[House Hearing, 116 Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] . [H.A.S.C. No. 116-26] HEARING ON NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020 AND OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION __________ SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES HEARING ON FISCAL YEAR 2020 PRIORITIES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE PROGRAMS __________ HEARING HELD APRIL 3, 2019 [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES JIM COOPER, Tennessee, Chairman SUSAN A. DAVIS, California MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio RICK LARSEN, Washington JOE WILSON, South Carolina JOHN GARAMENDI, California ROB BISHOP, Utah JACKIE SPEIER, California MIKE ROGERS, Alabama SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts MO BROOKS, Alabama SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California BRADLEY BYRNE, Alabama RO KHANNA, California SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts LIZ CHENEY, Wyoming KENDRA S. HORN, Oklahoma, Vice Chair Leonor Tomero, Counsel Sarah Mineiro, Professional Staff Member Zach Taylor, Clerk C O N T E N T S ---------- Page STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Cooper, Hon. Jim, a Representative from Tennessee, Chairman, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces............................... 1 Turner, Hon. Michael R., a Representative from Ohio, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces....................... WITNESSES Chaplain, Cristina T., Director, Contracting and National Security Acquisitions, U.S. Government Accountability Office... 4 Rapuano, Hon. Kenneth, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security, Department of Defense.... 2 Raymond, Gen John W., USAF, Commander, Air Force Space Command... 3 APPENDIX Prepared Statements: Chaplain, Cristina T......................................... 56 Cooper, Hon. Jim, a Representative from Tennessee, Chairman, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces........................... 25 Rapuano, Hon. Kenneth........................................ 28 Raymond, Gen John W.......................................... 39 Turner, Hon. Michael R., a Representative from Ohio, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces................... 26 Documents Submitted for the Record: [There were no Documents submitted.] Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing: [There were no Questions submitted during the hearing.] Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing: [There were no Questions submitted post hearing.] FISCAL YEAR 2020 PRIORITIES FOR NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE PROGRAMS ---------- House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 3, 2019. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:27 p.m., in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jim Cooper (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Ms. Horn [presiding]. Good afternoon. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for being here. Kendra Horn. I am sitting in for Mr. Cooper for a few moments. I would like to welcome the witnesses and thank you all for being here today. And I am going to offer Mr. Cooper's opening statement for the record. If you would like for me to share it, I am happy to do so, if you find that helpful. Otherwise, I will just submit it for the record. [The prepared statement of Mr. Cooper can be found in the Appendix on page 25.] Ms. Horn. And as the vice chair of this committee, I want to say that I am happy that you are all here today, eager to have this really critical conversation about the priorities and end posture for our national security space enterprise, which is clearly critical to our Nation's overall security in maintaining superiority in this space and look forward to your testimonies. And I don't--the ranking member is--Mr. Rogers. Mr. Rogers. Yeah. Ms. Horn. Yeah. There you are. I offer an opportunity for the ranking member to make a few comments as we begin. Mr. Rogers. I thank you. Thank the chair, vice chair. I appreciate our witnesses being here. This is a, as you know, a very important topic for our country. This is going to get a lot of attention this year in the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act], as it should. We have put a lot of work into this. And it is going to be monumentally important for our Nation. This is very important stuff. And so I am glad the committee is taking it up. I look forward to working with you on it. And I yield back. Ms. Horn. Okay. All right. I will now turn it over to the witnesses to give their opening statements. You will each have 5 minutes, and then of course your written statements will be submitted for the record. Mr. Rapuano. STATEMENT OF HON. KENNETH RAPUANO, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR HOMELAND DEFENSE AND GLOBAL SECURITY, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE Secretary Rapuano. Chairman Cooper, distinguished members of the subcommittee, it is a pleasure to--it is on. Sorry. It is a pleasure to appear before you along with General Raymond and Ms. Chaplain today. The U.S. is at a strategic inflection point in an era of renewed great power competition. Our reliance on space is at an all-time high and expanding. Our way of life and national defense rely on space, yet our posture was built for a permissive space environment. At the same time, potential adversary threats are also at an all-time high and expanding. China and Russia understand the essential role of space to our way of war. They see this reliance as our Achilles heel, and they are developing offensive military capabilities, doctrine, and organizations intended to place U.S. and allied space systems at risk. They are developing, testing, and fielding a full suite of antisatellite weapons, including ground-launched missiles and directed-energy weapons, and continue to launch experimental satellites that conduct sophisticated, on-orbit activities to counter space capabilities. I cannot emphasize enough how serious these challenges are. This is not about space for space's sake. This is about life here on Earth. Our national defense and the lives of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines rely on space. To be clear, we are currently ahead in space, but we are not postured for the emerging strategic environment we are facing and risk steadily losing our margin of advantage. Department of Defense space professionals are the best in the world, but we are not currently postured to maintain our comparative advantages in the emerging strategic environment. Our challenges stem from decentralized advocacy, fragmented responsibilities across multiple services and agencies, and nascent space warfighting doctrine capabilities and expertise. We have put considerable thought and analysis into studying the problem, and it is time for action, and we need your support. To compete, deter, and win in space is a complex, massive, and enduring undertaking; therefore, we must fundamentally change our approach to space from a key support function in a benign environment to space as a critical and contested warfighting domain. This requires changes in policies, strategies, capabilities and, yes, organization. A new armed force is foundational to our approach. Last month, the Department provided Congress with a legislative proposal for the establishment of the U.S. Space Force as a new branch of our Armed Forces. The U.S. Space Force will catalyze the transformation of space as a warfighting domain. It will provide the undivided attention, advocacy, and leadership necessary to develop the people, the doctrine, and the capabilities to maintain our unfettered access to and ability to fight and win in space. This will ensure continued U.S. dominance in space. We will also establish a