The fiscal year 2017 House Armed Services (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee mark contains a provision that would require the Defense Department to develop study guidance including the full range of military and commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) capabilities in its wideband communication analysis of alternatives (AoA).
The subcommittee mark, released April 19, says that any cost assessments of military or COMSATCOM systems included in the AoA must include detailed full lifecycle costs, including with respect to military personnel, military construction, military infrastructure operation, maintenance costs and ground and user terminal impacts. It must also include any other military or COMSATCOM systems the defense secretary deems appropriate.
The AoA is an Air Force effort to solicit information from industry on what capabilities it could provide the service in the future. The AoA is critical as it will define how the government acquires SATCOM for the next decade or more. COMSATCOM operators want the Air Force to procure more protected SATCOM capabilities via industry and are afraid the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) will want to stick with the status quo of government owned and operated systems like Wideband Global Satcom (WGS).
The Air Force said it would take one to two weeks for a response for comment. It usually doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
A COMSATCOM operator executive told sister publication Defense Daily April 19 the bill language, while quite reasonable, could also be a bit disruptive to the overall AoA process. He said this study guidance should have already been issued if the Defense Department is going to have some sort of reasonably-analyzed results by the spring of 2017. The source said DoD is not ready with this guidance yet, and it is supposed to be ready this spring or early summer.
The source said, overall, advocating for a complete architectural assessment is probably not a prudent idea, given the urgent need for DoD to make a decision about its next-generation system. Considering the current availability of people with relevant expertise within DoD, which the source called few, a broad architectural effort would require even more time to complete.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten said the week of April 11 that he applied a “tiger team” to apply the service’s new Space Enterprise Vision (SEV) to the analysis performed in the wideband AoA, which he said was “signed out” the weekend of April 8 by Pentagon Director of Cost and Program Evaluation Jamie Morin. The SEV is a new joint effort between the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to determine how to better acquire critical capabilities like strategic missile warning and nuclear command and control (C2) communications.
Intelsat General Government Affairs Director Myland Pride told sister publication Defense Daily April 19 he’s happy with the bill language and said it continues a trend of thoughtful and timely congressional interest in ensuring the most cost-effective and resilient satellite communication is presented to the warfighter. Intelsat General is a COMSATCOM operator.
The mark also restricts the amount of money the Air Force can spend on the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) Mission System (JMS) Increment 3 to 25 percent until the Air Force secretary submits a report that includes a strategy for use of commercially available capabilities. This, the legislation says, includes the market research and evaluation of such commercial capabilities.
JMS is a space situational awareness (SSA) effort providing a command and control (C2) capability for the commander, Joint Functional Component Command (CDR JFCC SPACE). JMS is predominantly a software effort that will produce an integrated, net-centric service oriented architecture (SOA) and the necessary software applications to accomplish required missions.
U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) said in February 2015 it was planning for a third increment for JMS. Increment 1 addressed the User-Defined Operational Picture (UDOP) and architectural elements, allowing for a net-centric, service-oriented architecture. Increment 2 focused on replacing and improving the capabilities currently residing on the Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) legacy computer system.
An Air Force official said Increment 3 will provide a battle management command and control (BMC2) system that allows JFCC Space to meet emerging threats. This system will develop and integrate mission applications which include sources and automatically generating alerts, provide an integrated operating picture and create an interactive modeling and simulation (M&S) environment. The official said Increment 3 will use these BMC2 capabilities to support training and exercises, collaborative data sharing and course of action development and assessment.