Dickinson reorganizes Army space command as he prepares move to U.S. SPACECOM

Lt. Gen. Dickinson: Military has ‘an important function’ in area operations.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Military House and Missile Protection Command is standing up a brand new brigade centered on satellite tv for pc operations and is planning long-term investments in expertise and coaching so it could possibly higher help the newly created U.S. House Command, Lt. Gen. James Dickinson, the SMDC commander, stated Oct. 15.

Dickinson was chosen and confirmed by the Senate to be deputy commander of U.S. SPACECOM, the place he’ll report back to Air Drive Gen. John Raymond. Dickinson remains to be at his SMDC workplace on the Military’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. He expects to maneuver to U.S. SPACECOM’s short-term headquarters at Peterson Air Drive Base, in Colorado Springs, within the subsequent couple of months as soon as a brand new SMDC chief is known as, Dickinson informed SpaceNews in an interview on the Affiliation of the U.S. Military’s annual convention.

The SMDC group of two,800 personnel has twin roles in area and missile protection. The portion of SMDC centered on area that reported to U.S. Strategic Command will now function the Military’s part of U.S. SPACECOM. The missile protection help to U.S. STRATCOM will proceed unchanged, Dickinson stated.

“These are thrilling occasions for area,” stated Dickinson. “We [the Army] have an important function.”

SMDC is making an attempt to carry seasoned fight veterans to the group to assist the command perceive the significance of supporting troops on the bottom, he stated. “Now we have fight veterans which might be area officers that present very priceless operational perspective,” Dickinson stated. These veterans actually perceive what it means to be in fight and having to depend on space-based capabilities for every little thing from communications, intelligence gathering, missile warning and navigation. “It’s key to carry functionality to troopers in a well timed method. That’s what we’ve got to get to,” he stated. “That’s one of many core missions of Military area.”

Making certain troops have entry to dependable satellite-based communications is a prime precedence, stated Dickinson. Military items underneath SMDC right this moment function satcom regional help facilities and wideband satcom operations facilities in the USA in Hawaii, Colorado and Maryland; and abroad in Germany and Japan.

Dickinson stated a serious motion he took just lately was to reorganize the 53rd Sign Battalion of the Military’s 1st House Brigade to assist enhance satcom help. The 53rd Sign Battalion is the one U.S. army unit that performs payload and transmission management of the Protection Satellite tv for pc Communications System and Wideband World Satellite tv for pc (WGS) communications constellations. Whereas the Air Drive truly flies the DSCS and WGS satellites, the Military operates the payloads.

The sign battalion has been renamed the U.S. Military Satellite tv for pc Operations Brigade. “I took the battalion, and I took satellite tv for pc communications specialists from my employees and put all of them underneath one new brigade,” stated Dickinson. “By doing that I’ve unity of effort and unity of command.”

The Military Satellite tv for pc Operations Brigade is comparatively small, with a couple of hundred troopers, in comparison with 1000’s in a fight brigade. They’re deployed all over the world to help operations, stated Dickinson.

SMDC additionally created a House and Missile Protection Heart of Excellence to assist information investments in new expertise and coaching. The middle will work with the Military Futures Command in areas like “assured PNT” with a give attention to growing various applied sciences to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing indicators. The Military is eager about utilizing small satellites and different applied sciences from the industrial business for communications, surveillance and PNT. “We want our programs to be redundant and resilient,” stated Dickinson.