combatant command, the United States Space Command, to focus joint warfighting in space. It will plan and conduct space operations to enhance deterrence and assure allies and partners and defeat threats to U.S. national interests. Essential to the success of USSPACECOM will be the doctrine, equipment, and trained personnel presented to it by the United States Space Force. The U.S. Space Force, Space Command, the Space Development Agency, and other vital reforms will put the U.S. on the right path to enhance deterrence in space. The Department greatly appreciates the work of this committee, the focus you have provided on national security space, and highlighting the need for a strategic paradigm shift and structural change. Thank you again, and I look forward to your questions today. [The prepared statement of Secretary Rapuano can be found in the Appendix on page 28.] Ms. Horn. Thank you very much. General Raymond. STATEMENT OF GEN JOHN W. RAYMOND, USAF, COMMANDER, AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND General Raymond. Congresswoman Horn, Congressman Rogers, members of the committee, distinguished members of the committee, I am absolutely honored to appear before you today. I think this is my third time as the Commander of Air Force Space Command. I appreciate your support. And on behalf of the 26,200 men and women that make up Air Force Space Command-- simply the world's best--we thank you for your leadership. Today, consistent with our National Security Strategy and our National Defense Strategy, there is an unprecedented alignment that space is a warfighting domain just like air, land, and sea. While we have become comfortable declaring space as a warfighting domain, the implications of this declaration are significant and driving tremendous change. With your strong support, we have developed a strategy, resourced that strategy, and have made significant advances in the national security space enterprise. This fiscal year 2020 budget builds on our efforts over the past 2 years and proposes a 17 percent increase in space funding over the previous fiscal year, in total a $14 billion investment. With my posture statement in the record, let me summarize just a few points, if I could. First of all, our primary focus is on enhancing lethality and readiness in this warfighting domain. We have invested in new, defendable architectures. We have invested in space situational awareness and command and control capabilities necessary to operate in a warfighting domain. We have funded training infrastructure to develop our joint space warfighters and the cadre that is so critical to our Nation's success. We have enhanced and expanded our partnerships with the intelligence community, our allies, and with commercial industry, to include nontraditional partners. And I would just, if I could, take a moment from the script. The last five times I have testified here I have had Betty Sapp at my side. And yesterday Betty Sapp retired as the Director of the NRO [National Reconnaissance Office]. And I will tell you, she has been a spectacular partner, and the work that we have done together has provided great advantage to our Nation. I am going to miss her. You will see, in these partnerships, we have enhanced our partnerships with the National Reconnaissance Office. It is the best we have ever been. And we have hosted payloads on allied partners' satellites, which is also a significant step forward. Finally, we have focused on capitalizing on innovative business practices. We have retooled the Space and Missile Systems Center, and it is something we call SMC-2.0. We have established, based on the recommendations of the NDAA last year, a space RCO [Rapid Capabilities Office] that is up and running at Kirtland Air Force Base. And we are adopting open architectures and standards to drive innovation across a broader commercial base, which has been so important to the space domain. Let me close by reiterating that we do not want a war to extend into space. Our mission is to deter that. But the best way to deter that is to be prepared to fight and win that war if deterrence were to fail, and we are. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here. I greatly appreciate it, and I really look forward to your questions. Thank you. [The prepared statement of General Raymond can be found in the Appendix on page 39.] Ms. Horn. Thank you, General. Ms. Chaplain, look forward to hearing from you. STATEMENT OF CRISTINA T. CHAPLAIN, DIRECTOR, CONTRACTING AND NATIONAL SECURITY ACQUISITIONS, U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Ms. Chaplain. Vice Chair Horn, Ranking Member Rogers, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for inviting me today to discuss DOD [Department of Defense] space programs. Space is at a pivotal point right now. In the face of growing threats and lengthy development cycles, DOD is embracing new approaches to help speed up the acquisition process, establish better partnerships with the commercial sector, and change its acquisition culture. There is also a proposal before Congress on strengthening leadership for space. Bringing about this broad span of change will be challenging to say the least and not without risk. More specifically, while DOD is undertaking this change, it will need to concurrently focus on completing older programs that are still struggling. The ground system for GPS [Global Positioning System], known as OCX [Next Generation Operation Control System], for example, is 5 years late. And while the contractor has improved the pace of building and testing software, we still see a lot of schedule risk. The Air Force also recently stopped development work on JMS [Joint Space Operations Center Mission System], a ground system for processing space situational awareness data, because it didn't deliver as expected. We are also still faced with long gaps between delivery of satellites and ground systems needed to make use of their capabilities. Moreover, there are a myriad of challenges facing space programs that are just getting underway. First, even with the new space proposal, there are still a lot of open questions about leadership. For example, at this time, it appears that there will be a number of space acquisition activities outside the Space Force, including the Missile Defense Agency, the NRO, and some military space service activities. But so far, it is uncertain what the overall governance structure for space will be. If there are conflicts in requirements, funding, or priorities between agencies that are not in the Space Force, who resolves them and makes a final decision? There is also a new entity being rolled out, the Space Development Agency [SDA], which has very worthwhile goals of adopting innovative technologies for space. But at this time, it is unclear how it will mesh with similar agencies, and also still unclear who is in charge of future architectures for space. These questions may well be resolved as details for the Space Force and SDA get worked out, but new programs will be operating with uncertainty for the time being. Second, while streamlining may help speed up space programs and change the culture, we know from past efforts to streamline space that there is also a risk of inviting programs to move too quickly and disregard the engineering and acquisition discipline that is so very important to space. Keep in mind that space is different than other types of weapons. You cannot easily fix satellites once they are in orbit. We consistently see programs suffer major setbacks because one quality procedure was not followed or one small flaw and one small part was not detected. This does not mean streamlining cannot be done or should not be done. It just means we should heed lessons from the past, maintain good insight, oversight, and expertise, and be prepared to cancel programs that falter. Third, there