Spring 2011 - Space and Missile Defense Command - U.S. Army

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capabilities to the combatant commanders (COCOMs) and
the Warfighter; building future space forces; and researching,
developing, testing, and integrating future space capabilities.
Providing Trained and Ready Space Forces and
Capabilities. Over 1,100 Soldiers and Civilians serving with
USASMDC/ARSTRAT’s 1st Space Brigade provide access
to products and services that are essential in all phases of
combat operations. The brigade’s three battalions, comprised
of active, National Guard, and Reserve Soldiers,
support combatant commanders by providing satellite communications,
space operations, missile warning, and forward
deployed space support teams. These Space Operations
Officers, along with members of the Army’s Space Cadre,
directly influence the execution of strategic operations in
support of tactical level ground maneuver forces. Their
principal duties include planning, developing, resourcing,
acquiring, integrating, and operating space forces, systems,
concepts, applications, or capabilities in any element of the
DoD space mission areas.
During the 1990s, realizing the essential need of space
professionals, the Army created Functional Area (FA) 40—
Space Operations Officers—within our commissioned officer
corps. USASMDC/ARSTRAT is the Army’s personnel
developer for FA 40 officers. The approximately 300 FA 40s
serve in Army, Joint, and DoD commands and organizations
across all echelons—tactical, operational, and strategic. The
Army’s Space Cadre, initiated in 2007, is comprised of both
military and civilian personnel who represent the Army’s
interests in space operations, policy, science and technology,
and acquisition. The Cadre consists of Soldiers and civilians
from a wide variety of branches, career fields, disciplines,
and functional areas.
As part of the DoD overarching effort, the Army has
integrated Space Operations Officers into the Office of
the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Air Staff, the
North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Air
Force Space Command, and other space focused organizations
and academic institutions. In each of these organizations,
personnel not only provide the Army perspective of
space related capabilities, they articulate requirements from
an operational standpoint in the Joint and combined environments.
A summary of the critical space capabilities provided
by Army’s space
professionals is highlighted
below.
Army Space Support Teams During operations,
including those in Afghanistan and Iraq, the USASMDC/
ARSTRAT’s Army Space Support Teams continuously provide
space-based products and services to combatant commanders
and other international government agencies. The
teams are on-the-ground space experts, pulling key commercial
imagery, forecasting the impact of space weather, and
providing responsive space support to their units. Just last
month, three new teams deployed to theater to provide their
capabilities for the next nine months—60 teams have now
provided invaluable on-the-ground responsive expertise to
combatant commanders and the Warfighter in Afghanistan
and Iraq.
Satellite Communication Support Centers
USASMDC/ARSTRAT provides and operates the DoD’s
Regional Satellite Communications Support Centers and
Wideband Satellite Communications Operations Centers,
located both in the United States and overseas. These centers
are the regional management hubs for a majority of the
DoD’s satellite communications capabilities, providing reliable
and responsive support. In close partnership with our
Air Force and Navy partners, we ensure essential communications
lifelines are available to our ground, air, and sea forces,
as well as the diplomatic corps around the world.
Friendly Force Tracking Situational awareness is
particularly vital given the challenges of conducting operations
in urban areas. As the Army has the greatest number
of Warfighters and systems to track on the battlefield,
our Friendly Force Tracking assets help deliver timely situational
awareness and identify friendly forces during combat.
Additionally, today, in support of Operation Tomodachi,
we are providing the friendly force tracking architecture that
enables the U.S. Forces Japan and the U.S. Pacific Command
to see its ground support elements via a common operational
picture.
Ballistic Missile Early Warning Critical to the Joint
Force Commander’s theater force protection, the Army provides
ballistic missile early warning from within the theater
or region. The 1st Space Brigade’s Joint Tactical Ground
Stations Detachments, operated by Army personnel, monitor
enemy missile launch activity and other infrared events
of interest and share the information with members of
the air and missile defense and operational communities.
Presently, our JTAGS Detachments are forward-deployed
across the globe, providing assured missile warning to theater
commanders and Joint Warfighters.
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2011 Spring Edition Army Space Journal