Space Coordinating Authority

Changing the mindset, responded Rear Admiral Sandy Daniels during an interview following her presentation at the 2010 Space Cadre Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., this past August. The theme in her comments to Army space professionals at the symposium and during the Army Space Journal interview was the joint nature of the military space business. Daniels is the deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Commands Joint Functional Component Command for Space. The question that led to her comment about mindsets What is your specific challenge that you have to the Army space professional in regard to joint Space Coordinating Authority SCA Army space professionals, and all space professionals regardless of service, need to recognize that the overall fight is a joint effort and the SCA is there to support that effort. There is a standard thought that the Air Force will be the lead in coordinating space assets and requirements, she said. Some of the doctrinal history supports that because the Air Force has the preponderance of space capability and the preponderance of space people. But I suggest that people need to look at SCA through the operational lens vice the service perspective. A theater command that may be planning a maritime or land fight may want to consider either appointing a different Service component lead or certainly making sure that they integrate across the Services to bring a joint perspective to the fight.