is a question about DOD's capacity to manage multiple new programs concurrently. Yes, there is a healthy increase being proposed for space, but consider at least nine significant programs are getting underway. They will likely require heavy investments upfront, and that DOD will also be seeking money for a new Space Force, for space protection, for new Space Development Agency, a new missile defense space layer, as well as priorities outside of space such as the nuclear triad. There are also questions about workforce capacity. We recently reported that just tracking who is in the space acquisition workforce is a challenge, and there are gaps in technical expertise that could be stretched with multiple new programs. Moreover, all these new programs will be software intensive, but DOD has challenges managing software. We recently found space software programs struggle to effectively engage system users, which is critical to their success. We understand many new programs are attempting to be more agile and to use more modern tools, but it remains to be seen how successful DOD can be in adopting these new ways. Again, good things are happening in space. There is attention from the highest levels of government, more resources, and a recognition that different approaches and cultures are needed. What is key to making them happen is not to lose focus on improving acquisition management and oversight, building capacity as we speed up programs, and continuing to reduce fragmentation. This concludes my statement, and I am happy to answer any questions you have. [The prepared statement of Ms. Chaplain can be found in the Appendix on page 56.] Ms. Horn. Thank you. I appreciate all three of you being here today. And I am going to start with, I think, what is one of the obvious questions, and I know many of us on this committee and the committee as a whole have begun to address it, and that I think is alignment of our priorities and the realignment of space in the form of a Space Force or some other realignment, which it is clear, I think, to me and to, I would say, most of us or everyone on this committee certainly that space as a contested area is unquestionable and it is undoubted, and we have a lot of adversaries increasing their presence, their investment, and the work that they are doing in this arena so that we have to, I think, be smart about how we move forward. And I asked a couple of these questions to General Dunford the other day, and I think I want to hear from you today. And I am going to start with Space Force and how we structure that. And first of all, your sense of whether or not this is an alignment that needs to be--that needs to have a direct report up to the Joint Chiefs or what that looks like. And I would like to start, General Raymond, because you are currently there, with your sense of how this realignment would impact, and do you see the need for Joint Chiefs? General Raymond. Thank you. Let me first say that I fully support the standup of a Space Force underneath the Department of Air Force. I do so for several reasons: First of all, it will elevate space to the level of importance that it is for our--to our Nation and to our joint force; secondly, it will align and unify space activities that are currently spread out across the Department under one force; thirdly, it will provide a four-star that will come to work every day focused on that domain, which I think is really, really important; and then, finally, by putting the Space Force underneath the Department of the Air Force, we do so in a very efficient manner. And so, for all of those reasons, I think it is structured properly in the way the legislation--legislative proposal came forward, and I am supportive. Ms. Horn. Thank you. Mr. Rapuano. Secretary Rapuano. I agree wholeheartedly with General Raymond's response. I would simply add that, as a major warfighting domain, space is a vast, physical domain. It requires the time and attention and undivided focus of senior leadership in the Department in the form, consistent with our proposal, with the Chief of Staff of the Space Force who will be a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as a vice, who will be the four-star vice to the Chief of Staff. It is that focused attention on the mission, and it is the--per the Goldwater-Nichols structure, it is that organize, train, and equip function that will present the trained personnel, the doctrine, and the expertise as well as the equipment in the form of the architecture to the U.S. Space Command, which will then leverage those capabilities in the day-to-day employment of the joint space forces. Ms. Horn. Thank you. Following on that a little bit, it is clear that we have some challenges with identifying acquisition development, development timelines as China, Russia, some of our other adversaries are beginning to put more time and resources into this domain that we need to streamline. And so I have a couple of questions following on the identification and the cost and/ or relative cost savings that this might impact. So, in the recent GAO [Government Accountability Office] report that looks at what we know about space, having it in so many different places across DOD, and I understand that the proposed Space Force plan would still have--we would still have some programs under the intelligence community umbrella. Setting that aside to a certain extent, the fact that we still have areas that we just don't know where acquisition is going and we are not quite clear on all of the workforce issues, General Raymond, I think I want to know what steps--as we put this plan into place but in the interim, what steps the DOD will be taking and Space Command will be taking to identify the number of acquisition personnel that are needed so that when we stand--when this is stood up or we do this realignment that we don't--you don't find ourselves in that same position. General Raymond. Yeah. So this committee has helped over the years just discuss how important it is that we reduce the timeline from requirements to acquisition, so we have to get this right. Today, we have rearchitected SMC-2.0, and we have elevated the stature of the human resource capital manager of that. Our personnel numbers at SMC today are the best it has ever been. They are about 85 percent manned. Our midlevel managers are the highest it has ever been as well and have pretty significant capability. One of the things that we are looking at and addressing is, there is about--I think in your report you mentioned about 8,000 acquisition professionals that are dealing with space. And one of the things that we have studied over this past year and we are putting together an office to manage that broader enterprise look at acquisition officers spread out across the Department that have space expertise, and so we are going to put mechanisms in place to be able to track that and develop that towards the end of being able to move fast and deliver critical capabilities for our Nation. Ms. Horn. Following on that with space workforce development, and I have--I will have a question for you in just a moment about the GAO report, with the 2-year rotations occurring, 2-year rotations, do you see that the current structure as challenging to develop and retain the expertise in the DOD workforce in the space domain? General Raymond. I am pretty comfortable with our ability to develop expertise in the space domain. I think we have got a level of expertise that is greater than when I first got into this job, and I am comfortable. I think there is--you know, there is cost benefits. There is goodness of moving people as well to get different expertise and bringing in outside talent to help us, and so I am comfortable we have it about right. Ms. Horn. In the transition to a new architecture, do you think that would help to recruit and retain even