Fwd: Space systems more than modern amenity

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: August 11, 2013 1:55:14 PM GMT-06:00
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Space systems more than modern amenity

 

 

      Aug. 10, 2013 10:54 PM

 

Space systems more than modern amenity

Our locally launched satellites serve crucial role in today's military

A look inside the Morrell Launch Center: The role of Space Command in the US Military is explained by those who help launch the rockets that carry the satellites into orbit. By Malcolm Denemark and Craig Bailey. Posted August 8, 2013.

Written by
R. Norman Moody
FLORIDA TODAY

 

Purchase Image Zoom

The entrance to the Morrell Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station lauds locally launched satellite technology. / photos by MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION — No matter where in the world U.S. troops are fighting, Cape Canaveral has a part on the battlefield.

The sign above the entrance to the Morrell Operations Center at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station tells the tale: "Control of the Battlefield Begins HERE."

Satellite technology has become such an entrenched part of the modern world, that most people don't even notice it, even though satellites are critical to things such as long-distance communication, electronic navigation systems and much of the entertainment we get both at home and on our mobile devices.

"A lot of people take it for granted," said Lt. Col. Dave "Dash" Ashley, commander of the 5th Space Launch Squadron. "It's really unnoticeable. That's how we like it."

But while satellite technology might be unnoticed by a lot of people, it is not taken for granted by American men and women on the battlefield.

The war-fighting and intelligence capabilities that come from satellites that are launched from here continue to be of an ever-increasing importance to the military.

And that has been reflected by the growing importance of Air Force Space Command to the military.

That growing importance has been good news for Brevard County and its military community.

Patrick Air Force Base — home of the 45th Space Wing — has been mostly unscathed by base closures and realignments over the past 25 years. At one time, commanders at the 45th typically retired as brigadier generals once their tour here was complete. Now commanders routinely are promoted and move on to more senior leadership positions in the Air Force.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, said Air Force Space Command and its work is central to the American style of warfare and crisis management.

"It's much bigger than Space Command," Pike said. "Really, the Army has more people using it. The Navy, they use it big time. You have a whole lot of people using it."

The constellation of Global Positioning System satellites are used to navigate aircraft, military vehicles and ships. The satellites also guide precision weapons to their targets or get humanitarian aid to the precise drop locations.

That allows the military to accomplish more with less, Pike said. He said the military used to dispatch multiple aircraft for a target. Now a singleaircraft can bedispatched to several targets.

 

"It's precise target intelligence," Pike said.

 

Images shot by satellites allow commanders see changes on the battlefield in near-real time without deploying troops on risky reconnaissance missions.

 

"It used to be if you wanted to know what was on the other side of the hill, you would go to the other side of the hill," Pike said.

 

Satellites also allow for instantaneous secure communications worldwide.

 

Pike said that not too many years ago, when military commanders had a tasking order they would print it out, put it on a helicopter and send it out to the aircraft carrier.

 

Pike said the United States needs space systems to support global operations in ways that most other countries do not. The wars in which the U.S. has been involved have been around the world, most far from its shores.

 

Airman, soldiers, Marines and sailors and their commanders rely on satellites for intelligence gathering and imagery that gives them the advantage on the battlefield.

 

"They don't even think of where it comes from, they just know they have it," Ashley said.

 

He said that in the past,when pilots wanted to drop bombs, they had to fly low enough to see the target. But now they rely on global positioning and other resources based on satellites.

 

"The accuracy has gotten so far that we can put a bomb through a window," Ashley said.

 

On a visit last month to50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh thanked the airmen there for enabling the U.S. military to fulfill its mission around the world.

 

"There is not a single weapon that gets dropped anywhere on the planet precisely without you," Welsh said. "There is no secure (communication) on the Osama Bin Laden raid without you. There is not ability to move people, equipment, keep things on time, without you. There is no ability to do nuclear command and control communication, anything without you. In every mission we do in the Air Force, and there are five core ones that we do where the rest of the Air Force is involved, you enable every one of them."

 

The 50th Space Wing, one of about two dozenunits in Space Command, is responsible for the operations and support of more than 170 Department of Defense satellites.

 

Lt. Col. Paul Konyha, commander of the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, said he often stops to think about how much has to get done to get a rocket launched.

 

"There is no room for error," he said. "There is so much integrated into it. All the units down at Patrick contribute to it."

 

Konyha said so many troops and others rely on that the satellites launched will do exactly what they were designed to do.

 

"It really gives us an advantage," he said.

 

Contact Moody at 321-242-3651 or nmoody@floridatoday.com.

 

Copyright © 2013 www.floridatoday.com. All rights reserved. 

 

===============================================================