Tag: space technology

US Military’s Need for Information Fueling Demand for Space Technology

Article by Sandra Erwin                                             April 25, 2021                                               (spacenews.com)

• In a clear sign that the demand for space-based capabilities is growing across the U.S. military, the US Army has announced plans to explore new uses of satellites and other space technology in support of soldiers on the ground. All the military services are looking at ways to use space to their advantage, said General David Thompson, vice chief of space operations of the US Space Force.

• The Space Force, created in 2019, is responsible for defending US satellites that foreign adversaries could target in a future conflict. Space Force also supports the US military with technologies like GPS navigation, satellite-based communications, surveillance and early warning.

• “Some people are jumping to the conclusion that they [the Army] will build and fly their own satellites,” said General Thompson. But other possibilities are being considered as well. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all want “the ability to get information from space” regardless of how it’s acquired. Thompson said that military leaders are discussing options for how new capabilities could be funded and brought to fruition. “There’s a whole host of ways that they can obtain the data they need from space to enable their tactical operations.”

• It remains to be seen if future budgets will support the Pentagon’s growing space systems wish lists. Funding for space capabilities has increased in recent. Across the military, the services have concluded that space systems give them the ability to capture information and share it quickly with forces around the world. All the services, the combatant commands and the Joint Staff are “in the process of identifying requirements that they need, that they expect the Space Force to be able to provide,” Thompson said.

• The budget request the Biden administration will submit for fiscal year 2022 is mostly wrapped up but “there’s a lot of work to do inside DoD and with the administration and with Congress,” Thompson said. “I think we’ll be in… the position we kind of sort of expected to be in. The challenge will be to see how it’s going to evolve in the future.” “We’re all on the same boat.”

 

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army last week announced plans to explore new uses of satellites and other space technology in

                 Gen. David Thompson

support of soldiers on the ground.

This is a clear sign that the demand for space-based capabilities is growing across the U.S. military, said Gen. David Thompson, vice chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.

All the military services are looking at ways to use space to their advantage, Thompson said in an interview with SpaceNews.
“Part of this is a recognition of how critical space capabilities and information from space is going to be to the fight,” he said of the Army’s announcement that it plans to invest in space systems.

The Space Force was spun out the Air Force in 2019 to give the military a dedicated branch focused on space. It is responsible for defending U.S. satellites that foreign adversaries could target in a future conflict, and the Space Force supports the U.S. military at large with technologies like GPS navigation, satellite-based communications, surveillance and early warning.

Thompson said Space Force and Army leaders are discussing options for how new capabilities could be funded and brought to fruition. “There’s a whole host of ways that they can obtain the data they need from space to enable their tactical operations,” said Thompson.

“Some people are jumping to the conclusion that they [the Army] will build and fly their own satellites,” he said. But other possibilities are being considered as well.

The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps all want “the ability to get information from space” regardless of how it’s acquired, said Thompson.

“There is no question the Army recognizes that space capabilities, that information from space are vital to joint war fighting,” said Thompson. “It’s vital to the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines as well.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Space – The Next Frontier

March 24, 2021                                      (streetinsider.com)

• Nowhere is time so of the essence than in equipment designed for use in aeronautic and space applications. The list of companies having strong ambitions in the advanced space technology marketplace include space-tech firms, including Boeing Co., SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, and Amazon.com Inc.

• Boeing Co. has acquired Millennium Space Systems, a provider of agile, flight-proven small-satellite solutions, and has become a major shareholder of Signal Advance Inc., a pioneer in biomedical and cybersecurity applications for Military Defense, presumably involve low-orbit space. This technology can potentially improve the performance of a wide range of devices that process analog signals in areas such as industrial process control, interventional medical devices, alarm/detection systems, flight, and vehicular control, as well as military targeting and weaponry. In short, the company’s technology effectively reduces the time it takes to get a meaningful signal from sensor-based devices or systems. This has huge implications for anything where time is of the essence.