if they are moving within Space Force but to develop and retain that expertise in a way that is more focused? And perhaps that is a better way that I could describe that question. General Raymond. Yeah. So I would tell the subcommittee, it is an exciting time to be in this business. There are a lot of people knocking on our doors wanting to come to work for us. It is really an exciting time, and we have had no problem recruiting talent to come our way. And I think the way we restructured SMC, it provides some opportunities to get people in, build that talent, and then actually, as you mentioned, move them around to different areas of expertise to help grow them for the future. Ms. Horn. Thank you. And one final question for you, Ms. Chaplain. Could you specify--you have summarized well the GAO report--the biggest area of challenge that you identified, specifically around the lack of knowledge about where all of the acquisition pieces are that you found in your GAO report. Ms. Chaplain. Yeah. I would like to say it is not just unique to space. The way DOD tracks its acquisition professionals in general focuses on certain skill sets like program managers, engineers, and not necessarily the mission area or platforms that they work on. So we found that DOD couldn't really tell us who was in the space acquisition workforce because of the way their systems track. But it is a good idea to maybe change the system so that you can track at least for space. If you are talking about bringing together organizations, you want to know who is out there to draw on. And then it would help you do more analysis in terms of types of expertise that you might need more of, which I think has been an issue for a long time. Ms. Horn. Thank you, all. We have been joined by our chairman. I want to thank you all, the witnesses, for your testimony and questions, and I will turn it over to Chairman Cooper. Mr. Cooper [presiding]. Sounds like you were doing a great job. I am happy for you to stay there, if you would like. Who is the next questioner? I don't want to interfere in the line of questioning. Mr. Rogers, I would be honored to recognize my friend from Alabama. Mr. Rogers. I thank my friend from Tennessee. This is great stuff. Something that Mr. Rapuano said a few minutes ago I think this committee should be sure and take note of. You know, General Raymond listed some of the significant impacts of having a separate Space Force. But the fact that we are going to have a four-star Chief of Staff and a four-star vice chief of--no, not chief--yeah, General Hyten, two space professionals in the tank advocating for space is huge as we try to have a new service. You know, one of the problems that we found with this committee is that space was being starved in the Air Force. It is not going to be starved anymore under this new construct, and it is going to get the kind of resources we need to be successful. So I am excited about that, and I want everybody to take note of that because that is a big deal in this organizational structure. I also want to note, Ms. Chaplain did the work that helped focus this committee on this. A lot of folks in the government don't get the attention they ought to get, but she ought to be recognized for the hard work she did in helping me and Jim Cooper and the rest of this committee recognize the foundation that had been laid by the Rumsfeld Commission, Allard Commission, several reports that her office had done. This Space Force idea did not come up out of me and Jim Cooper. It came through the work of those commissions and the GAO studies, and I appreciate what you have done. To that point, Ms. Chaplain, looking back over the last 30 years at the Rumsfeld Commission, the studies you have done, the Allard Commission, what do you think--where do you think we are now given what they were saying we needed to be doing? Are we following through on the path that they pointed us toward? Ms. Chaplain. I think we are. We have had a lot of attempts since those commissions to do things, but they were mostly on the edges, or they were reforms that didn't work very long. And now we have something before us that can make lasting change, which is one of the important ingredients that those commissions brought out. Some of them envisioned even more dramatic changes that are being proposed right now. They envisioned an independent Space Force. And one of the commissions that was done under this committee also envisioned a giant national space security organization that would include the NRO. But they all also admitted that maybe you need these interim steps in between. Mr. Rogers. Exactly. Ms. Chaplain. And I think that is where we are now is the interim step. Mr. Rogers. Yeah. Back a few minutes ago I was trying to refer to the term ``vice chairman'' talking about General Hyten. And that is when he suggested to this committee in briefings is that this is an evolutionary process. We don't have to go from where we are now without a Space Force to this full-blown construct that has all the IC [intelligence community] in it and in a separate department. Just like the Air Force didn't evolve out of the Army to be what it is today; it went through iterations, and that is what I envision here. Ms. Chaplain in her opening statement, General Raymond, made reference to some confusion about the role of SMC versus Space Development Agency. And you made some reference to it. How do you see those two working--in my view, I don't know why we would need an SMC once we have a full-blown Space Development Agency. So tell me how you see that working out. General Raymond. First of all, I don't think there is any argument at all that we have to get faster. Mr. Rogers. Yeah. General Raymond. And we have talked about this for years. The time from requirement to capability has to get shortened. And so, with the help of this committee and with Congress last year, we, for example, stood up a Space Rapid Capabilities Office to get after that. We have rearchitected the Space and Missile Systems Center to get after that. We have had partnerships with the Air Force RCO. We have had partnerships with the NRO, and it is all in my written statement. So everybody is moving out fast to work to shorten that timeline. And I think that is a national imperative. The Space Development Agency is doing the same thing, and I--that there is all goodness in what we say that they are going to do. The details of that, as I understand, are still being worked. And so what we are going to have to do is I am going to have to--and I look forward to working with Dr. Griffin as we go forward to make sure that these are synchronized activities and not competing, and I think we can do that. Mr. Rogers. Great. In talking with my friend Chairman Cooper about this and others, we are a little concerned that the proposal that came over from the Defense Department has some cross-jurisdictional problems that need to be cleaned up. We want to make sure you understand that, while we want and expect and are determined to see the standing up of a separate Space Force, the version--the proposal that you all sent us is not going to be the final product because we are going to have to clean up some of those things. Just from a legislative standpoint, this committee, meaning the HASC, the House Armed Services Committee, and our counterpart on the Senate side should be the committee that decides this, and I think you are going to see some changes made. And I hope you understand this is a process. You all make proposals. We make--come back--counter proposals, and we get to a place where we have something good. But I do want you to know we see some pretty glaring problems that are going to have to be cleaned up in that proposal. And, with that, I thank the chairman for the time, and I yield back. