US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is expected to assign the air force the task of training and equipping the US military for defensive and offensive space operations as part of a major reorganization of military space programs, defense officials said Monday.
The Pentagon said Rumsfeld would announce changes in leadership, management and organization of US defense and intelligence space programs at a news conference Tuesday.
The reorganization comes in response to warnings by a Pentagon panel that growing US dependence on satellites for vital lines of communications and intelligence makes it vulnerable to a "space Pearl Harbor."
Rumsfeld headed the space commission until he was named defense secretary and officials said the changes would follow many of its recommendations.
The space review is only a part of a broader reassessment of US military strategy that Rumsfeld launched after taking office in January.
A chief aim appeared to be to raise the profile of space operations within the military and to establish clearer lines of responsibility for developing the means to protect US assets in space and to develop both defensive and offensive capabilities.
The air force is likely to be given the task of organizing, training and equipping the military for defensive and offensive air and space operations, adopting a key recommendation of the space commission, the officials said.
That task will be put under a four-star air force general who will head the air force space command, they said.
A separate four star general will continue to command the US Space Command, where the focus will be on space operations like intelligence gathering and communications in support of other warfighting commanders. That general also will have responsibility for information warfare and command the North American Air Defense (NORAD) system.
The commander-in-chief of the US space command traditionally has been an air force general trained as a pilot. But the reorganization should open up the position to officers from any of the services, defense officials said.
The changes also seem to signal a more aggressive research and development effort to exploit the military potential of space.
"It will be more clearly defined," a defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Officials said they also seek to better coordinate military and intelligence space programs by putting an air force undersecretary in charge of acquisitions for both the air force and National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that operates the country's spy satellites.
In its report, the space commission warned that "an attack on elements of the US space systems during a crisis or conflict should not be considered improbable."
"If the US is to avoid a 'Space Pearl Harbor', it needs to take seriously the possibility of an attack on US space systems," it said.
It said vulnerability of US space assets would be worrisome in a conflict in the Taiwan Straits or a war in the Middle East.
(China daily 05/08/2001)
