The university will help provide manpower and research to the military branch.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The United States Space Force announced Wednesday it is partnering with Purdue University to help provide manpower and research in the years ahead.
Gen. David Thompson, himself a Purdue alum, signed the official agreement along with Purdue University President Mitch Daniels in front of Hovde Hall.
“As we envisioned what we needed in the Space Force, the ability to operate, to have leaders who understood the challenges – physically and technically from a science and engineering standpoint – we knew we needed to relook at how we train and educate our force and how we pursue the research and science and technology required to be able to do that,” said Thompson. “And when you think about all those things and you think about the connection to space, you can imagine that the first university on the list we sought to engage was Purdue University.”
The partnership includes scholarships for interested ROTC students who are studying in academic areas needed by the Space Force.
“We will screen them coming in but for the program, we will fund anybody coming in whose interested,” said Thompson. “Even if they don’t end up in the Space Force, if they end up in the Air Force, somewhere else serving the nation’s science and technology needs, that’s a win for the Space Force. That’s a win for the nation.”
Partnering in research
Another piece of the partnership includes research.
Thompson said the Space Force will provide funding and topics of research and will then send their own personnel to join in that research while pursuing advanced degrees.
Thompson said private research partnerships already underway at Purdue also made the university attractive. Earlier this year, Purdue announced plans for a first-of-its-kind hypersonic testing facility.
MORE: 19-year-old becomes Indiana’s first Space Force recruit
Daniels and Thompson called the partnership with the Space Force a fit that makes sense, given the university’s reputation as “The Cradle of Astronauts” and its role in space, flight, engineering and research.
“We are a public university. National security and the defense of all of us is the number one assignment of government,” said Daniels. “If we can help in any way, and clearly we are in a position to help, then it’s not just an appropriate thing to do. It’s an obligation, it’s a duty and we will meet it.”
ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman, and actor/author Kal Penn, on break from touring for his current memoir “You Can’t Be Serious,” brought holiday cheer to Guardians and Airmen at two locations, including Thule Air Base – located just 450-miles south of the North Pole.
“Our men and women are working day and night to keep Americans safe and ensure space capabilities are always available in support of daily life and the joint force,” said Raymond. “Visiting these servicemembers and government civilians is just one small way of showing our appreciation for their dedication to the Space Force mission and to the nation.”
The Space Force will be celebrating its second birthday in December. The tour to Thule Air Base and New Boston Space Force Station gave General Raymond the opportunity to meet directly with those who are stationed at some remote installations. And at Thule, General Raymond saw first-hand how Guardians and Airmen weathered the harsh conditions, serving a one-year, unaccompanied tour.
Penn remarked that he was humbled and inspired by their commitment, especially when separated from their loved ones during the holiday season.
“I’m honored to volunteer with the USO and spend time with our women and men in uniform again,” Penn said. “I have such a heartfelt respect for the sacrifices they and their families make in service to our great nation. It was very special to visit with them, share stories, and express my gratitude.”
Penn is an actor, writer, producer, and is known for his starring roles in Designated Survivor, House, Mira Nair’s The Namesake, the Harold & Kumar franchise, and the patriotic immigration sit-com Sunnyside which he co-created for NBC.
Over the last year, the USO has delivered entertainment to nearly 100,000 service members and their families through a combination its in-person and Military Virtual Programming. This is the first time that the USO has worked with the military’s newest branch to provide in-person entertainment.
Follow the USO on Facebook, Twitter, andInstagram for updates and join the conversation using #BetheForce and #MoreThanThanks on social media.
About the USO:
The USO strengthens America’s military service members by keeping them connected to family, home and country, throughout their service to the Nation. At hundreds of locations worldwide, we are united in our commitment to connect our service members and their families through countless acts of caring, comfort and support. The USO is a private nonprofit organization, not a government agency. Our programs, services and entertainment tours are made possible by the American people, support of our corporate partners and the dedication of our volunteers and staff. To join us in this important mission and learn more about the USO, please visitUSO.org or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
About the Space Force:
The United States Space Force is a separate and distinct branch of the armed services, organized under the Department of the Air Force in a manner very similar to how the Marine Corps is organized under the Department of the Navy.
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The space industry used to be dominated by a single player: the U.S. government, which contracted out services to a handful of very large aerospace primes and put their tech to use in long-term, centrally managed programs. Things have rapidly evolved since. Due to an explosive technological acceleration and, in part, venture capital and private equity, the U.S. government is one customer among many — but it doesn’t intend on being left behind.
