RESILIENT SPACE SUPPORT TO UNITED STATES NAVAL OPERATIONS

The Arctic Circle is quickly changing. In very recent years, the relatively rapid melt of ice has allowed unprecedented naval access to and through the Arctic Circle. In turn, this has radically shifted the strategic environment for the United States and threat actors such as Russia and China, the latter of which stated in 2018 that it intends to extend into the Arctic a "Polar Silk Road." The need will continually rise for American naval power projection into the Arctic to defend its interests there and beyond. To this end, the newly created United States Space Force has redoubled efforts to enhance space support to naval operations globally, and particularly in the Arctic. The cry from the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard for space support will only continue to grow in this century, and the Space Force must rise to meet the challenge. Our research work focuses on identifying specific space warfighting and space support capabilities needed now by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, but also those that will be needed in the next twenty years to project naval power into the Arctic. Having identified these specific space support needs, our research proposes several constellation design architectures to provide resilient, survivable space support to the Navy and Coast Guard. The use of legacy constellation designs, tactics, techniques, and procedures will likely not provide the kind of flexible and threat- resistant space support needed at sea by 2040, let alone 2100. Our research culminates in rigorous analysis of our recommended options and highlighting two constellation designs that will fill this need, as U.S. naval power and indeed, the nation, enter the quickly evolving threat environment. To enable the Coast Guard in its motto, "Semper Paratus" (Always Ready), the solution lies in embracing the motto of the Naval Academy: Ex Scientia Tridens (from knowledge, seapower).