Keynote Speaker: Colonel Raj Agrawal
Biography
Col Raj Agrawal is currently Chief, Future Operations, Headquarters Combined Joint Task Force – Space Operations. Col Agrawal earned his commission from the USAF Officer Training School in 2001 after serving for eight years as a schoolteacher in Texas. The colonel has commanded at the squadron level, will take command of Delta 2 in the Summer of 2023. He has extensive operational command and control experience having served at the 614th, 613th, 609th, 603d, and 607th Air and Space Operations Centers. He is a trusted joint space operations leader in mission areas including space battle management, offensive space control, offensive cyber operations, strategic and theater missile defense, covert unmanned aerial systems, and Special Technical Operations. Col Agrawal is a graduate of the US Air Force Weapons School, US Army Air Defense Artillery Fire Control Officer School, a Distinguished Graduate of Air Command and Staff College and the Eisenhower School, a graduate of the School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, and has a Ph.D. in Business Administration.
Abstract
The U.S. Space Force, Space Situational Awareness, and Preserving Peaceful Access to Space. The establishment of the U.S. Space Force by a bipartisan Congress in 2019 was part of a whole of government initiative to respond to increasing competition, congestion, and contest in the orbital regime and beyond geostationary orbit – otherwise referred to as the “national security space domain.” The Department of the Air Force has been in the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) business for decades; however, the changing character of conflict and global economic expansion into the space domain projected international security concerns beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The Space Force is now charged to increase SSA capabilities to anticipate spacefaring advancements, partner with the Department of Commerce to ensure SSA supports U.S. and global commercial needs, continue to partner with NASA to prioritize protection of human spaceflight, and continue to build the logic of Space Domain Awareness (SDA) and Space Battle Management (SBM). U.S. Space Force Colonel Raj Agrawal will discuss the role of the U.S. Space Force; the leadership role Space Delta 2 plays in SSA, SDA, and SBM; and opportunities to partner with the U.S. Space Force in its Beyond Geostationary Orbit (XGEO) SSA Space Strategic Technology Institute.