WASHINGTON — John Plumb, the outgoing assistant secretary of defense for space policy, gave his opinion on the ongoing debate about how the Defense Department and intelligence community should work together to provide timely battlefield intelligence to military leaders.
In an interview with SpaceNews, Plumb mentioned that his office does not have the authority to decide how the work should be divided. “That’s above me,” he said.
But Plumb stated that agency leaders need to come together and resolve the ongoing struggle between the military’s need for quick access to raw data from space-based sensors and the intelligence agencies’ procedures for checking and analyzing that information before sharing it.
Plumb said there are persistent difficulties in aligning the Defense Department’s urgency for direct satellite tasking and smooth data transmission with the intelligence community’s processes.
“It’s a fundamental principle that I believe the DoD and, hopefully, the entire U.S. government agrees with, that information must flow at an operationally relevant speed,” Plumb said, adding that a combat pilot in a cockpit doesn’t have time for analysts to review satellite data before receiving it.
‘Significant disagreements’
Plumb emphasized the importance of getting information to warfighters quickly and made it clear that he is not criticizing intelligence agencies that operate differently than the military.
He pointed out that “there are some fairly significant disagreements at the moment about what is the right way forward for moving data around.”
The issue is gaining attention as the U.S. military and intelligence agencies work on a new satellite system called Ground Moving Target Indicator, or GMTI, to track moving targets. There is currently a debate about who should manage those sensors.
There is tension between the military’s desire for direct access to data and the intelligence community’s role in analyzing that information before sharing insights. The military also wants quicker access to commercial satellite imagery for the battlefield, rather than going through the intelligence agencies that are responsible for obtaining the imagery.
It is still unclear how this issue will be resolved, according to Plumb. He questioned why the GMTI mission handled by the Air Force with aircraft should move to intelligence agencies “simply because it happens to operate from space.”
“That’s old-fashioned thinking,” said Plumb.
He partly blamed outdated policies from the early 2000s that do not consider the Pentagon’s purchase of commercial space services to quickly transmit data.
Chirag Parikh, the National Space Council’s executive secretary, stated at the GEOINT Symposium last week that the council is looking into how to meet the military’s need for fast data access and the intelligence agencies’ efforts to ensure information is properly analyzed.
Plumb said the disagreements should be resolved between the defense secretary and the director of national intelligence, rather than being taken to the president. He noted that defense and intelligence cultures often clash over procedures.
“DoD procedures and IC procedures don’t match,” he said. “They are different … now we’re in a situation where these boundaries are merging. I think it’s causing points of conflict.”
Business is ‘the future direction’
Plumb is resigning shortly after the publication of the Pentagon’s business space integration strategy, which he supported.
He expressed confidence in its implementation, emphasizing guidance issued by the Secretary of Defense. “Incorporating business solutions is the path to the future. It is the wise thing,” Plumb concluded.
