Orbital Traffic: What the Military’s Chief Revealed
Space Force General on Evolving Domain Awareness: From SSA to SDA and the fight for Space Superiority
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The nature of space operations has undergone a profound conversion, shifting from passive observation to active defense and strategic objective achievement. General B. chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations for the U.S.Space Force, recently elaborated on this evolution, highlighting the critical distinction between Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and the more operationally focused Space Domain Awareness (SDA). This shift, he explained, is a direct response to the changing global landscape and the increasing recognition of space as a contested domain.
The Genesis of a New Domain: from SSA to SDA
The conversation with General Saltzman, as presented by Ars Technica, delves into the fundamental changes that have reshaped the Space Force’s mission and capabilities. The impetus for this evolution is rooted in the growing awareness of threats in space, exemplified by China’s 2007 anti-satellite missile test. This event, while not fully understood in its implications at the time, clearly signaled a change in the space environment, prompting a re-evaluation of how the U.S. military operates and defends its interests in orbit.
Defining the Shift: Awareness vs. Domain
General Saltzman clarified the distinction between SSA and SDA, a crucial point for understanding the Space Force’s current strategic posture.”Compared to Space Domain Awareness (SDA), Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is kind of the knowledge we produce with all these sensors, and anybody can do space situational awareness,” Saltzman explained. “You have academia doing that. You’ve got commercial, international partners, and so on.”
SSA, in essence, is the foundational knowledge derived from tracking objects in space. It’s about knowing what’s up there.However, the Space Force’s mandate extends far beyond mere observation.”but Space Domain Awareness,Gen. [John “Jay”] Raymond coined the term a couple years before we stood up the Space Force, and he was trying to get after, how do we create a domain focused on operational outcomes?” Saltzman continued. “That’s all we could say at the time. We couldn’t say war-fighting domain at the time because of the way of our policy, but our policy shifted to being able to talk about space as a place where, not that we want to wage war, but that we can achieve objectives, and do that with military objectives in mind.”
This shift to SDA signifies a move towards understanding space not just as a place to observe, but as a domain where military objectives can be achieved.It’s about translating awareness into actionable intelligence and strategic advantage.
Evolving Capabilities: From Detection to Targeting
The evolution of the Space Force’s approach is also reflected in the expansion of its operational construct. Historically, the focus was on a sequence of actions: “detect, characterize, attribute, predict.” however, under General Saltzman’s leadership, the concept of “target” has been explicitly added to the SDA framework.
This addition underscores the Space Force’s commitment to engaging with the realities of space as a contested environment. It means being prepared to identify and address threats, and to achieve objectives in, from, and to space.
mission Delta 2: Consolidating Space Domain Awareness
To operationalize this new paradigm,the Space Force has reorganized its efforts. Mission Delta 2 was established to consolidate critical functions related to SDA.
“So, with Mission Delta 2, what he did is he took the sustainment part of acquisition, software growth, cyber defense, intelligence related to Space Domain Awareness, and then all the things that we were doing in Space Domain awareness already, put all that together under one command … and called us Mission Delta 2,” Saltzman detailed.
This consolidation aims to create a more cohesive and effective approach to managing and leveraging SDA capabilities. The 18th Space Defense Squadron, once the primary entity for SDA, has seen its responsibilities distributed to other units. This disaggregation, Saltzman explained, is a strategic move to enhance agility and resilience.
“When I came into command a couple years ago, and we face now a real threat to having space superiority in the space domain, I disaggregated what we were doing just in the 18th and spread out through a couple of other units … so,that way everyone’s got kind of majors and minors,but we can quickly move a mission in case we get tested in terms of cyber defense or other kinds of vulnerabilities.”
This restructuring ensures that the Space Force can rapidly adapt and respond to emerging threats, whether they manifest as cyber vulnerabilities or other forms of aggression in the space domain. The ultimate goal is to maintain space superiority,