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman from Alabama. Let me ask unanimous consent that the members of the full committee, such as Mr. Lamborn, be able to ask questions at the end of subcommittee questioning. Hearing no objection, that will be approved. Next questioner will be Mrs. Davis. Mrs. Davis. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all of you for being here. Mr. Rapuano and General Raymond, I think it is pretty clear, I am sure to all of us in the room, where you stand on this now. I appreciate that. And yet I am also wondering, you know, from an outside perspective, where you think there is some redundancy. I mean, from an outsider, Space Force, Space Command, new Space Development Agency sort of sounds like, do we have to do all that? And yet some redundancy is always good. Some of it is probably over the top. What---- General Raymond. I think--thank you for the question. I think if you go back to Goldwater-Nichols back in the 1980s, it was kind of two functions that were laid out. One function is an organize, train, and equip function and that is the function of services. The other function is a warfighting function, and that is the function of combatant commands. And so they actually have two different roles. So, if you look at the proposals being talked about with the Space Force and the combatant command, the Space Force would provide organized, trained, and equipped professionals to U.S. Space Command to be able to employ. So there is actually two different functions, and it works--it has been working very well since the 1980s. Mrs. Davis. Did you want to comment, Mr. Rapuano? Secretary Rapuano. I would just add to General Raymond's response that it really is fundamental to the way that the Department of Defense operates with regard to how do we organize, man, train, and equip for warfighting domains. And having the undivided attention of a dedicated service with senior leadership who are only thinking about space has been one of the missing pieces. And if you look at the studies all the way back to Rumsfeld, that is a consistent theme, is the disaggregation and the lack of elevation associated with space. And that is why the Space Force, from our perspective, is such a fundamental component. Mrs. Davis. Thank you. And yet it has taken us a while to get there. Secretary Rapuano. Yes, it has. Mrs. Davis. Yeah. Ms. Chaplain, I know you spoke about that the DOD is not able to track professionals in the same way. But where do you come in on this then when it comes to the professionals themselves and whether or not we are able to--you suggested maybe we need to have a different kind of system for doing that, a different kind of analysis for where people should be in their--those pathways. Ms. Chaplain. You know, when I was talking about a different system, I actually meant the IT [information technology] system that tracks acquisition professionals. But one issue that has been pertinent to space for a long time is maintaining and increasing expertise in certain areas. And if you are going to move to the Space Force construct, it is a good opportunity to really look at your workforce and see the types of professionals you need. It was mentioned just earlier about 2-year rotations for programs in terms of officers managing them. The best practice is actually to have longer tenures and people maybe even on the civilian side, more of them so that you can really develop that deep expertise. I think that is something the NRO has been trying to do over the past few years and has been pretty successful. So I think there are things we can do for the space acquisition workforce now that we have an opportunity to do. Mrs. Davis. Do we risk some protective measures for our workforce in enabling these kinds--the establishment of the Space Force? I mean, are there some things that, down the road, that we suspend and that come back and bite us later on? Ms. Chaplain. There is a big question, I think, in terms of where your committee has had is on the authorities being proposed for the Space Force under the DOD proposal. It is an area I don't know too much about, but there are some authorities that other intelligence agencies have that I think were envisioned for this, that people have concerns about. But it is an area worth exploring. Mrs. Davis. So maybe it is worth looking at, yeah. And to all of you, I just have a few seconds, what challenges does the Department of Defense face that threaten the improvement of cybersecurity of our weapons systems, any one high-priority concern? Secretary Rapuano. So really what we have been focusing on in the last 2 years has been integrated approach to cyber throughout the Department and a systemic approach to understanding vulnerabilities, and that is of currently deployed capabilities as well as the full life cycle from birth associated with how do we bake in cyber resilience and security from the very beginning. And they are two very different challenges, but we have to do both particularly for our more critical systems. Mrs. Davis. And when it comes to our work with our allies with NATO, do they share the same concerns? Secretary Rapuano. They do. Mrs. Davis. Thank you very much. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentlelady. Mr. Brooks from Alabama. Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Assistant Secretary Rapuano, according to the Space Force proposal, quote, as necessary, Department of Defense components may retain organic space capabilities uniquely required to support the core mission of that military service or defense agency, end quote. Can you please describe and elaborate on what happens to Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Navy Space and Naval War Systems Command, and the community involved with user equipment under the Department of Defense's Space Force proposal? Secretary Rapuano. So, again, per that guidance, the organic capabilities within a service that are necessary for the execution of their missions will stay within the service. Those capabilities that are global and pertain to beyond the unique mission of the service, for example, global GPS, global comms, they will go to the Space Force. Mr. Brooks. Second question, and first, background, as you may know, Redstone Arsenal has a long history in commercial military and even adversary space capability development and analysis. To give just a few examples, Army organizations at Redstone Arsenal are currently developing a space layered sensor suite for the ballistic missile defense system and low-Earth orbit communications and imagery satellites to support the tactical warfighter. The Department of Defense's fiscal year 2020 budget request seeks approximately $105 million in research, development, testing, and evaluation funding, and approximately $44 million in operations and maintenance funding for the Space Development Agency. What is the expected impact of this funding to present space capability development providers, and how is the Space Development Agency expected to leverage the expertise that already exists at places like Redstone Arsenal? Secretary Rapuano. So the intent of the Space Development Agency is not to replace or displace existing institutions working on space development and acquisition. It really is to augment and complement. This is a growing field, as you are well aware, just from the budget numbers including this year's. We see the need for more of these capabilities, and we simply want to ensure that they are working in an integrated way to achieve strategic outcomes. So we don't see these current capabilities or institutions or facilities being replaced or moved as a general proposition. Mr. Brooks. And final issue, last week India conducted an antisatellite test. Can any of you speak to the dangers of such tests--this is for the whole panel--particularly the problems that can be caused by space debris created by