To that end, the U.S. Space Force’s (USSF) SpaceWERX office has entered into a partnership with the eleven-month-old venture capital firm Embedded Ventures that’s aimed at building out research and development opportunities that can both grow the domestic space economy and be used to defend the country’s interests.
This is the first time the USSF has entered into this kind of R&D agreement, called a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), with a VC firm. It’s also yet another sign that the U.S. government is looking to benefit from the practices and funding model of venture capital.
CRADAs are traditionally used between the U.S. Department of Defense and startups looking to collaborate with the government. Mandy Vaughn, who recently joined the fund as an operating partner, suggested the idea to pursue a CRADA, according to Embedded co-founder Jenna Bryant. After a few phone calls between Embedded Ventures and government officials, like Lieutenant Colonel Walter McMillan, “the rest is history,” Bryant said.
There’s a lot of missed opportunity, on both the side of venture capital and the DOD, that this five-year partnership could help alleviate, Embedded co-founder Jordan Noone told TechCrunch. For one, venture capital can move much more quickly than the public entities can. VCs also have their ears to the ground on new and emerging technologies that defense interests could stand to benefit from.
Startups could benefit from the partnership as well. For many young companies, working with the U.S. government is a complicated, intimidating process, one characterized by long contractual timelines or highly regulated processes. Much of it comes down to education: startups making strategic decisions that will set them up to be eligible for a government contract, and it’s there that a VC firm could help.
“There’s not a lot of positive pressures from the venture capital community to encourage these dual-use tech opportunities,” Noone said. But such opportunities can be lucrative, for those companies willing to overcome the barriers to applying for a contract.
For Embedded’s part, they’re far more likely to take a risk on a company if there’s a probability that there’s a huge customer — the U.S. government — on the other side. Plus, the space technologies that could play a major role, say, 20 years from now, will likely be ones that need a public-private partnership, Noone said, similar to how SpaceX was seeded in part by investments from NASA.
“How did we end up in an ecosystem in the venture community where Silicon Valley was birthed making technologies during the Cold War, and now they solely make consumer apps?” Noone said. “What happened in between and how do you steer the ship back where there is a national security relevance to Silicon Valley?”
Embedded and the USSF will meet regularly to talk progress and to set benchmarks along the way. As this is a new type of partnership under the CRADA program, involving no financial exchange between either entity, part of the goal is actually defining what a successful partnership looks like, so it could be replicated in the future. While there’s no requirement that the two entities co-invest, it may be one result of the collaboration, an Embedded spokesperson said.
“People in industry are always talking about, ‘how we can all work together, move at venture pace,’ but no one’s actually doing it,” Bryant added. “It matters to me that we do something right now.”
The story has been updated to include more background on the CRADA between the USSF and Embedded Ventures.
Slingshot will develop an analytics tool that ingests GPS telemetry data from commercial LEO constellations and uses it to paint a picture of RF hazards on the ground
WASHINGTON — Under a $2 million contract from the U.S. Space Force, Slingshot Aerospace will develop an analytics tool that uses location data from commercial satellites in low Earth orbit to identify potential sources of electronic interference on the ground.
The project is an effort by the military to take advantage of the telemetry data available from the growing population of commercial satellites in LEO. The Space Systems Command said Jan. 4 that Slingshot will “develop a prototype that utilizes proliferated LEO mega-constellations to detect, locate, and mitigate radio frequency (RF) and GPS interference sources, which are direct threats to U.S. on-orbit space assets.”
The contract is funded by the Space Systems Command’s CASINO program — short for commercially augmented space inter-networked operations — created to figure out ways for the military to use new space technology.
Radio frequency interference has been a long-time problem for the military, exacerbated by the proliferation of electronic devices designed to disrupt Global Positioning System and other satellite signals. One of the challenges is identifying the precise location and source of interference.
Melanie Stricklan, CEO and co-founder of Slingshot Aerospace, said the company was selected by the Space Force’s Space Enterprise Consortium to prototype a data analytics tool that ingests GPS telemetry data from commercial LEO constellations and uses it to paint a picture of RF hazards on the ground, identifying and characterizing the potential sources of that interference.
“The ability to collect, process and extract insights from satellite telemetry data has increased substantially thanks to the increase in commercial proliferated low Earth orbit satellite constellations,” she said. The prototype system “will automate manual data exploitation techniques to deliver finished user-friendly products at low latencies.”