• SpaceX founder Elon Musk said that he plans to make Tesla a publicly traded company once revenues become predictable. Given recent struggles, advancing sensor technology might be the key to SpaceX’s future. As the NYTimes put it: “If it exploded last time, try, try again. They did, and it exploded again… On Tuesday, a test flight of SpaceX’s Starship, a huge next-generation spacecraft that Elon Musk, the founder and chief executive of the private rocket company, dreams of one day sending to Mars, came to an explosive end.”

• Virgin Galactic’s model is tailored to the space tourism market. The company plans to generate billions in revenues in five to ten years carting thousands of wide-eyed space tourists up into orbit.

• Amazon is less well known in the commercial space industry. But the company has announced the establishment of a new unit called Aerospace and Satellite Solutions, led by former US Air Force Maj. Gen. Clint Crosier, who most recently directed the establishment of the U.S. Space Force.

 

               Elon Musk’s SpaceX

Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) was recently awarded contracts (over the past year) totaling

     Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic

$974 million to develop a next-generation seeker for the U.S. Army’s Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile system, as well as continue and expand production on current generations of the PAC-3 seeker, in Huntsville, Alabama, as a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin.

BA also recently completed the acquisition of Millennium Space Systems, a provider of agile, flight-proven small-satellite solutions, to help grant it the underlying technology for some of this expanded air and space defense business. According to Boeing, Millennium Space Systems will operate under Boeing Phantom Works as a subsidiary called “Millennium Space Systems, A Boeing Company” and Millennium’s Founder/ Former CEO is a gentleman named Stan Dubyn.

Boeing first announced the agreement with Millennium Space Systems back in August 2018. The deal has closed in 2019 and Dubyn has gone on to become one of the largest shareholders in Signal Advance Inc., (OTCMKTS: SIGL).

        Jeff Bezos/Amazon’s Blue Origin

Signal Advance story – in terms of tangible catalysts – lies in its Biomedical and Cybersecurity applications. But the company has technology applications for Military Defense, which would presumably involve low-orbit space.

Signal Technology

Signal Advance Inc., (OTCMKTS: SIGL) only recently started to report commercial success and financial performance of note. Hence, it’s difficult to appreciate the story from the standpoint of pure financial data, although the for the first 9 months of 2020 Signal Advance Inc., had revenues of $6,347,811 which translates to an EPS of $0.1622 and currently awaiting 2020 year-end financial report. But the key to evaluating it now is by looking at its unique technology and how it may open up opportunities across a number of high-growth industries.

According to the company’s materials: Sensors are used to detect various physical or physiological properties (e.g. pressure, temperature, speed, heart rate) and convert these properties into analog electrical signals. Typically, these signals are then digitized and processed to generate an output which can be used for monitoring, intervention, process control or similar functions.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims of Advanced Space Technology

Listen to “E195 Recently Retired USAF General Makes Eyebrow Raising Claims of Advanced Space Technology” on Spreaker.
Article by Brett Tingely                         December 11, 2019                         (thedrive.com)

• US Air Force Lieutenant General Steven L. Kwast (pictured above) served as Commander of the 47th Operations Group at Laughlin Air Force Base and the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, and had support within the Armed Forces to be appointed as the Commander of the Pentagon’s Space Force. Instead, Kwast retired this past September. On November 20, 2019, Kwast gave a lecture titled “The Urgent Need for a U.S. Space Force” at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C.

• In his talk, Kwast claimed that China is already building a “Navy in space” complete with the space-based equivalents of “battleships and destroyers”, and that the US is not keeping up. We know that China has been rapidly expanding its presence in space in recent years, placing a lander on the Moon last year as a possible first step toward a permanent Moon base. China has also been developing “mothership” aircraft from which to launch ‘space planes’ and other payloads into space. China has been investing heavily in manned and unmanned space technologies that rivals, and in some ways, exceeds our own. Kwast believes we need a Space Force in order to counter Chinese advances and win the competition over the economy of the future and, as an extension, the political values for the future.

• Kwast says the “the power of space will change world power forever” and that it’s up to the United States military to leverage that power. The nature of the power of a competitive advantage is “you either have it and your values rule or you do not have it and you must submit. We see that play out again and again in history and it’s playing out now,” Kwast argues. “[China] will pass us in the next few years if we do not do something. They will win this race and then they will put roadblocks up to space.”

