The new Air Force commander published the Commander’s Directive 2021-2022, which highlights his vision and the main guidelines for his commandees
Air Lieutenant Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, who assumed the position of Air Force commander on April 12 this year, published the Commander’s Directive 2021-2022. In it, he highlights the increase in space activity as one of the strategic sectors for the mission of the Brazilian Air Force. According to the document, space services have become essential and are present in society’s routine, also becoming essential for the performance of our Armed Forces.
The space access segment received a lot of attention. “The implementation and development of the Alcântara Space Center (CEA) must be boosted, which will enable national and international companies to carry out space launches from the national territory. The CEA reaffirms the FAB’s commitment to the development of Brazil, boosting the Brazilian Space Program, leveraging the IDB and stimulating regional and national socioeconomic development”, says the commander, making it clear that he is confident that the Center will be self-sustainable in the long term.
“It is worth remembering that this search for self-sustainability, in terms of financing, has the potential, even, of spilling over to other themes that are transversal to the CEA’s situation,” says Air Lieutenant Brigadier Baptista Junior. The funds collected can even be reinvested in increasing the sustainable energy resilience of the Center itself. The Air Force is responsible for participating in accurate and safe exploration models, in addition to advising the decision-making process within the scope of the Brazilian Space Program Development Committee (CDPEB), created in 2018.
Partnership actions will be encouraged. “I encourage EMAER, DCTA and COMAE to pursue partnerships with related agencies at the federal level, as well as to seek management models that make operations and investments necessary for space activities less dependent on the federal budget and explore the commercial potential of the CEA, within existing standards or to be proposed”, he says.
The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), which works with COMAER, Defense and other ministries and agencies, in order to make it possible to meet national demands, including dual systems, sees the priority given to the Strategic Systems Program as very opportune. (PES) and to space activities as a whole. The president of the AEB, Carlos Moura, declares: “we feel stronger and more confident when we see, in the guidelines of the Air Force commander, the clear, updated and enthusiastic vision of the Brazilian Space Program. It is an integration tool. , of critical national infrastructure. It constitutes a vector of development, as well as an essential asset for the defense of the Homeland. Let’s go together and brotherly, as emphasized by Lieutenant Brigadier Baptista Junior!”.
WEIGHT
Mentioned in the chapter “The increase in space activity”, the Strategic Program for Space Systems (PESE) is a program created to meet the strategic needs of the Armed Forces and Brazilian society. It consists of fleets of low-orbit and geostationary orbit satellites – which include ground stations for control, reception and data processing – to provide earth observation, telecommunications, information mapping, positioning, space monitoring and a center for operation of space systems.
PESE was born from a strategic concept of dual employment, that is, to meet civil and military demands with constellations of optical, communication, remote sensing, meteorological satellites, among other applications.
Within the scope of PESE, FAB operates the Space Operations Center (COPE), which controls the Geostationary Defense and Strategic Communications Satellite (SGDC). It also provides space remote sensing information to the Armed Forces and government agencies, in support of military operations, public security, in support of environmental and natural disaster control agencies, among others.