Those critics who have, for years, accused the Air Force of being
a "poor steward of space," should welcome the reorganization
of U.S. space programs proposed by the defense secretary, said Ronald
Fogleman. A retired Air Force general, Fogleman was a member of
the congressionally-sponsored Space Commission, which Donald H.
Rumsfeld led until he was nominated to become defense secretary
in January.
A series of recommendations Rumsfeld unveiled last month constituted
an official endorsement of the proposals made by the commission
in a January report. The reorganization, Fogleman said in an interview,
aims to bring national attention to the importance of space-based
technology and to centralize the management of space projects, focusing
on stricter accountability in the chain of command.
"One of the motivating factors in the Space Commission was
the assertion that the Air Force was a poor steward of space,"
Fogleman said. Space advocates in Congress have accused the Air
Force of trading off space programs to get additional dollars for
air-power platforms, such as the F-22 fighter aircraft. The members
of the commission, said Fogleman, agreed that the accusations were
hard to disprove.
"In the late 1980s, the same was being said about the services
and special operations forces," he noted. They were being criticized
for not supporting special operations programs. Congress then passed
legislation to create the U.S. Special Operations Command, with
its own four-star chief.
"I can’t tell you whether that has been a success or
a failure," Fogleman said. "But you haven’t heard
anybody complain [during the past decade] about the services not
supporting special operations forces."
Under the new organization of space programs, it will be "very
difficult" for the Air Force to move money out of space projects
to pay for other systems, he asserted. "The Air Force space
component would have cradle-to-grave abilities to organize, train
and equip space assets." That is the reason why the Los Angeles-based
Space and Missiles Center, which currently reports to the Air Force
Materiel Command, in Dayton, Ohio, will be realigned so it will
report to the Air Force Space Command, in Colorado Springs.
"I was an advocate of this, if for no other reason, than to
be able to put to bed this issue of the stewardship of space and
the transfer of assets," Fogleman stressed.
Rumsfeld cautioned, in a news conference, that the proposals are
only "organizational arrangements." They are not aimed
to promote the deployment of space-based weapons, he said.
Having a single service, the Air Force, become the "executive
agent" for space is not an unusual arrangement at the Defense
Department, said Rumsfeld. The Air Force currently is executive
agent for combat search and rescue, for example. The Joint Forces
Command is the executive agent for joint war-fighting experimentation.
The Army has Defense-wide responsibility for domestic emergency
preparedness and chemical weapons demilitarization. The Marine Corps
is the executive agent for non-lethal weapon programs.
Sen. Robert Smith, R-N.H., who has championed space programs for
many years, praised Rumsfeld’s plan. "There are nations
out there who are hostile to us," Smith told reporters. "And
they are in space." Potential enemies, he added, have access
to lasers, anti-satellite weapons and electromagnetic pulse weapons.
Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, also endorsed Rumsfeld’s recommendations.
"Just as dominance of the skies was critical to military success
in the 20th century, dominance of space will be critical to military
success in the 21st," he said. "There are close to 750
active satellites in orbit around the Earth right now. ... Nearly
half of these–or around 300–belong to the United States.
"We rely on these satellites more than anyone else,"
Thornberry said. "In the Gulf War alone, 90 percent of our
long-distance military communication came by way of satellite. To
leave these assets unprotected just doesn’t make sense.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Rumsfeld recommended the
following changes:
Rumsfeld decided not to request legislation to establish an undersecretary
of defense for space, intelligence and information.
He did not say who would be filling the new Air Force four-star
position. There is speculation that the Air Force may downgrade
one of its current four-star billets–the Air Education and
Training Command–to free up a four-star slot for the space
command.
According to Fogleman, the Army and Navy should be "fundamentally
happy" with the reorganization, because "there was nothing
taken away from them." They will be able to pursue their own
space programs, he said, as long as they are not duplicating existing
efforts.