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| News > Air Force TENCAP celebrates three decades of impressive warfighter support programs |
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At the ceremony celebrating 30 years of Air Force TENCAP successes, three general officers who either influenced the early days of the program, or influenced its direction in a major way were present. From left to right are: retired Maj. Gen. Richard J. O’Lear; Mr. Patrick Ellis, current Air Force TENCAP director; retired General Ronald R. Fogelman, former Air Force Chief of Staff; retired Maj. Gen. Glen W. “Wally” Moorhead III; and Col. Robert F. “Bob” Wright, commander, Space Innovation and Development Center. The Air Force TENCAP program has provided innovative, outside-the-box warfighter solutions and has generated programs still supporting warfighters. The bang-for-the-buck factor of these programs is unparalleled.
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Air Force TENCAP celebrates three decades of impressive warfighter support programs
Posted 8/26/2008 Updated 8/26/2008
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by Ed White
Air Force Space Command Public Affairs
8/26/2008 - SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The year was 1977. Jimmy Carter was president, the World Trade Center was completed in New York City, a gallon of gas cost sixty-five cents and the first GPS satellite was put into orbit. And a small, outside-the-box Air Force organization was born. It was the Air Force Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities program.
During the Cold War, many of the intelligence organizations like CIA, DIA, NRO and NSA had access to some pretty fantastic intelligence sources. These sources were so highly classified that nobody else could have access, no matter how much they could have used the information.
Air Force TENCAP began bridging the gap between these organizations and the warfighter in order to provide the best, most accurate and timely information and data possible to those going in harm's way.
Colonel Robert F. "Bob" Wright, commander, Space Integration and Development Center recounts, "That has been a continuing historical challenge. The traditional classification had to do with protecting sources and methods (of acquiring the data). The guy on the ground, the guy in the cockpit, the guy on the ship don't want to know the sources, they want the data."
The Air Force TENCAP program, in concert with the sister service TENCAP programs began building a bridge to this information and today's warfighters reap the benefits.
In 1991, the program got kicked up a notch. General Charles A. Horner, then commander of Air Force Space Command, began speaking out about what he saw as an underuse of promising space technologies during the first Gulf War.
"He was identifying lost potential," said Colonel Wright. "It was the great potential that space had to bring to tactical users through the benefits of national capabilities." That really marked the turning point to bring the use of national systems to the tactical users."
Air Force TENCAP was first headquartered in Washington, D. C. Soon after he began speaking out, the program was moved to Air Force Space Command under General Horner. He then moved the organization to Schriever AFB where it resides today as part of the Space Integration and Development Center.
The organization's charter is simple.
"First, exploit space for the tactical user," said Colonel Wright. "Second, train and educate the warfighters, and third, figure out how to build in future capabilities to space programs and aircraft programs. In other words, tailor the acquisition process to accommodate these future capabilities."
In the last thirty years, about 150 programs have been examined, of which about 68 were transitioned to users. The small, lean organization has the capability of putting programs together in three to 12 months, depending on complexity, costs, and available technologies.
"The bottom line is that we execute quickly to support warfighters in the field," Colonel Wright said. "Bringing capabilities to the combatant commanders is the bottom line. We have about 53 projects working at any one time. Of those projects, 37 have ties to the national intelligence agencies in Washington, D.C.
We are a lean organization with only 30 active duty officers, enlisted and civilians, plus some contractors. The budget is only about $12 million a year."
When they get assigned a project, the team asks the requestors to pitch in some money so they can leverage their small budget and still maintain the fast turnaround needed to support combatant commanders' needs.
One specific program made available to warfighters in 2007 was the Talon Namath program. It is based on extremely accurate GPS location capabilities, and the use of a small diameter bomb.
"This was sort of a back-of-the-napkin brain child for us," said Colonel Wright. "The JFACC wanted a capability that used small diameter bombs for specific targets with some assurance. We figured a way to increase GPS accuracy by about 28 percent, enabled by more frequent updates of the location, or ephemeris data and produced an architecture for the system, using Link-16.
With Link 16, military aircraft as well as ships and ground forces can exchange their tactical picture in near real time. Link 16 also supports the exchange of text messages, imagery data and provides two channels of digital voice. Link 16 is defined as one of the digital services of the Multifunctional Information Distribution System.
"The first demonstration in January, 2007 used an F-15 and we hit an IED, a very hard, buried target," he added.
Another program related to space situational awareness was the Talon Shield project in the 1990s. It was a space-based early warning for missile launches program and the end result was the formation of the 2nd and the 11th Space Warning Squadrons. The Talon Shield itself became the Aerospace Fusion Center supporting the two squadrons.
The program's results speak for themselves. Now, however, there is a new area of concentration added to warfighter support, Space Situational Awareness.
Space is considered a contested environment and that means protective measures need to be in place. One such measure consists in having sensors in space that can tell officials whenever a missile is launched, where it is expected to go and how long it will take to get there.
"We want to know about everything coming off the surface of the planet. This is early warning capability, IR or Infrared, detection capability. We want to know it in real time," said Colonel Wright.
"Our focus is Space Situational Awareness, understanding everything that is there as satellites become micro-satellites and Pico satellites. Do we know what their capabilities are? Can we even see them? And what danger do they pose to our systems?"
These are some of the questions asked to achieve SSA. This is the information planners and operators need to know to operate our satellites freely and prevent others from interfering with our own operations.
"It all starts with intelligence and space situational awareness," said Colonel Wright.
One new project for the team was given to them by Gen. C. Robert Kehler, commander, Air Force Space Command. It is to study the brand-new Space-Based Infrared Satellite sensor and figure out how to exploit and employ the data to support the warfighter.
Colonel Wright said, "General Kehler is the biggest supporter of Air Force TENCAP. He is our number one customer and our biggest advocate. He has assigned us several projects to exploit some of the very new capabilities on orbit and I am sure he will assign us more in the future."
TENCAP has a lot to celebrate. With a small staff, an equally small budget, and a group of high-level outside-the-box thinkers, the program has put up some amazing results. Their successes translate to lives saved on the battlefield and in the skies over those battlefields. Their method is simple.
"The bread-and-butter of Air Force TENCAP is that we don't build anything new, we take existing capabilities and adapt them to new problems," Colonel Wright said.
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