In this episode, Senior Fellow in Defense Studies Peter Garretson interviews Todd Harrison, Director of Defense Budget Analysis, Director of the Aerospace Security Project, and Senior Fellow with the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). They discuss the role of thinking tanks in helping policymakers ask the right questions, and what Todd sees as the most important question at present: How to improve protection of our critical space assets. Their talk focuses on the importance of space to our nation both militarily and economically. They cover the history and emergence of the Space Force and Todd's thoughts on a separate department and consolidation of the NRO. They discuss the changed orientation and priorities of the Biden administration and what major policy initiatives are left undone, including on norms, regulation and licensing. They assess the recent Chinese hypersonic and perhaps fractional orbital bombardment test, the contribution of a sensing layer to missile defense, the technical concerns with space-based missile defense. They close by speaking about Space Force Acquisition reform, and end with a discussion of a space agenda worthy of the nation.

Todd:

https://www.csis.org/people/todd-harrison

https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-harrison-7832461/

CSIS:

https://www.csis.org/

CSIS Aerospace:

https://aerospace.csis.org/

CSIS Space Threat Assessment 2021

https://www.csis.org/analysis/space-threat-assessment-2021