The idea is to “leverage data already generated by existing spacecraft global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) sensors to extract a better understanding of the electromagnetic operational environment,” said Stricklan.
The contract was a competitive opportunity the Space Enterprise Consortium launched in June 2021.
MELBOURNE, Fla. – L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has been selected by the U.S. Space Force to continue efforts to upgrade and modernize its space domain awareness, which is used to help combat anti-satellite threats.
Highlights:
Strengthens Space Force’s ability to track and respond to anti-satellite near-peer threats
Upgrades Space Defense Operations Center to a new system
Accelerates advanced tracking and analysis of space objects and their behaviors
The U.S. Air Force began work in 2018 to replace the Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) with the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis System (ATLAS). L3Harris has been developing applications in a new architecture that will allow ATLAS to scale and handle the exponential growth of commercial constellations, increased debris, anti-satellite tests and adversarial threats. Now, L3Harris has been selected to integrate the government’s equipment and oversee ATLAS application deployment.
‘Anti-satellite threats have increased and require attention now,’ said Ed Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. ‘We are responding to the urgency by partnering with the Space Force to modernize space domain awareness assets that are key to understanding and acting on those threats.’
SPADOC became operational in the 1990s to monitor space objects, process space events like anti-satellite launches, and support safety of flight operations.
L3Harris space superiority capabilities provide the foundation for space domain control, protecting assets and preserving strategic advantages. A trusted partner of the Space Force and other agencies, L3Harris has served the space superiority mission for more than 30 years.
About L3Harris Technologies
L3Harris Technologies is an agile global aerospace and defense technology innovator, delivering end-to-end solutions that meet customers’ mission-critical needs. The company provides advanced defense and commercial technologies across space, air, land, sea and cyber domains. L3Harris has approximately $17 billion in annual revenue and 47,000 employees, with customers in more than 100 countries. L3Harris.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect management’s current expectations, assumptions and estimates of future performance and economic conditions. Such statements are made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and future trends to differ materially from those matters expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Statements about the value or expected value of orders, contracts or programs or about system or technology capabilities are forward-looking and involve risks and uncertainties. L3Harris disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
The Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) at Clear Space Force Station. Photographed Oct 26, 2021. (Ryan Keith / Missile Defense Agency)
A new milestone was reached Monday in the creeping militarization of space.
A ceremony at the Clear Space Force Base (formerly Clear Air Force Station) south of Fairbanks celebrated the end of construction and installation of a new Long Range Discrimination Radar, a sophisticated monitoring system designed to bolster American missile defenses.
“Once fully operational, LRDR will provide unparalleled ability to simultaneously search, track and discriminate multiple small objects, including all classes of ballistic and, in later iterations, hypersonic missiles, at very long ranges, under continuous operation,” heralded the Missile Defense Agency in a press release.
Now that the cutting-edge radar is installed inside a newly constructed facility nearly five stories tall, a testing and training phase will begin, with the device expected to be fully integrated and operational by 2023. Once testing is finished, control of the radar will change from the Missile Defense Agency to the U.S. Space Force.
“You have built an extra set of keen eyes that will paint the picture of any threat coming our way,” said Lt. Gen. A.C. Roper with the North American Defense Command.
The LRDR has an enormous field of vision over huge swaths of the Pacific theater and is touted for its ability to quickly spot and identify complex components from intercontinental ballistic missiles launched high into the atmosphere. For example, the sensors can track debris and decoy objects kicked out as a missile’s boosters drop away and a warhead descends back toward earth. The radar functions as the early warning system in the military’s missile defense strategy, with ground- or sea-based projectiles launched to hopefully destroy an incoming ICBM before it can hit its intended target.
After the brief ceremony and distribution of commemorative plaques, attendees were offered cake and punch before heading out on tours. Afterward, military officials held a roundtable with media calling in from around the country.
A number of questions focused on hypersonics, the emerging class of missiles that are super fast, highly maneuverable, and can fly low enough to evade many defense systems. While the U.S. has started developing hypersonic weapons, China and Russia are widely believed to be substantially further ahead in incorporating them into their military arsenals.
“The primary driving requirement,” said Vice Adm. Jon Hill of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency about the LRDR, “is against the ballistic missile threat. That is what the radar filters are designed to go after.”
It’s unlikely there would be additional hardware necessary for the LRDR to be reconfigured for tracking hypersonics in the future, Hill said.
