General John Shaw - Space Force Warrior
Washington DC is the city where the most existential decisions dictating humanity’s future for the last 70 years have been made. Yet, every new staffer is hit with a jarring realization when they arrive, which is that that most of the people working long hours within the famous corridors of power, whether government workers or consultants, are alarmingly underqualified in professional competence. In fact, it’s such an accepted reality that the phrase, “fake it before you make it” is passed along as advice for survival.
However, career military officers coming from the field to staff much of the Pentagon stand in direct opposition to this accepted norm. Typically selected from the best among their peers, they come for one reason, to help to shape a future force they will one day lead. And the best of those, the most senior generals, eventually go on to lead combatant commands.
Who is the senior general leading the Space Force—the leader who understands better than anyone how future space wars will be fought with orbital autonomous machines rather than warriors in a foxhole or cockpit?
Meet Lt Gen John Shaw, the Vice Commander of US Space Command. There has never been any faking it in his career. After turning down a full scholarship to MIT to become a cadet at the US Air Force Academy, he graduated at the top of his class then immediately began a steeply progressive career as a space officer. After 40 years of studying, operating, leading, and strategizing space and America’s essential future in it, he is the most technical officer in the Space Force.
Decades ago, Admiral Rickover changed the course of human history through his comprehension and application of nuclear technology to naval warfare. As a key leader in checking Soviet expansion during and ultimate winning the Cold War, Rickover secured the international maritime domain for the next century and became the Father of the nuclear navy. John Shaw is the Hyman Rickover of 21st century space.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve met with General Shaw to gain his perspective on the opening up of the space domain and how to work with industry and sister services to protect the American way of life. “Deterring war,” Shaw tells me straight off the bat, “is the most important thing we can do today.” He emphasizes that in addition to the various eye-watering capabilities the Space Force has sourced from commercial industry, collaboration and trust are essential for continued free access to space. When pressed on the technical systems of the so-called digital service, he doesn’t shy away from technology’s impact. “Our adversaries see how much we rely on space capabilities for modern American life and how vulnerable we are.”
In fact, when asked what he thinks America’s biggest vulnerability is in space, Shaw’s answer is no surprise, “Our largest attack surface is cyber, given that so much of what we do in space relies on cyber end-to-end. Space cyber defense cannot be piecemealed, the requirements need to be continuous across our integrated space systems.” He reminds me that we are moving quickly towards all-domain information systems and command and control. “We should expect a convergence in these end-to-end cyber security requirements for all domains.”
For the last few years, many in the space industry have also emphasized the necessity of making our vulnerable capabilities more resilient, not only to deter a war in space but prevent a war altogether. Our newest service should orient itself to “exploit the total technological and operational capability of the integrated networks of space capabilities.”
In Shaw’s opinion, as long as humans live on Earth, that is where the Space Force primary mission remains, supporting and defending operations terrestrially. But with the knowing smile of a general who has seen many wars over the years, he also reminds me that holding an enemy’s space capabilities at risk might be the best way to dissuade aggression, and should be a key pillar of the United States’ future deterrence strategy.
Today, Shaw is very optimistic. He says the Pentagon and the space industry have finally turned the corner from the broken space acquisitions of the past. Those of us who’ve worked in space for decades remember all too well a time where DC decision-making was too disbursed among the “faking it” crowd and the engineers designing and building space systems were too far away from the military actually employing them. Meanwhile, the existential Chinese threat has focused the minds and wallets of our leaders back in Washington, ruffling feathers on the Hill as well.
Shaw is convinced that the political leadership across multiple administrations has now firmly resolved that the best business strategy is a “Go-Fast” model leveraging the commercial space economy. That makes him optimistic, especially witnessing SDA’s recent successful launch of the first ten of a new generation of hundreds of smallsats in low earth orbit.
He believes that SDA’s layered architecture of space systems is crucial to the level of resilience needed in a contested space domain. Having an architecture that can respond to the nanosecond timelines demanded by our enemies’ hypersonic weapons, will deter their use. That will be essential until we have a comparable strike capability. In the more distant future, he sees our ability to sustain maneuver in space (think dogfighting satellites) as essential to keeping space free and safe.
The last in my series of conversations with General Shaw was cut short, as he was summoned by the Secretary of Defense to discuss urgent ongoing space operations – all in a day’s work and just a normal part of the fight being waged in space today. What’s next for General Shaw and his fabled space career? “Don’t forget, Chuck, none of us ever really knows until our next set of orders come.” Whatever it is, let’s all hope it is continuing to lead a safe, secure, and prosperous space future.
There is no “fake it until you make it” with General Shaw, the Guardians who serve with him sleep better knowing he’s at the helm. And for the rest of us, we can only hope that he continues to inspire us with his unique blend of starry-eyed optimism and rocket expertise, because our country still needs more leaders like him.
