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 | | | HOT TOPIC: WILL TRUMP GIVE SPACE A BOOST?
One of Washington's most influential national security think tanks is calling for the Trump administration to give some TLC to the space industry.
This White House "should enable the growth of this essential industry by clarifying and streamlining government authorities, reducing overlapping government and commercial efforts, and ensuring that export and import regulations reflect contemporary rationale," states a new report from the Center for a New American Security.
 "The future will require a robust commercial space industry," declares the report, which was released last week but had been in the works for months. The authors, CNAS Senior Fellow Jerry Hendrix and Research Associate Adam Routh, told me they see space as an area that gets little attention in the policy world even as the industry becomes increasingly a major force in the U.S. economy.
"With the president's background in business and commercial entities taking a larger role, this could actually be a huge confluence of events coming together that could make some significant changes in the way space is seen and how we operate in it," Hendrix said.
One tight spot for the administration is defining NASA's mission. For instance, setting clearer guidelines on what technologies the agency should fund. The government should as much as possible avoid competing with the private sector, said Hendrix. "Currently there's a lot of overlap between the government and the space industry," Hendrix said. That is unaffordable and inefficient. One approach could be to have NASA invest in the infrastructure to help commercial firms expand, but should avoid wasting resources on things the private sector is doing.
"NASA should do the missions for which there is no commercial incentive," such as deep space exploration, research, leading edge R&D that no commercial startup could afford to do or necessarily know to do. In areas where the industry is investing, the administration should "let them compete."
One of the study's central messages: "Without a robust and efficient space industrial base, the United States' space resiliency will suffer." | | WIDEBAND STUDY: WILL DOD GO COMMERCIAL?
 The satellite communications industry may have to wait at least seven or eight months for the completion of a Pentagon "analysis of alternatives" on how the military intends to procure wideband communications.
DoD launched the study in December and officials have since been meeting with experts and satellite industry representatives. The latest word is that the study should wrap up by May 2018 and a final report will follow. The outcome basically will decide whether the Pentagon will continue to rely on customized wideband satellites it buys from Boeing or buy commercial systems for routine missions.
The study carries huge stakes for the industry, which is investing billions of dollars in high-capacity satellites and has loads of bandwidth to sell to the military. But the AoA is just a study. The moment of truth will be the budget. If the report is completed by next summer, it would shape the Pentagon's 2020 funding proposal.
Boeing is under contract to build 10 Wideband Global Satcom satellites. The tenth WGS is scheduled for launch in 2019. The future of the program affects more than just the United States. Australia bankrolled the seventh satellite, and the ninth WGS was funded through an international partnership between the United States and Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and New Zealand.
Industry executives have pushed for a "commercial first" approach, using commercial systems for day-to-day missions and using military satellites for niche requirements. | | | ALLIES GET A SEAT AT WIDEBAND TABLE
The Pentagon for the first time is considering the needs of key foreign allies in its future wideband satellite study. "It's not a magic bullet, but including those requirements from the start is important," said Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander Steven Henry, an exchange officer working with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, the Pentagon's principal space adviser.
One thing that Henry has learned in the Pentagon? "Working with allies is challenging but well worth the effort," he said Friday at an Air Force Association breakfast meeting on Capitol Hill. The United States can go it alone in many areas but can't afford to do so in space, he said. "No other domain requires the degree of global access and cooperation that space does."
 The United States shares space technology and intelligence with its four key partners — the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — which make up the so-called "Five Eyes" alliance. Henry suggested that this "circle of trust" has to be extended to countries like France, Germany and Japan as security challenges have become more complex. | | U.K. Royal Air Force Vice Marshal "Rocky" Rochelle, chief of staff of capability and force development, strongly agrees. "We have to be connected and be interoperable between the various nations," he said at the AFA event. "In space programs you need to be able to collaborate and respond."
Rochelle had high praise for U.S. Air Force Gen. John Hyten, head of Strategic Command, whom he called a "mentor." Hyten invited Rochelle to Air Force Space Command war games, turning the career RAF fighter pilot into a space enthusiast. Rochelle is now pushing for a major space modernization effort in the United Kingdom.
As much as he appreciates American officials' guidance and support, Rochelle often gets annoyed by how difficult it can be to work in joint programs with the Defense Department. Routine administrative issues can devolve into legal battles, he offered.
"You manage to turn admin into policy and policy into legal. That sounds really strange but that's how it looks like to us," Rochelle said.
"Some things get more complicated than they perhaps need to be. … And don't take that the wrong way." | | | | |
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