The radar was specifically put in Alaska because of its vantage over the Indo-Pacific region to spot ICBM’s that could potentially be launched by North Korea.
Aerial photograph of the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska, July 19, 2019. (Ryan Keith / Missile Defense Agency)
“Alaska gives us a field of view we need to do homeland defense,” said Lt. Gen. David A. Krumm, who is in charge of Alaskan Command, the Eleventh Air Force, and Alaska’s NORAD assets, including the radars that feed information back to bases in the Lower 48.
The price tag for the LRDR’s installation at Clear is around $1.5 billion. Construction and installation of the radar, which was built by defense contractor Lockheed Martin, was slowed because of the pandemic.
The LRDR will not replace the network of Long Range Radar stations across Alaska, which since the Cold War have been in place to monitor for encroaching aircraft and long-distance bombers. Krumm said the new capabilities are a complement to the existing radar systems.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has yet to launch all of the GPS III satellites at its disposal, but work on new, more powerful versions is already underway. New GPS III Follow-on satellites — or GPS IIIF for short — will continue to improve the constellation’s accuracy and protection against jamming.
GPS III satellites are already a substantial upgrade to the current constellation, providing three times greater accuracy and eight times better anti-jamming capability than their predecessors. In addition to introducing a new civil signal that is compatible with other navigation satellite systems, the five GPS III satellites on orbit completed the space component of M-code — an even more secure and accurate signal for military use.
The Space Force has launched five of the planned GPS III satellites, and three more have been declared “available for launch” but are waiting in storage with prime contractor Lockheed Martin. The remaining two are undergoing testing.
The Space Force has a contract with Lockheed for up to 22 GPS IIIF satellites. The service already exercised contract options for seven GPS IIIF satellites, with the most recent award taking place in October 2021, when Space Systems Command issued $737 million to the company for three more satellites.
GPS IIIF satellites will be more advanced than their predecessors. Most notably, the new space systems will prove a new Regional Military Protection capability, a steerable M-code signal that can concentrate the effect in a specified region. RMP can provide up to 60 times greater anti-jamming measures, helping ensure soldiers can access critical position, navigation and timing data in contested environments.
Other new features include a laser retroreflector array to increase accuracy; an upgraded nuclear detection detonation system payload; and a search and rescue payload.
Starting with the third GPS IIIF space vehicle, the satellites will be built with Lockheed’s LM2100 Combat Bus, specifically designed for military use. The company claims its new bus, which will also be used for the Space Force’s next missile warning satellites, will have greater resiliency and cyber protections, more power, and better propulsion.
And thanks to a new port option on the LM2100 bus, it could be possible to upgrade GPS IIIF satellites on orbit. The company’s Augmentation System Port Interface essentially works as a USB port for the satellite, allowing the Space Force to launch new payloads into space that can be plugged into the system.
Nathan Strout is the staff editor at C4ISRNET where he covers the intelligence community.
The Missile Defense Agency, U.S. Northern Command and the Space Force marked the completion of construction on the long-range discrimination radar site at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska, during a ceremony on Monday.
The multi-mission LRDR is designed, for now, to better track incoming ballistic missiles. It combines the capabilities of lower frequency radars — which can track multiple objects in space at long range, but are not able to help warfighters determine which objects are a threat — with the capabilities of higher-frequency radars, which have a more limited field of view but are better able to “discriminate” among multiple objects and figure out what of those is dangerous.
As ballistic missiles are launched and shed portions of themselves along their trajectory — including decoy and countermeasure material — the LRDR will help to determine which of those objects must be targeted by the missile defense system.
When fully operational, the multi-face LRDR — equipped with a 220 degree wide field of view and arrays measuring 60 feet high by 60 feet wide — will provide the ability to search, track and discriminate multiple, small objects in space, including all classes of ballistic missiles. Future iterations of the radar’s software will allow it to also track hypersonic missiles.
The information the LRDR provides will increase the effectiveness of the missile defense system and help the U.S. Northern Command better defend the United States.
The capabilities the LRDR provides will also serve as a new kind of deterrent against potential missile attacks by adversaries, said Army Lt. Gen. A.C. Roper, the deputy commander of U.S. Northern Command.
“For years, the Department of Defense has subscribed to a mindset of deterrence through punishment — taking advantage of our global response to execute retaliatory strikes,” Roper said.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has challenged the military to instead approach deterrence from a different perspective: deterrence through denial, Roper said.
