Space Force Just Received Its First New Offensive Weapon
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US. Space Force has
begun operating a new offensive weapon system, an upgraded version of a
ground-based satellite communications jamming system, for the first time in its
short history. The first iteration of the Counter Communications System entered
U.S. Air Force service in 2004 and the program has now gotten transferred to
the newest branch of the American military.
The
Space Force declared it had reached initial operational capability with
the Counter Communications
System Block 10.2, or CCS B10.2, on Mar. 9. The Harris Corporation,
which merged with L3 Technologies last year to form L3Harris
Technologies, had received the
contract from the Air Force to develop this upgraded variant of
the system in 2014.
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The
National Defense Authorization Act for the 2020 Fiscal Year, which Congress
passed and President Donald Trump signed in December 2019, officially established
Space Force as a separate service within the Department of the
Air Force. Units and assets previously assigned to Air Force Space Command now
form the core of the new service, which is still very much in the process of
standing up.
"CCS
is the only offensive system in the United States Space Force arsenal,"
Lieutenant Colonel Steve Brogan, the Combat Systems branch materiel leader
within the Space Force's Space and Missile Systems Center's (SMC) Special
Programs Directorate, said in an official news piece about
the system in January 2020. "This upgrade puts the 'force' in Space Force
and is critical for Space as a warfighting domain."
SMC’s
CCS B10.2 is putting the “Force” in Space Force reaching IOC, Monday, March
9th, marking the first offensive weapon system assigned to the @SpaceForceDoD.
A ceremony is scheduled on March 12th @PeteAFB to commemorate this historic event. (Courtesy Photo
by @L3HarrisTech)
The Air
Force introduced CCS in 2004 and
fielded the Block 10.1 upgrade in 2014. Last year, Harris also received a $72 million contract to
begin developing the new iteration, the Block 10.3 variant. As of September
2019, the Air Force
reportedly had at least seven complete CCS packages, which are
intended to be rapidly deployable even by airdrop.
“CCS
has had incremental upgrades since the early 2000’s, which have incorporated
new techniques, frequency bands, technology refreshes, and lessons learned from
previous block upgrades," Major Seth Horner, the CCS B10.2 Program
Manager, also said in January.
"This specific upgrade includes new software capabilities to counter new
adversary targets and threats."
The various versions of the system all
include a number of trailer-mounted dishes and associated equipment. Details on
exactly how the CCS functions are limited, but it is understood to be a jamming
system that disrupts transmissions from enemy communications satellites. This
could give U.S. forces valuable advantages on the battlefield by disrupting the
ability of enemy units to rapidly communicate and share information using
satellite-based systems.
A Defense Intelligence Agency
graphic depicting the generic concept of ground-based satellite jamming.
The Air
Force has described the effects as "reversible"
in the past, meaning that when the jammer shuts off, the target satellite would
go back to functioning are normal. The service had specifically chosen a
non-kinetic anti-satellite weapon in order to avoid having to physically
destroy hostile assets in space, which would create debris that could pose
risks to friendly systems in orbit. This is notably different from Russian and
Chinese anti-satellite efforts, among others,
which include ground-based and air-launched kinetic
interceptors, as well as possible dual-use "killer satellites."
There are also reports that both countries are working on ground-based
anti-satellite directed energy weapons.
"We
are not going down that path," U.S. Air Force General John Hyten,
then-head of Air Force Space Command, told lawmakers in 2016,
referring to the development of capabilities that would totally destroy enemy
satellites and create debris. Hyten is now Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
Hyten's
comments would not necessarily preclude the development of offensive space
capabilities that could create non-reversible effects and effectively destroy a
target in space without totally disintegrating it. This could still include
kinetic attacks, such as using a directed energy weapon, possibly mounted on another
satellite, to destroy certain components without creating any
substantial amount of debris.
DIA
A Defense Intelligence Agency
graphic showing the basic modes by which one satellite might attack another in
space.
Regardless, Space Force reaching
initial operational capability with a new offensive weapon system for the first
time is certainly a notable milestone for the still extremely young service.
Beyond that, it's also a rare public announcement regarding the development of
an American anti-satellite capability of any kind.
The
Counter Communications System has long been the only such capability the United
States publicly acknowledges having, though it is understood that it has other
offensive counter-space capabilities. Space Force Vice Commander Lieutenant
General David Thompson told lawmakers the
new service was working on new capabilities "to protect and defend"
America's space-based assets during a hearing on Mar. 4.
"We began prototyping, and
demonstrating, and preparing for what I’ll call abilities to protect and defend
our assets, and we did that extensively in the budget in [the 2020 Fiscal
Year]," he said. “In [the 2021 Fiscal Year], we are now taking steps to
extend that across the fleet, as well as look at other capabilities to be able
to continue to defend those assets that we have and defend adversary use of
space."
USAF
Members of the 4th Space Operations
Squadron, an element of the 50th Space Wing, load a trailer-mounted Low Profile
Antenna, used to support deployed satellite communications activities, on a
U.S. Air Force C-5 Galaxy airlifter during an exercise in 2018.
In
February 2020, the Air Force mentioned another counter-space system, called
Bounty Hunter, in a news story about
recent tests that the 17th Test Squadron had conducted. "The 17th TS’
[Test Squadron] Operating Location-Charlie [OL-C] conducts testing on the
base’s higher classification systems," that official news item said.
“Recent tests we’ve done have been on the
Bounty Hunter and the Counter Communications System, which are both electronic
warfare systems located at Peterson [Air Force Base]," Technical Sergeant
Tricia Benson, the OL-C Flight Chief and Project Manager, said in an official
interview. There was no further information on Bounty Hunter or its
capabilities.
In its first-ever budget request, for
the 2021 Fiscal Year, Space Force asked for nearly $54.7 million in funds for
research and development of "counterspace systems," including almost
$50.5 million for continued work on the CCS program and just under $2 million
for upgrades to Bounty Hunter. The remaining funds would support the
development of a new and improved command and control architecture for
counterspace capabilities. Details about all of these projects in the publicly
available budget documents were extremely limited.
USAF
USAF
Other
U.S. military officials have alluded to the still-classified capabilities
recently, as well. Former Secretary of the Air Force ominously stated last
year that it might be necessary to conduct a show of force using unspecified
systems to deter potential adversaries, such as Russia or China, from attacking
American satellites.
"We
have a capability called a Counter Communications System that is built to deny
an adversary the use of space communications," General Hyten had also said
in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes" back
in 2015. "All I can say is it's a capability that exists on the ground and
it does not create debris in any way."
"The only two things you told me
about the U.S. ability to fight in space, are the ability to maneuver your
satellites and to jam other satellites. Is that it?" CBS News' David Martin then asked the general.
"That's not it, but that's all I
can tell you," Hyten responded.
Ensuring
the United States has the ability to conduct a conflict in space, including as
part of a larger crisis on Earth, and what such a conflict might actually look
like are certainly among the most pressing issues facing Space Force, something the War
Zone has discussed in detail in
the past. The fledgling service has now publicly acquired its first new
counter-space system and it will likely take over other existing top-secret
offensive space capabilities, and the development of future ones, soon, if it
hasn't already.
Contact
the author: joe@thedrive.com
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