Booz Allen Lends Expertise to Congressional Panel on National Security Space

An independent panel that reported to Congress on the need for more U.S. leadership in the security of space had two members from Booz Allen Hamilton.

Booz Allen Vice President Keith Hall and Principal Edward Anderson were part of the Independent Assessment Panel of the Organization and Management of National Security Space, which presented its report to the Senate Committee on Armed Services.

The panel found that while space is of critical importance to our national intelligence and warfighting capabilities, without significant improvement in the leadership and management of National Security Space programs, the U.S. will soon lose its advantage.

“We’re on a path toward losing our lead,” says Hall, who was asked to participate on the panel by Chairman A. Thomas Young. “The sooner we reverse the trend the better.”

“Without change, U.S. leadership is going to erode,” says Hall. “This is bad for industry, bad for the economy. This is not an area where we want to surrender leadership.”

 The panel found that although the U.S. has a number of policies related to National Security Space, it has no strategy to ensure that it remains the world leader, says Hall.

Anderson says U.S. leadership is in “significant jeopardy” because more countries have access to space technology, and because “adversaries are gaining military capability.”

In the past, he says, “We were able to operate in space with some impunity, but that’s no longer the case.”

The panel heard from many experts in government and industry, and “probably the most critical part is that no one is in charge,” says Anderson. “And because no one is in charge, everyone thinks they’re in charge.”

The panel recommended:

• Establishing and executing a national space strategy, led by the U.S. president.
• Creating a National Security Space Authority in support of the Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence.
• Establishing a National Security Space Organization that would consolidate all the disparate elements of space research and development, acquisitions and operations.
• Ensuring that the core group of government professionals responsible for developing and acquiring complex space systems receive the necessary training, education and management.

Hall, who is based in Herndon, leads the firm’s work for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and for other initiatives associated with the intelligence and space markets. Formerly the director of the NRO, he was responsible for the acquisition and operation of all U.S. space-based reconnaissance and intelligence systems. He is also a former Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force.

Anderson, a retired Army lieutenant general who commanded the Army’s Army Space and Missile Defense Command, serves as a Booz Allen business leader for three markets:  Missile Defense Operations, Army Programs and Air Force Space Mission Support.  He is based in Colorado Springs, Col..

story posted February 17, 2009