many capabilities there, there are many capabilities there connectivity, but not quite the full connectivity and capacity we need. Other missions, such as ground moving target designation, we should be in good shape and progressing well, but it’s still a nascent capability.

there’s still a long way to go. There are lots of opportunities to continue to do well and lots of opportunities to take on challenges. But early indicators that the way we’re designing these systems in terms of cost and performance, particularly performance that’s being attacked in the early stages of delivery and acquisition programs, are coming to fruition.