• Around the 12:00 mark in the speech (see video below), Kwast makes the somewhat bizarre claim that the U.S. currently possesses revolutionary technologies that could render current aerospace capabilities obsolete: “[M]ost Americans and most members of Congress have not had time to really look deeply at what is going on here. … [T]echnology can be built today (that can)… deliver any human being from any place on planet Earth to any other place in less than an hour.”

• Other military leaders have made curious comments lately alluding that we could be on the precipice of a great leap in transportation technology. There are many within the U.S. military and analyst community who feel a great need to boost investment in American space technologies and the U.S. military’s presence in space. That vision is taking root across the Defense Department.

• Kwast has published several op-eds in recent years pushing for the U.S. military to take on a greater role in space in order to ensure American economic dominance and what he sees as the continued proliferation of American values. Some have said that Kwast was blacklisted and prematurely relieved of his duties after speaking out on space-related issues in violation of a service-wide gag order. Kwast declined to comment.

• Is all this setting the stage for a new space race that will benefit mankind by furthering scientific and technological development, or is it ushering in the conditions for the first great space war?

 

Recently retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Steven L. Kwast gave a lecture last month that seems to further signal that the next major battlefield will be outer space. While military leadership rattling the space sabers is nothing new, Kwast’s lecture included comments that heavily hint at the possibility that the United States military and its industry partners may have already developed next-generation technologies that have the potential to drastically change the aerospace field, and human civilization, forever. Is this mere posturing or could we actually be on the verge of making science fiction a reality?

Who Is Steven Kwast?

According to his official USAF biography, Lt. Gen. Kwast graduated from the United States Air Force Academy with a degree in astronautical engineering, and also holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Kwast previously served as Commander of the 47th Operations Group at Laughlin Air Force Base and the 4th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson AFB. Kwast boasts more than 3,300 flight hours in the F-15E, T-6, T-37, and T-38 and over 650 combat hours.

Lt. Gen. Kwast most recently served as Commander of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC) at Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA), but retired in August. According to some reports, Kwast was prematurely relieved of his duties at JBSA and blacklisted for promotion after speaking out on space-related issues despite a service-wide gag order. Kwast declined to comment on the reports and retired on September 1, 2019.

Despite the controversy surrounding his removal from his post at AETC, some defense analysts and Lt. Gen. Kwast’s own supporters within the Armed Forces were suggesting prior to his retirement that he should be appointed as Commander of the Pentagon’s budding Space Force. Kwast has published several op-eds in recent years pushing for the U.S. military to take on a greater role in space in order to ensure American economic dominance and what he sees as the continued proliferation of American values.

Gaining The High Ground In Space

Kwast delivered a lecture at Hillsdale College in Washington, D.C. on November 20, 2019, titled “The Urgent Need for a U.S. Space Force.” Kwast’s wide-ranging speech described the power of new technologies to revolutionize humankind, referencing the competitive advantage the discovery of fire offered to early humans and the strategic value that nuclear weapons offered 20th-century superpowers. When it comes to current revolutionary technologies, Kwast says the “the power of space will change world power forever” and that it’s up to the United States military to leverage that power: “As a historian, reflecting on the fact that throughout the history of mankind… technology has always changed world power. But the story of rejecting the new and holding and clinging to the paradigms of the past is why no civilization has ever lasted forever, and values are trumped by other values when another civilization figures out a way of finding a competitive advantage. The nature of power, you either have it and your values rule or you do not have it and you must submit. We see that play out again and again in history and it’s playing out now.”

As has been common as of late, Lt. Gen Kwast cites rapidly growing Chinese military and technological advances as the reason why the United States must invest heavily in new space-based technologies. “We can say today we are dominant in space but the trend lines are what you have to look at and they will pass us in the next few years if we do not do something. They will win this race and then they will put roadblocks up to space,” Kwast argues, “because once you get the high ground, that strategic high ground, it’s curtains for anybody trying to get to that high ground behind them.”

1:06:24 video of Steven Kwast on the Need for Space Force (‘Hillsdale College’ YouTube)

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Copyright © 2019 Exopolitics Institute News Service. All Rights Reserved.