HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's chief technology officer addressed members of the local space community about the command's role in space and how it supports the Warfighter.
Dr. Steven F. Pierce, USASMDC/ARSTRAT CTO, spoke at a National Space Club-Huntsville Chapter breakfast June 9 about how professionals and industries in the surrounding community are supporting space operations.
"Good morning, and thank you for inviting me to speak to the National Space Club this morning," Pierce said. "This is an important event because of what binds this group of attendees together; a love for space, a major factor in the technological and economic engine that drives this town, and more importantly, a critical enabler to our Warfighter. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support for space enablers in the Department of Defense."
The National Space Club is a non-profit organization originally founded on Oct. 4, 1957 as the National Rocket Club to stimulate the exchange of ideas and information about rocketry and astronautics, and to promote the recognition of United States achievements in space. It provides scholarships and internships to students, and encourages educational space based activities.
The Huntsville chapter was founded in 1985 to further the aims locally of the National Space Club.
"We have these meetings to educate the community on space and space exploration," said Bob DaLee, National Space Club-Huntsville Chapter chairperson. "The Space Club is everything space and we try to have a balance of NASA, industry and DoD, and Dr. Pierce was fantastic. We really enjoyed having him here and he did a great job.
"The Space Club is here and active in Huntsville," he added. "We like to reach out into the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education programs from college all the way down to kindergarten. We just want people to know the Space Club is here working hard in the community to get the word out on everything space."
Pierce talked about Lt. Gen. David L. Mann, SMDC commanding general, who along with his Title 10 responsibility, Mann is also the Army Service Component commander for U.S. Strategic Command. He explained how Mann is leading space and missile defense operations and coordinating Army forces in support of USSTRATCOM missions.
"Recently, the chief of staff of the Army gave Lt. Gen. Mann the responsibility of integrating and synchronizing air and missile defense for the Army," Pierce said. "As a result, he has led the air defense and the missile defense senior level leadership in developing an updated integrated air and missile defense vision and waypoint. What is truly amazing is that Lt. Gen. Mann executes all of this with a fairly small organization of 4,000 highly professional active duty, reserve and National Guard military and government civil servants, as well a very responsive community of industry experts."
Pierce spoke about small satellites that are receiving increasing attention, specifically CubeSats or nanosatellites, and also the SMDC units that are using space assets in defense of the nation.
"I spoke with Brig. Gen. Gregory Bowen recently," Pierce said. "Gen. Bowen is the SMDC deputy commanding general for operations and under his command is the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, commanded by Col. Tim Lawson, which has the critical mission of ground-based midcourse defense. They like to say they are 300 Soldiers protecting 300 million American citizens.
"The other unit under his command is the 1st Space Brigade, commanded by Col. Tom James," he added. Brig. Gen. Bowen commented that space is critical in enabling tactical Warfighters have overmatch against adversaries. In his words, he never wants to fight a fair fight. Space enables us to overwhelm the enemy with superior command and control, precision fires, communications on the move and assured quality intelligence."
Pierce also talked about how other nations are making major advances in exploiting cyberspace and how some have already exercised this capability to attack cyberspace infrastructures.
He explained how the Army has indications that several state nations, as well as state actors, are building the ability to electronically attack ground stations that provide the linkages to space capability.
"We in the business of supporting the Warfighter, need to determine how to protect space as well as how to fight through the temporary loss or degradation of space depended capabilities," Pierce said. "Space capabilities enable our ability to operate within the decision cycle of the enemy and fight with overwhelming force. The bottom line is that the Army is the biggest user of space products. Space plays a vital role in giving the joint Warfighter overmatch capability. It is critical in enabling our troops to fight with overwhelming force. We do not want our troops to fight a fair fight, we want our troops to completely overmatch any adversary they encounter.
"Thank you for this opportunity to provide some insight from the SMDC perspective," he added. "But most important, thank you for your enthusiasm for the space domain, a domain critical to the Army's success in current and increasingly important to success in future conflicts."
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