{"id":19533,"date":"2017-09-06T23:09:42","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T23:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/06\/us-experts-tout-space-based-sensors-lasers-for-active-defense\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:13:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:13:02","slug":"us-experts-tout-space-based-sensors-lasers-for-active-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/home\/2017\/09\/06\/us-experts-tout-space-based-sensors-lasers-for-active-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts tout space-based sensors, lasers for missile defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 A panel of experts on Wednesday singled out space-based sensors and directed-energy interceptors as technologies that the U.S. must continue to develop if it intends to stay ahead of the proliferating threat of ballistic and cruise missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking at a Defense News Conference panel titled \u201cDefining the Military Agenda,\u201d uniformed officers and civilian officials from the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Army as well as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conceded that much work remains to be done before high-powered lasers are mature enough to translate into operational capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo be able to keep a laser on a target for a certain amount of time is a challenge,\u201d said Col. Joe Capobianco, chief of staff of the U.S. Army Rapid Capabilities Office. \u201cLasers are maturing to a point that we\u2019re seeing them in the commercial industry. Lasers are out there. But as far as military applications, there\u2019s still work to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Capobianco noted there are myriad prototypes and demonstrations that have proved promising for future military use, but translating them into operational capability will take time. \u201cEventually you\u2019ll have a capability that can be put on a major weapon system. Lasers for military applications are coming. \u2026 But we\u2019re not seeing it at a maturity level to be a war-fighting capability at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Retired Col. Fred Kennedy, deputy director of DARPA\u2019s Tactical Technology Office, acknowledged that the advanced research agency has been working lasers for many long years. He said high-powered, solid-state lasers are \u201cclearly on the table,\u201d yet deferred to the Pentagon\u2019s Missile Defense Agency, or MDA, \u201cas to what specific application they want to come out of this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rear Adm. Jon Hill, MDA deputy director, went as far as to characterize lasers as a \u201cgame-changer\u201d for missile defense. Nevertheless, he acknowledged it would require \u201crobust investment to get to the power scale and the range we\u2019ll need to reach out far enough and remain lethal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/space-missile-defense\/2017\/09\/06\/dod-missile-defense-deputy-us-children-are-safe-from-north-korean-threat\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20170906_Defense-New-Conference57-Cropped-1.jpg-1.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">DoD missile defense deputy: US children are safe from North Korean threat<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">An official with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says additional funding is required to render active defenses more robust to meet future threats.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the MDA deputy, adversarial nations are \u201cmoving ahead\u201d with lasers and the U.S. must not lag behind. \u201cWe all know cost per kill is very expensive, but if we don\u2019t invest in it, it will remain a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you want a solution tomorrow, you must invest today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversely, space-based sensors \u2014 another essential element for modernized missile defense \u2014 and the need to protect space assets are starting to receive requisite attention by congressional appropriators and the U.S. government writ large, said Brig. Gen. Mark Baird, director of space programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. \u201cWe\u2019re working in partnership with MDA to make sure we can protect the nation if, God forbid, we\u2019re in a contested event,\u201d Baird said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baird told Defense News Conference participants that he was pleased to see \u201chow much attention people are paying\u201d to critical space-based capabilities. \u201cThere\u2019s a fundamental shift in how we look at missile defense and space. Space used to be a non-contested domain. It is not now. We have demonstrated capabilities now that make space a war-fighting domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNobody wants to take a war into space, but as a military \u2014&nbsp;both civilian and those in uniform \u2014&nbsp;we have to be ready to institute a space war-fighting construct and a space enterprise vision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brig. Gen. Tim Lawson, deputy commanding general for operations at the U.S. Army\u2019s Space and Missile Defense Command, said space-based sensors are an essential element for missile defense, which remains a top service modernization priority. \u201cSpace-enabling is so critical. When you look at sensors and shooters, they are reliant on space enabling,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thomas Karako, senior fellow and head of the Missile Defense Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the space sensor layer has been a critical part of the US national missile defense program for the past five administrations. But only recently, he said, is it moving from talking points on paper to reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf there\u2019s one major muscle movement that we can do across the spectrum from regional defense to homeland defense, it\u2019s tracking from space,\u201d Karako said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As world attention has turned to North Korea and the intercontinental ballistic missile threat, Karako urged government officials not to neglect shorter-range missiles that threaten regional allies or threats posed by cruise missiles and UAVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAs we presumptively rebalance from regional defense to homeland defense, it\u2019s important not to lose sight of the other threats,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just be chasing the ball on North Korean ICBMs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And as government and industry develop new sensor and shooter capabilities, it\u2019s important to seek new ways of integrating new developments and speeding their deployment in the field, said Tim Cahill, vice president for Integrated Air and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin&nbsp;Missiles and Fire Control. \u201cWe need to find a way to increase the speed with which we field systems. One way to do this is to look at things differently. In missile defense, it\u2019s important to apply innovation,\u201d Cahill said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Lockheed Martin executive, too often in missile defense, people focus on getting as close as possible to 100 percent capability before introducing a system to the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen you\u2019re rapidly trying to put capability in the field, it might be OK to field systems with 85 percent capability and follow that with requisite testing and due diligence. Having something that is not quite 100 percent is better than nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twitter: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OpallRome\">@opallrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A panel of experts on Wednesday singled out space-based sensors and directed-energy interceptors as technologies that the U.S. must continue to develop if it intends to stay ahead of the proliferating threat of ballistic and cruise missiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":29,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,108,29,15,32,42],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2739],"class_list":["post-19533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-daily-brief-sub-section","category-home","category-intel-geoint","category-newsletters","category-sensors"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QBWULE7ENJAXPH2ZFKQMYLG4OE","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/2017\/09\/06\/us-experts-tout-space-based-sensors-lasers-for-active-defense\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Experts tout space-based sensors, lasers for missile defense - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A panel of experts on Wednesday singled out space-based sensors and directed-energy interceptors as technologies that the U.S. must continue to develop if it intends to stay ahead of the proliferating threat of ballistic and cruise missiles.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/2017\/09\/06\/us-experts-tout-space-based-sensors-lasers-for-active-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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