antisatellite tests? Secretary Rapuano. Well, let me just take a start, and then I will hand it over to General Raymond. We, as the lead spacefaring nation in the world, have a lot invested in the ability to safely conduct space operations, and debris is a significant concern. So we certainly have consistently favored minimizing potential for debris. We, of course, are the stewards of the space traffic management as well as space awareness, and we facilitate those kinds of safety measures throughout space. So we work with our allies and partners as well, who have--share the same understanding and priority with regard to the space debris example. General Raymond. Yes. We are aware that that was going to happen. We immediately detected the launch. We immediately detected the successful intercept. We started tracking pieces of debris. Today we are tracking about 270 pieces of debris. We act as the space traffic control for the world. We do all the analysis to determine if any two objects in space are going to collide, and then we provide warning. We take great care in providing that warning to the world, and we also take great care in making sure that the astronauts on the International Space Station are safe. Mr. Brooks. If I understand correctly, you stated that you were aware that it was going to happen. Was there anything done to discourage India from creating so much space debris? Secretary Rapuano. We have expressed concerns to all our partners and allies with regard to debris and looking to minimize debris to the maximum extent possible. Mr. Brooks. Are we pretty much limited to tracking this debris and trying to avoid collisions thereafter, or is there anything that can be done about the debris that is already up in space? General Raymond. There is not a lot today that can be done about the debris problem that we face in space. We track about 23,000 objects. The way that we tackle that problem is to quit creating debris in the first place, until we provide that warning for the world, to keep the domain safe for all. Mr. Brooks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman. Now the gentleman from California, Mr. Carbajal, is recognized. Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. General Raymond, how would you describe the Air Force's progress towards ending reliance upon the RD-180? General Raymond. The Air Force has a three-prong launch strategy. First and foremost, we must have assured access to space. That is critical, critical to our Nation. In fact, it is a vital national interest, as articulated in the National Security Strategy. The second thing we want to do is increase competition. And the third thing, as mandated by law, we are to get off the RD-180 engine. Our launch strategy is working on all of those fronts. We have had 76 for 76 successful launches. We have had a 24 percent reduction in launch costs since 2012, and we are on track to get off the RD-180 engine by the statutory limits. Mr. Carbajal. When you say ``statutory limits,'' you mean fiscal year 2019? General Raymond. The law describes not procuring any more additional engines past fiscal year 2022. Mr. Carbajal. 2022. Thank you. What are the risks if this is delayed since the Air Force has asked for backup options in the case of delay? General Raymond. I am not--I am sorry. Can you clarify the question for me? Mr. Carbajal. If we don't meet that deadline, it is my understanding the Air Force has asked--is considering options in case we are not able to meet that statutory deadline. General Raymond. We are going to meet the statutory deadline. Mr. Carbajal. Great. Well, that is good to hear. General Raymond, how are you ensuring that all companies that are able to compete for phase 2 of the launch services acquisition are able to and are on a level playing field? General Raymond. It is critical, absolutely critical that we have fair and equitable competition, and, again, that is the second prong of our strategy. I am very comfortable with where we stand today, that we have that fair and equitable competition, that we have--we now have companies that are mature enough to be able to launch the full spectrum of launches that the United States military requires. And I am very comfortable going forward with our strategy. Mr. Carbajal. Not to be redundant, but are the risks that the LSA [Launch Service Agreement] approach down-selecting to two providers will exclude competitors for at least 5 years, what are you doing to ensure we retain competition? General Raymond. Again, competition is critical to our strategy. It is a little bit of a nuance. It is not a down- select from--to two. We are having a full and open competition for two, and so everybody can compete for that. We are comfortable that there is companies that--many companies that can compete and win that. We think that the playing field is level. And if you look at the manifests that are projected over the next 5 years, the manifests really support two companies, and so we think we are on the--on firm and solid footing on this strategy. Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, General. Ms. Chaplain, what are your recommendations on ensuring fair and open competition for launch? Ms. Chaplain. We have not had recent work on EELV [Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle] or the new launch program, but we have always been very much of a proponent of ensuring competition to the extent you can. And I do believe General Raymond is right that the manifest for phase 2, that there won't be quite the demand from DOD to support three providers, but there has been a concern that those--some of the providers getting money now as part of technology maturation efforts won't be able to be a player for that period of time. It is difficult to keep competition in launch. You are always at risk of maybe losing competition because one of the companies may not be able to stay in business. So it is--to the extent that you can keep other players in the game, it is beneficial. Mr. Carbajal. Thank you. General Raymond, General Hyten has noted that, quote, I will not support buying big satellites and make juicy targets-- that make juicy targets, end quote. However, in replacing the missile warning satellites, the Air Force is investing billions of dollars on a similar architecture of a handful of satellites. What are you doing to complicate the adversary's incentive to target these satellites, for example, investing in a disaggregated architecture and taking advantage of hosted payload opportunities? General Raymond. Let me just say that General Hyten is a good friend, and we are in great alignment on this topic. There are lots of things that we are doing to enhance the resiliency of our architectures, and what I would like to do, if possible, is take that conversation and the specifics in a classified hearing. But let me give you some top bullets. We are focusing on, again, having more defendable architectures. We are developing tactics, techniques, and procedures to be able to respond to threats and be able to fight through threats. We are working hard to develop the joint space warfighters that can operate successfully in a contested domain. And then, finally, we are also expanding our--and enhancing our partnerships with our allies in commercial industry and intelligence community. And this budget, for example, we are placing a couple payloads on allied satellites to, again, do some more dispersal. So there is a long strategy, and I will go into more specifics in a classified hearing. Thank you. Mr. Carbajal. Thank you, General. I yield back. