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Space Systems Brochure (1.2 MBytes PDF)
EDUCATIONAL
SKILL REQUIREMENTS
SPACE SYSTEMS OPERATIONS
CURRICULUM
(366)
Subspecialty Code 6206P – Space Systems Operations
All officers with graduate education in Space Systems Operations must be competent in the below core subjects. Theses competencies will enable graduates to serve in positions that design, acquire, operate, or secure military space and information systems and/or deny potential adversaries the effective use of their own. The skills and competencies are detailed below.
- Joint Strategy and Policy:
- Orbital Mechanics, Space Environment
and Remote Sensing:
- Military Space Systems:
- Project Management and Systems Acquisistion:
- Communications:
- Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation:
- Architecting Joint Military Space Missions:
- Advanced Concepts and Technologies in Space Systems:
- Information Superiority:
JOINT STRATEGY AND POLICY
a. Officers develop a
graduate-level ability to think strategically, critically analyze past military
campaigns, and apply historical lessons to future joint and combined operations,
in order to discern the relationship between a nation's policies and goals and
the ways military power may be used to achieve them. This is fulfilled by
completion of the first of the Naval War College course series leading to
Service Intermediate-level Professional Military Education (PME) and Phase I
Joint PME credit.
b. Understand current Navy
and USMC doctrine (e.g., Sea Power 21, Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare).
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ORBITAL MECHANICS, SPACE ENVIRONMENT AND REMOTE
SENSING:
a. Understand the basic physics of orbital
motion, the parameters used in the description of orbits and their ground
tracks. Understand the design of orbits, how they are achieved,
maintained, and controlled including the design of constellations and how
spacecraft are maneuvered and repositioned. Understand spacecraft tracking
and command/control from a ground station. Understand the various orbital
perturbations, including those due to nonspherical earth and due to atmospheric
drag. Understand the relationships of orbits to mission requirements,
including the advantages and disadvantages of various orbits.
b. Understand the natural
and induced environment of space including solar activity, geomagnetic and
magnetospheric phenomena, physics of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere and
their response to natural and artificial disturbances. Understand the
impacts to spacecraft parts and materials due to this space environment.
c. Understand the
principles of active and passive sensors used in current and future spacecraft
for sensing through the atmosphere. Understand the effects of the space
environment and countermeasures on sensor performance. Understand the
tradeoffs among various sensor techniques, including area of coverage,
resolution, processing, and power requirements.
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MILITARY SPACE SYSTEMS
Understand the two major components of military space systems: (These systems include MILSATCOM, Commercial systems, GPS, Meteorological systems, space surveillance, National systems, space-based warning, and other nations’ systems)
a. Military Space
Operations: Understand the operational requirements and limitations of
current and future space systems used by the DoD for Space Control and Force
Application. Understand the roles of the Services in the development,
operation, and use of these systems. Understand the roles,
responsibilities and relationships of national and Joint DoD organizations in
establishing policies, priorities, and requirements for these space systems; and
in their design, acquisition and operation. Understand the nature of space
warfare (theory, history, doctrine, and policy) including space control, assured
access, global engagement, and full force integration. Be familiar with
Joint Doctrine (e.g. JP 314).
b. Warfighter Support
Obtained from Space: Understand the capabilities and use of space systems
to enable and support Joint air, land, and sea military operations (i.e. Force
Enhancement). Understand the intelligence collection and analysis process
for space systems and how warfighters access information from these sources.
Understand doctrine and operational concepts (e.g. USSTRATCOM’s “Long Range
Plan”) and be able to contribute to the development of space tactics that
enhance or support military operations.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND SYSTEM ACQUISITION:
a.
Understand project management and DoD system acquisition methods and procedures
to include contract management, financial management and control, and the
Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS). Receive an introduction
to the Defense Acquisition University and the acquisition courses and
qualifications available.
b. Understand the system
acquisition organizational responsibilities and relationships (e.g. Congress,
DoD, Services; Resource Sponsor, Systems Commands, Operating Forces) as they
pertain to the acquisition of systems for DoD, Naval, and civilian agency users.
