ARTICLE

March 2003

Space Command Ready to Support War Needs

by Elizabeth Book

The Air Force Space Command (SPACECOM) is readying itself to take on an increased role in the war on terrorism, said Air Force Gen. Lance Lord.

“We’ve got space guys hunched over laptop computers, you’ve got them integrated into what is going on day to day,” said Lord, the commander of SPACECOM, at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“The military center of gravity is emerging in space,” he told defense reporters. Lord is the first SPACECOM commander who is not a “three-hatted commander,” also in charge of Northern Command (NORAD), and United States Space Command (USSPACECOM). In April 2002, the Pentagon made Air Force SPACECOM a separate four-star combatant command, distinct from the commanders of US Space Command and NORAD. Though NORAD is still based at Peterson Air Force Base, USSPACECOM was absorbed into Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which is based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Lord said that two of his priorities are to organize and train space forces, and to support the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Defense program.

“We want to get beyond what we are doing right now, which is tracking objects in space, to space-based space surveillance. It is easier to look at space from space than it is to look through the Earth’s atmosphere,” he said.

He noted that the nation’s communications satellites will be in adequate shape to support a possible conflict with Iraq. “We’ve worked hard as a force provider and force enabler with our friend [Air Force Lt. Gen.] Harry Raduege, who runs the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). Harry has worked hard to make sure that we have the kind of connectivity to enable and provide the linkages in satellite communications. We are ready to support not only what is going on, operationally, now, but what, if the president chooses, to take action on in the future. And those communications are prepared and ready to go,” he said.

SPACECOM, Lord said, is part of every service chief’s area of responsibility, “because every combatant commander needs space.”

Lord said it was important for space technologies to be allowed to mature. “First off, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a solid operational concept,” he said. But sometimes concepts need time to fully develop, he said. When the technology is identified and it is at the right maturity level, then “we can move on,” Lord said. “Then it is a matter of devoting the resources.”

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