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman. And now yet another gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Byrne. Mr. Byrne. It is Alabama day on the subcommittee. General, I want to go back to the launch vehicle issue, if you don't mind. To what extent will the new launch vehicle prototypes DOD is investing in be ready by the time they are needed, and can you talk about the technical risks and how they are being mitigated? General Raymond. We are working very closely, Congressman, with those companies, as you would expect. We are very comfortable with the level of maturity where they are. We are comfortable what their plans of what they have to do here over the next year and are confident, completely confident that they will be ready to execute our missions when it is time. Mr. Byrne. Okay. And how do you balance mission assurance and innovative technology development of space launch? General Raymond. You know, I have been in the space launch business for a long time, and I was in the space launch business on a staff back in the 1990s when we didn't have a lot of success. We were blowing up significant amount of rockets, and we have taken great, great care in turning that around. And as I talked about in my opening statement, we are 76 for 76, and every launch is a new launch that we are focused on. There is room for innovation. I think the way you do that innovation is you have a close partnership and relationship with the folks that are innovating, and we enjoy that today. And there are some innovative things that are happening. For example, this year we are going to use reusable boosters for the first time. So there is room for innovation. We work side by side. We make sure that we do it smartly and that we are 77 for 77 and 78 for 78. Mr. Byrne. Good. Mr. Secretary, I wanted to first congratulate you and the administration. You are the first administration to recognize space as a warfighting domain, and that in and of itself was a big step forward. But try to give me a little more general sense--I know there are some things you can't tell me in a nonclassified setting, but can you describe what our adversaries are doing or have the capability of doing in space and compare and contrast that with us? And, General, if you need to jump in, that would be good too. Secretary Rapuano. Yes. I can certainly go into greater details in the closed session. But really since the Gulf war, our principal potential adversaries have been extremely focused on the enablers that have provided a wide range of highly exquisite capabilities to the United States military in terms of targeting, positioning, locationing, communications. The list does go on. And they have been very focused, and the Chinese in particular have made massive investments in their space capabilities, and they are developing counterspace capabilities and deploying those capabilities. They are looking to denigrate our advantage that we have in terms of our space-based capabilities and enabling functions. So we are very mindful of that. And this really is what forced the transition of understanding of space versus an enabling zone for capabilities as a warfighting domain. And the architecture that we have right now was not designed for a nonpermissive environment. So that is where we are focused. That is where we have a sense of urgency with regard to how do we accelerate these capabilities, how do we better organize and equip. And, ergo, the organizational structuring, in terms of having that center of gravity, institutionalizing the advocacy of space, the development of doctrine, the training of personnel, is critical to being able to present that force to the combatant command that will then be operating the joint space forces on a daily basis. Mr. Byrne. General, do you want to add anything to that? General Raymond. I agree with all that. I would just say that--and kind of as a teaser for the classified session. At an unclassified level, I would say that, you know, there is a spectrum of activity that we are concerned about, everything from low-end reversible jamming of communication satellites and GPS satellites, for example, all the way up to a high-end direct-ascent ASAT as demonstrated in 2007. And I can give you the specifics on that spectrum at a classified hearing. Mr. Byrne. Thank you. I yield back. Mr. Cooper. The gentleman from California is recognized. Mr. Garamendi. Just a couple of things. I was going through the suggested questions by the staff. Extraordinary set of questions, most of which are not going to be able to be answered in this setting, and I would recommend that they be answered for the record because they are--each and every one of them are very, very important. Maybe 20 percent of them have actually--are going to be able to be asked here, so I would ask that. The second thing really has to do with the Space Force itself. I have been going back and forth on that. I have been trying to visually see how this thing works. And here we are with a year in which we are supposed to make a decision, and there is no organization chart. Presumably you have one. If it is a secret, maybe we can get it in the next session, in the secret session. If so, I would probably ask, why is it secret? We heard that from one of our--my colleagues that there is this Redstone facility. Each of the services have their own space programs. How are those to be integrated into this Space Force, or are they going to be kept separate, as you indicated the Redstone situation would continue to be separate? Secretary Rapuano. As I noted, those capabilities that are unique to the organic mission of the service will stay under the service. The global or joint capabilities will fleet up under the Space Force. So that is a process that will--in terms of the details of where these delineations are made, will be taking place going forward. But if you have, for example, a global communications system run by one service, that set of capabilities and that responsibility would revert to the Space Force so it can be leveraged for the entire---- Mr. Garamendi. So could you give an example of a service that has such a global communications system and it would be transferred from whatever service that was to the Space Force? Secretary Rapuano. I don't have the details, but I believe the Navy has a global SATCOMs [satellite communications]. General Raymond probably---- Mr. Garamendi. And so you think they maybe might be willing to transfer that to the Air Force. That will be an interesting switch. We have seen some turfing examples in the past. This entire thing is fraught with turf. Secretary Rapuano. That is really the very point of institutionalizing space, the warfighting domain, and the development of the organize, train, and equip function in a service model because of the disaggregated approach that we have taken, and, again, that was in an era where space was not contested. It was not a warfighting domain. So the focus was on maximum enablement of service warfighting mission capabilities. You didn't need as much of that integrated approach where you are looking at an architecture in space that is resilient and that which we can defend or reconstitute rapidly in a conflict. Mr. Garamendi. I am going to really wait until the classified section. I just draw my final point to the questions that have been raised by the chairman. Seven-year unlimited authority to transfer funds from here to there and everywhere, really think that is going to happen? And why would it be necessary to happen? Secretary Rapuano. We are looking forward to working with Congress on---- Mr. Garamendi. Given what the Department of Defense and the administration is doing with transfers right now, like the Air Force has endured two strategic bases, one I think you are familiar with, General Raymond, Offutt and Tyndall, maybe $6 billion, $7 billion of repair of those bases. And the Department of Defense has transferred $1 billion that was unused by the Army to the counternarcotics so that they could build a couple of walls someplace. What in the hell is the priority here? Is it to rebuild Tyndall or maybe Offutt, or