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COMMUNICATIONS:
a. Understand the basic principles of communications systems engineering including the space and ground segments. Understand digital and analog communications architecture design, including frequency reuse, multiple access, link design, repeater architecture, source encoding, waveforms, and propagation media. Understand current and future communications systems used or planned by Naval operating and Joint forces afloat and ashore. Understand how space systems are used to meet joint warfighters’ communications requirements.
b. Be able to articulate
from the joint warfighter's perspective the advantages and disadvantages of
various frequencies used by DoD for communications across the frequency
spectrum. Understand the national and international issues involving use
of the frequency spectrum.
c. Understand current and
future MILSATCOM bandwidth allocation processes.
d. Understand the nature
of the rapid evolution in commercial satellite communications systems. Be
able to articulate potential uses to satisfy Joint DoD Information Operations
requirements.
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ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS AND EVALUATION:
a. Be able to derive,
assess, and articulate cost-effective requirements for the operational use of
space systems to meet C3I/IO requirements, using modeling and simulation, field
and laboratory experiments, and other quantitative and qualitative methods as
they pertain to the Federal and DoD Acquisition System.
b. Be able to perform
business case (economic) and trade-off analyses for commercial and DoD Systems.
c. Receive introduction to
Naval Warfare Development Command and become familiar with real world exercises
(e.g., Fleet Battle Experiments, Millennium Challenge)
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ARCHITECTING JOINT MILITARY SPACE MISSIONS:
a. Understand the basic principles of
architecting a complex joint military space mission, the life cycle process by
which a space system is conceived, structured, designed, built, tested,
certified and operated in a way that ensures its integrity and performance.
Be able to formulate a consistent set of principles and techniques to be
followed throughout all phases of the architecting process.
b. Understand the systems
design of a spacecraft that includes its various subsystems: propulsion,
structure, thermal, attitude determination and control; electrical power, and
telemetry, tracking and command; and their integration. Gain an
appreciation of the key interactions between the various subsystems and their
effects on performance requirements. Understand the system design criteria
from stated performance requirements, and the trade-offs between payloads and
other spacecraft subsystems.
c. Understand the basic
principles of launch vehicle performance; launch environment, launch windows,
and their role in military operations. Understand the differences between
the various classes of current and future launch systems including the upper
stages. Gain an appreciation of the various business issues involved in
the selection of the launch vehicle (e.g.: pricing, insurance, policy). Be
familiar with the issues of integrating a spacecraft with a launch vehicle.
Perform a trade-off analysis in the selection of the launch vehicle.
d. Understand the
application of the principles of systems engineering to a Joint space project
from the needs assessment phase to the final operations cycle. Be able to
apply the tools of project management (e.g. scheduling, costing, budgeting,
planning, resource negotiation, risk management) to a space project. Gain
an appreciation of the review process from the systems requirements review to
the critical design review. Gain a familiarity with typical spacecraft
testing: electromagnetic compatibility tests, vibration and thermal tests,
functional tests, deployments tests, alignment tests, inertia determination
tests and comprehensive system tests. Understand the necessity to ensure
the integrity, workmanship, and performance of the spacecraft.
e. Understand the basic
elements of joint mission operations: command the spacecraft, manage payloads,
resolve anomalies, schedule ground station support, design failure workarounds,
plan orbit maneuvers, and link users and operators.
f. Be able to develop a
concept of operations for a space system. Be able to develop and assess a
course of action using the Joint Operational Planning and Evaluation System (JOPES)
process for best utilization of space systems. Be able to develop the
space systems component of OPLANS.
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ADVANCED CONCEPTS AND TECHNOLOGIES IN SPACE
SYSTEMS
:
a. Understand the future of military space
requirements stemming from information superiority.
b. Understand the future
concepts of operations published by various DoD organizations based on an
understanding of the emerging technologies and their impact on military space.
c. Develop an
understanding of the advanced concepts and technologies in military space
systems.
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INFORMATION SUPERIORITY:
a. The graduate shall have
a broad understand and ability to innovatively employ information superiority
technologies, develop and implement top level systems and subsystems and
influence applications of the following knowledge domains: Joint C4I,
Information Warfare, Space System Operations, Information Technology Management,
Computer Science, Modeling and Simulation.
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ESR Approved by:
Deputy for Command, Control,
Communications and Computers (C4), Integration and Policy (OPNAV N6F)
Nov 2004