27 March 2023
Col. Christopher Putman, Commander, SPACECENT, USSF
On priorities
Three major priorities. One is to support the current fight. We can’t drop the ball on the current ball 24/7. We have to continue to provide the support. Second, stand up the organization. We were given authority to stand it up and everything that goes with it. Support the current fight and stand up the org. Third, international engagement. Lots of nations that are eager to get involved in space. How do we integrate? Updating our plans that would be fourth.
On Putman’s role today versus before
…As a component commander, I work directly for the combatant commander. I’ve got a seat at the table. We’re providing the best military advice and options so the Commander can respond. Before there was a lot of buffer between us and now it’s a direct line. Same thing on the service side. We have a direct line to the CSO and any support we might need.
On relationships with counterparts
We’ve been fully embraced as an equal partner. We’re all held to the same standard. We’re looked to for the best advice just like the others. Something that becomes very apparent, we’re preparing options, other commanders have suggested particular actions fall under our AOR. That put a smile on my face. They come to us and ask for our advice.
On SPACECENT advancing partnerships in the region
There’s a thirst for knowledge across the command. A lot of nations are coming to us for advice on how to stand up a SF and what does that look like. We just completed a space 100 class in Saudi Arabia. Challenge was how do I teach space 100 at an unclassified level? We could. It was a heavy lift but we could. Saudi Arabia is just one example. We have a lot of requests from a lot of partner nations wanting to discuss how to get after this and what looks right for them.
On relationships with USSC and SPACECENT
We can’t do our job without USSC. The focal point of our integration, USSC has a team in SPACECENT. It’s 5-8 personnel. We talk together and meet regularly throughout the week. On the ground in Tampa, we have a great relationship. We’re working to succeed. As far as lines of responsibility, SPACECENT handles the down and in. If there’s a fight going on in space, in the AOR, that’s USSC and if it affects us, that’s when we’re involved and we talk through it. Explaining the difference to partner nations, that’s really tricky. We’re working through that.
On relationship with USSF
Got support from Gen Saltzman and it’s been hugely beneficial. It's a short phone call from Gen. Saltzman and Gen. Burt… We have a lot of interactions back and forth. The relationship here and the other component commanders… Having those interactions component to component it’s been hugely beneficial. I look forward to standing up the rest of the components.
On getting faster AQ and interacting with SSC and industry
I’m not interacting with industry and SSC right now but that’s part of the plan. I need an AQ professional to come work on my staff. It’s definitely in the plans and we’re going to get after it. We’ll have that professional on board this summer and we’re going to keep getting that expertise there so we can work better with industry.
On tasking order
With the existing people we have now, we stood up a tasking process without getting too far off from the ATO cycle. What does the space tasking order look like? We have a separate document that goes out to the units and precisely tasks them. If anybody has any questions they can go straight to that document.
On training the next gen of guardians
I think what we’re learning, from a guardian perspective, we have some room to make up for the operational level. Now that we’re a separate component, we’ve got to fill the gap. We have the tactics down pretty good but there’s a gap that us as a service need to fill in. We’re coming up with operational planning. We have people on our staff doing this. We can learn a lot not just from AF but other services as well to get this planning experience. We’re also learning how important it is to have reps in the other components.
On resources and day to day operations involving PNT and ISR
GPS and satcom, in our AOR, without GPS and satcom, none of this is possible. What can we do to protect those capabilities? It’s working with our partners and the other components and making sure we have enough capacity on orbit. Maybe there’s an education piece as well. ISR front, that’s through the J2 channels. We work with our S2 and the others to make sure our combatant commander gets what he needs…
On how industry can help
We do partner nation engagements. What are the off the shelf items readily available that they can purchase and buy and also we can help provide the knowledge. Space 100 was great but until we have something to work on it’s PowerPoint deep. Whether it’s commercially available SSA so we can have a discussion on what’s going on in orbit with them, or them buying services from them, that’s all something tangible we can work with them on and build capacity.
On Iran space threats and keeping the peace
I think just having conversation with them. Saudi Arabia and having peer to peer discussions, that leads to better partnerships. Our goal is to have these conversations as much as possible. I’ll continue to have those as much as they’ll have us. We’ll do the best we can to get around to all the nation.
Audience Q&A
On integrating commercial sat capabilities and legality of using those capabilities
I’m not a lawyer and can’t speak to it but commercial plays an important role. We just need to work with legal teams and make sure that it all looks right.
On space integration into the joint force and land co coms
What’s the threat and who are they focused on? CENTCOM is focused on a certain region. USSC has the mission of 100k and above. CENTCOM is more complicated because there’s not a service with it.
On making sure there’s resilient space capabilities and defending networks
That’s where USSC and USSF come in. We’re planning on the capabilities being there. We have enough to focus on and I’m trusting them to focus on that.
On authorities that SPACECENT needs and partnership contributions
I think partners want to contribute and they are excited about it. Having a component out there encourages them to ask the questions. We’re working on what’s the best way they can help contribute and what that looks like. And sure, we have the right experience we have right now. We’re getting support from SF and we have personnel inbound. First group this summer, we’re definitely getting what we need. It’s still not enough but we’re standing up a lot of new orgs. I think we have the authorities we need to get the job done. I’d defer the rest of that discussion for another time.
On how SPACECENT is innovating
We are empowered it’s just a matter of bandwidth. Unless it’s in the course of the day to day operations I just don’t have the bandwidth. We do have a lot of flexibility to create innovative TTPs. I’m proud of the work they’re doing. Guardians, soldiers, UK and Canadians are contributing as well.
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