[11-15-07 – Satellite News] While relying more and more on commercial satellite services, the government is a “terrible customer” for the industry, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. James Armor said Nov. 13.
    “I did spend 34 years as a space professional in the Air Force, and I still despair a little at the Air Force’s inability to understand the space domain,” Armor told about 150 space industry executives, aerospace engineers and consultants at the Reach to Space conference in Washington, DC. Armor, the director for the National Security Space Office, is retiring Jan. 1, and insists his comments represent his personal opinions and not those of the Air Force.
    Armor said there are many reasons the government is a terrible customer, including the fact that it can be difficult to work through the many levels involved in a government contract. “To gain and maintain a contract for a system that the government says it wants often requires sustained executive and legislative political advocacy,” he said. “Even then you may have an incompetent executive technical or contract officer making it a nightmare to implement even if they all want it.”
    Additionally, the government has unpredictable needs, priorities and funding, and many government decisions are made internally, invisible to the public.
    While the commercial industry wants to serve the military, many services remain more wedded to the traditional defense industry than the commercial market, even though this offers “no strategic advantage,” said Armor. Part of the problem is that the many military decisionmakers view the commercial space industry as accessible by anyone, meaning the technology is available around the globe to potential adversaries.
    The military also has an unacknowledged but important dependence on the commercial industry to sustain the industrial base with research and development, engineers and quality processes. “The government tends to shortchange profits, which undermines that entire market enterprise in my opinion,” Armor said.
    Despite these problems, Armor said many opportunities still exist for government and commercial industry to do business. The military will continue to need space-based positioning, navigation and timing, communications and remote sensing. The services will need to have the information in real-time, with archival services and integration with terrestrial services that are collecting the same information. Space access and infrastructure support will continue to be important.
    In the future, the military will need protection, including programs like Space Situational Awareness and Defensive Counter Space. Armor mentioned how the military wants military manned space, especially the Marines, who would like to be able to put a Marine squad anywhere in the world. “I think we’re a zillion years away from that,” he said. “Unless some of the tourist in space things go from point-to-point instead of just point and return.”
    The problems the United States faces in the space market are affecting more than just the military, as there are “significant gaps” between stated national space policy and operational priorities, Armor said. “The credibility of NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the NRO [U.S. National Reconnaissance Office] and other programs is disintegrating,” he said. “Major vulnerabilities exist in all our space assets. Our space situational awareness is not capable of causal attribution of space events. When something happens, we can’t explain it, whether it’s radio waves or a Chinese anti-satellite missile.”
    In order to correct these problems, Armor proposes re-forming a presidential-level space council to oversee policy implementation and enforce priority as well as having coordinated department and agency programs. In 2004, the President’s Commission on the Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy recommended the creation of a permanent “Space Exploration Steering Council, reporting to the President, with representatives of all appropriate federal agencies, and chaired by the Vice President or such other senior White House executive that the President may designate.” This council would replace two previous National Space Councils, one that existed from 1989 to 1993, and the National Aeronautics and Space Council that existed from 1958 to 1973.  He also wants significant increases in civil, military and intelligence space budgets and an autonomousU.S. Department of Defense Space corps, which would be accountable for securing the space domain for all legal use. 
    The biggest push for reform could be made by industry, which should demand protection of its space systems, reforms in the space industrial base and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and support education programs in the United States. “The time for reform is now,” Armor said, displaying a picture of the lunar landing with a Chinese flag replacing the U.S flag. “There’s a lot of activities by a lot of our friends, and we’re either going to be their partners or just their customers. And I think I’d like to be their partners.”