Military space architecture disaggregation is an innovative opportunity to stay ahead of adversaries, increase technological advancement and decrease production costs, the Air Force’s space wing said Wednesday in a new report.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) in its white paper, Resiliency and Disaggregated Space Architectures, touted the advantages of space disaggregation, or spreading capabilities onto multiple platforms or systems. Disaggregation improves mission survivability by increasing the number and diversity of potential targets, thereby complicating an adversary’s decision calculus and increasing the uncertainty of successful attack. The Air Force said disaggregation is of value whether the threat is a hostile enemy or an environmental threat, such as orbital debris.
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| Photo: AFSPC. |
“Carefully pursued, disaggregation can lead to less costly and more resilient space architectures in the face of a rapidly evolving security environment,” the Air Force said in the white paper.
The security environment has changed from the Cold War, when the U.S. was more concerned about potential nuclear attack. Previous satellite designs maximized the size, weight and capability of payloads within the constraints of a given launch vehicle. Performance was prioritized over protection as the threat of “mutually assured destruction” reduced any risk of attack. System designs naturally evolved to become increasingly complex, integrated and expensive.
The success of the Desert Storm campaign in the early 1990s delivered a wake-up call to adversaries, the Air Force said, as they saw first-hand the advantages of networked command and control (C2), overhead surveillance and precision targeting through the United States’ space assets. Space systems, meanwhile, were increasingly viewed as critical to U.S. conventional power. This combined with the evaluation that space capabilities are provided by a few, relatively vulnerable satellite architectures, led to the Defense Department’s assessment that U.S. reliance on space was a potential “Achilles’ Heel.”
The changing security environment has taken place alongside fiscal challenges and dwindling defense budgets. The Air Force said continued funding of expensive space systems is no longer assured and is assumed to be impractical. Combined with the growing threat environment, these space systems may place a significant amount of national treasure at risk. While launch failures are at record lows, there is always the risk that a single launch failure, early-orbit anomaly, environmental event or hostile act could result in the loss of hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars.
Current satellite technology becomes staid as aging satellites can’t be updated and incorporating technological advancements adds significantly to system costs. The Air Force said through less complex satellites employing more flexible designs, disaggregation can facilitate the incorporation of new technology before the end of a constellation’s lifetime. It also can enable adaptable platforms, software and capabilities to most effectively match emerging needs.
A continuous incorporation of new technology into space systems and higher rates of production through stricter requirements discipline can also help industry remain on the cutting edge. Higher throughput and more stable production rates should produce a larger market for space-qualified parts, thus providing incentives for more companies to enter the marketplace. Disaggregation could also foster healthy competition and assist distributing workload over multiple contractors developing different payloads.
Disaggregation is, unfortunately, not a cure-all to the nation’s space architecture vulnerabilities, the Air Force said. Innovative satellite operations concepts need to be examined along with disaggregation to avoid transferring satellite savings to ground segment costs. Consideration needs to be made for increased ground entry point assets, terrestrial communications and processing requirements for the ground segment.
“While disaggregation is only part of the equation for space system resiliency, it offers the possibility to increase technology refresh opportunities, improve requirements discipline, increase launch and space industrial base stability, increase affordability and improve deterrence,” the Air Force said.
Leading Washington analysts have also warned the Pentagon about the dangers of being slow to disaggregate space architecture. Todd Harrison, from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), said the United States is at risk of creating a “Maginot Line” in space, primarily with military satellite communication (MILSATCOM) assets, because it continues to assume that space systems will not be attacked in conventional conflict (Defense Daily, July 26).