What sorts of things and capabilities are you sending out into the world that you’re particularly pleased or proud of right at the moment?

Lt. Gen. Richard Formica: Well, of course we’re proud of all of them. I’ll just briefly talk through some of the major capabilities in each functional area.

Obviously, our No. 1 deliverable is the missile defense crews that we provide at Fort Greely [Alaska], Vandenberg [Air Force Base in California], and in the fire control element in Colorado Springs. We provide the four JTAG stations that do theater missile warnings to JFCC-Space. We operate the wideband satellite operations centers, while the Air Force controls the satellites, along with launch and maintenance of the wideband satellites in orbit. And the signal community actually executes the communications that are derived from that, but we maintain the path, or the access to those satellites and control the bandwidth. We also provide a friendly force tracking capability to the U.S. government, to DoD and to combatant commands, do geo-spatial intelligence analysis to STRATCOM and to other geographic combatant commands, [and] we contribute capability to JFCC-Space’s space tracking and space situational awareness. We [also have some of the U.S.] Army’s Title 10 responsibilities for the manned flight detachment, which means the three astronauts that are currently assigned to NASA.

In the capability development area, as I said earlier, we do doctrine and concepts, working closely with TRADOC [U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command] and the Department of the Army as they look to Army 2020 for providing input as to how space and missile defense concepts will be part of the future Army. We develop the organization for the future space and missile defense forces, global missile defense training, and institutional training for our space professionals. And we do wargaming and analysis for space and missile defense, studies and analysis for the departments and other customers as is appropriate. [One other area we contribute to is] the leadership development of our Army by teaching space and various Army courses. We’re not responsible for the courses, but we provide the space instruction.

Several technologies – I’m the simpleton in this, Ms. Wymer’s the engineer – [such as] “NanoSats” that we’re developing … I think have potential use for tactical operational commanders. They’re the size of a football. At the same time we’re the program manager for the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, or LEMV, which is the size of a football field. So we are literally working technology from the size of a football that will operate in space, to the size of a football field that will operate at 20,000 feet. Then we’re working directed energy [systems], some counter IED capabilities, and the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon [AHW], which I know you are aware of and Ms. Wymer can add to, so I’ll pause with some of those major deliverables and let her talk to some of the technology ones in particular.

Debra G. Wymer: Yes, and I truly believe that I have the most fun job in the command. Our basic thrusts in technology development are in the areas of space and directed energy. Within the space technology development [area], as the general said, we are working on NanoSats that are addressing the need for both persistent communications and surveillance. And then, along with the NanoSat development work, we are also hoping to pursue a low-cost launch capability, because this low-cost approach with using small satellites, nano-satellites, really requires a low-cost way to get them to orbit.

So, those are the areas we are focusing on in the area of space technology development. We’ve been working directed energy development for a number of years now. We have successfully achieved 100-kilowatt [kW] solid-state laser demonstration in the laboratory setting, and we are very close to having that laser integrated at the High Energy Laser System Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range so that we can begin some testing there to better understand the capability of that 100-kW laser.

Parallel with that, we are also working on solid-state laser technology development that will lead us to a weaponized capability, because the 100-kW laser was never meant to be weaponized. In other words, it doesn’t meet the size and weight requirements required of a weaponized system and it also is not ruggedized. So we’re working the next-generation laser capability, and have just recently completed demonstration of a ruggedized beam control system. So, once we have that next-generation laser technology development ready, we will integrate it with the beam control system. That’s essentially what we’re doing with directed energy. Of course we are working with the other services to make the most of what the entire DoD community is doing in the area of directed energy.

And as far as technology demonstration, Gen. Formica talked about the LEMV program. That’s one of our major efforts now. We are working towards a first flight of that vehicle in 2012. And then the [AHW] is another key technology demonstration program we were doing for DoD. We successfully flew that. I am proud of the work we did on AHW, and we did collect a tremendous amount of data that’s going to be useful to the entire community. That’s something that we’re all very proud of.

Lt. Gen. Richard Formica: We’re all very proud of our Technical Center for the work they did in delivering that great success. I take absolutely zero credit for this – it didn’t start on my watch and I didn’t know how to spell AHW – but I had the opportunity to sit in a viewing room in the Pentagon with Mr. Hoelscher from DoD, and watch the flight. I know the amount of work that our Tech Center did to manage that program and to work closely with Sandia Lab and the other organizations on the technical aspects of AHW. It was a pretty proud moment for the command.