is it to build 100 miles of fence? Mr. Rapuano, what is the priority at the Department? Secretary Rapuano. Well, we have multiple priorities. Mr. Garamendi. No, that is not the question. Okay. What are the priorities? What are the multiple priorities? Secretary Rapuano. We have readiness priorities, and we have priorities when it comes to responding to lawful direction with regard to other national security priorities of the Nation. Mr. Garamendi. So would you classify a fence in El Paso as more important than getting Offutt, the home of STRATCOM, up and running? Secretary Rapuano. I am not in a position to make that trade, Congressman. Mr. Garamendi. I asked you not for the trade, but what is your priority? What is your advice? Secretary Rapuano. The Department's priority is to respond to lawful direction when the priorities are coming from above. Mr. Garamendi. From whom? Lawful direction from whom? From the President? Secretary Rapuano. From the President with regards to barrier. Mr. Garamendi. Who decides that that wall is more important than getting Tyndall Air Force Base back up and operating, which is a key base, and STRATCOM, a key base? A fence is more important? I think not. I yield back. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman. And now the gentleman from Colorado, the patient gentleman from Colorado. Mr. Lamborn. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having this hearing. And in response to the last set of questions, I will just say that I believe our military has the capability to walk and chew gum at the same time. I think we can handle multiple priorities simultaneously and do them right and do them well. General Raymond, I was so pleased to see you nominated to be the first Commander of the reactivated U.S. Space Command. We in Colorado Springs are very proud of you, and I am very excited about what it means to our Nation to have such a dedicated leader and experienced warfighter overseeing the pointed end of the spear. As you know, it is my great honor to represent the airmen of Air Force Space Command and so many of our space warfighters. As we move forward into plans to establish U.S. Space Command, can you describe for us relative to the threat of our near-peer adversaries that they pose to our space assets, why is it important that we act now without delay? General Raymond. First of all, thank you. I am honored to be nominated. And it is just that, a nomination, and there are still things that have to happen. And I will just tell you from an Air Force Space Command point of view, it is really critical that we embrace that space is a warfighting domain. Everything that we do in space, everything that we do as a joint force is enabled by space, everything. There is not--you can't come up with anything that we do as a joint force that isn't. And it is very important that we have the ability to protect and defend those capabilities so the sailors, soldiers, airmen, and Marines that have come to rely on those always have them. It is like the light switch that you turn on. It is always on. That is our job. Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. Now, in the context of warfighting, what does warfighting in space--what does readiness mean? General Raymond. So I don't consider it warfighting in space. I consider it just warfighting. It is just a war. And it is not just--I don't want to--that came out wrong. It is war, and it is important, but it is an event that a country can choose to fight it on the land, they can choose to fight it in the sea, they can choose to fight it in space or in the air. And so it is just another domain of where military activity-- military activity occurs. What we call for that is to make sure that we have the ability to protect and defend those critical satellites and those critical capabilities to make sure that our forces and our Nation and our coalition and allied partners always have those capabilities and to be able to hold our adversaries at risk. We want to deter this. This is all about deterrence, and the way you deter is you change that calculus. Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. And now I am going to drill down and ask a couple of really specific questions. After spending $500 million in years of development, GAO recently reported that operational testing in 2018 found that the Joint Space Operations Center Mission System Increment 2--that is a mouthful--was not operationally effective or suitable. I understand that future increments have been canceled, and now that they are--now that there is a new program called Space C2, which is supposed to be using agile software development to deliver capabilities to the warfighters every 90 days, how will this be structured to succeed where JMS failed? General Raymond. First of all, thanks for the question. You know, any commander that is responsible for operations in any domain has a couple must-haves. You have to have the ability to have awareness of the domain that you are operating in, and you have to have the ability to command and control capabilities. This C2 system that you talked about, our new program, is that system for space. Of all the things that I have submitted to the record in my report, this is the program that has my highest attention. I meet on this at least monthly. The way we are doing this that is different, completely different than what we did with JMS, first of all, we started with a prototype, and we had the Air Force RCO develop a prototype of this capability because they had already built a similar prototype. So we are using leveraging work that had already been done in another domain. We have developed open standards, called OMS [Open Mission Systems] and UCI [Universal Command and Control Interface], that will allow companies to innovate to meet those standards and will allow multidomain integration. We have built industry consortium to make sure we have the industry's voice in this program with us. We are building this to be coalition friendly from the front because, just like in any other conflict, we expect that we will partner with our coalition and our allies. We have developed a data library so we can--a cloud-based data library, if you will, so we can ingest more data, including commercial, intelligence, and DOD data. And then, finally, and probably most importantly is that we are adopting agile software--best practices in agile software development. It is not good enough to take 5 years to develop software and then test it and see if it works. We are doing it in much quicker sprints, 90-day sprints, and we are already getting the capability delivered to the floor. Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I still have questions on COMSATCOM [commercial satellite communications], overhead persistent infrared system, and weather satellites, but I will save those for the classified session. Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman for his questions. I hope that as many members as possible can join us in HVC- 301 [House Visitors Center room 301] for the classified session. Let me ask unanimous consent that the ranking member's opening statement be inserted for the record. Hearing no objection, so done. [The prepared statement of Mr. Turner can be found in the Appendix on page 26.] Mr. Cooper. So this subcommittee hearing is adjourned, and let's move in the next 10 minutes to the classified session. Thank you. [Whereupon, at 3:30 p.m., the subcommittee proceeded in closed session.] ======================================================================= A P P E N D I X April 3, 2019 ======================================================================= PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD April 3, 2019 ======================================================================= [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] [all]