“It’s a defense designed to give our potential adversaries pause,” he said. “It is the type of deterrence that shifts [their] cost-benefit calculus, providing doubt that an attack will be successful. And the LRDR helps to shift that calculus.”
The general told those responsible for designing and building the new LRDR system that they have given potential adversaries something to think about if they’re contemplating an attack on the U.S. homeland.
“This long-range discrimination radar is designed to defend the homeland by providing [the] unparalleled ability to search, track and discriminate multiple objects simultaneously,” Roper said. “This radar provides a much-needed improvement to Northcom’s homeland ballistic missile defense mission, ultimately resulting in more effective and efficient employment of the ground-based interceptors.”
Full operational capability for the LRDR is expected in 2023, Navy Vice Adm. Jon A. Hill, director of the Missile Defense Agency said. Right now, the newly built LRDR will be evaluated and integrated into existing systems.
“This initial delivery is an important step to declare that we’re done with a major construction. We are now fully into the test mode of this radar,” Hill said. “That testing is so critical because it pushes you right into the integration, command and control into ground-based midcourse defense. That integration work will be complete and, then, in 2023, we’ll be able to do operational acceptance for Northern Command.”
Right now, the primary requirement met by the LRDR is against a ballistic missile threat, but in future iterations of the LRDR, tracking of hypersonic weapons can also be included without significant changes to the system, Hill said.
“That is what the radar filters are designed to go after,” Hill said. “To bring in what I call a filter — which means you can then space your tracking and your timing to go to hypersonic — that’s not a big leap … that is a software upgrade, but it is not the driving requirement for LRDR today.”
For decades, drug runners and their potential connections to terrorist groups have been a constant concern of law enforcement and military leaders at the U.S. Southern Command in Doral.
Now, the cartels are going to have a tougher time hiding, and that is in part because of what is happening almost 400 miles above the earth.
The U.S. Space Force, which has only been around for two years, is sending satellites into orbit on many days from Cape Canaveral.
Some head into orbit over the Caribbean, Central and Latin America — where drug lords have for years produced and then shipped cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. by using waterways in and around South Florida.
NBC 6 was granted exclusive access to see how space, ground, and sea forces are using what the satellites provide.
“We are trying to find the narcotraffickers and space is a big contributor to that,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Andy Croft, the Military Deputy Commander at Southern Command.
“We can use our space detection capabilities, optical cameras,” Croft told NBC 6. “We can track things within a couple of hours and see things moving.”
That includes being able to see what’s happening in places like Colombia and Venezuela, where intelligence experts fear drug traffickers and terrorist groups will join forces.
Around the clock, space and intelligence experts are sharing what they find.
Inside a room at Southern Command, there is a big screen that shows where the satellites are located. There is also a host of workstations where space experts can explain what they are seeing to representatives from the military and federal agencies.
“Space Command can provide a perspective to be able to identify and find some of these folks, the ways that they communicate, the ways they move,” said Lt. Col. Bobby Schmitt, who is with the U.S. Space Force and is assigned to coordinate what happens in orbit with Croft’s team. “Space Command provides the ability to see down and find these folks.”
The efforts are lightyears from the days of the cocaine cowboys when violence poured into the Miami streets along with the cocaine.
Croft said the images from the satellites are a valuable resource.
“We can get multiple images in the same day of the same area. So, an aircraft would have to fly many, many missions to do the same thing at a very high cost. Whereas we can utilize that satellite imagery and also share it,” Croft said.
For example, when satellites pick up a runway popping up in the middle of nowhere.
“We can identify those airstrips from space, tell our partner nations where they are so they can go then interdict those—the narcotraffickers,” Croft told NBC 6.
He said the technology allows them to stop traffickers on the ground and at sea.
“The fast vessels they use to transport the drug, which about 90% of the drugs come via the maritime environment and we will be able to assist those nations to go interdict those drug runners that are many cases hundreds of miles out to sea,” Croft explained.
Closer to Florida, it’s the Coast Guard that moves in when the word comes.
Pilot Lt. Cmdr. Jason Neiman is the Coast Guard’s Public Affairs Officer.
“Any information we get is crucial when we use our assets which are limited in resources to target these nefarious networks and get them where they are most vulnerable on the high seas,” Neiman said.
Other federal agencies can also get the information—like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop human smuggling.
“It’s really, really important and it’s growing rapidly our capabilities,” Croft said.
Brazil is the furthest along in Latin America with its space program.
When Disaster Strikes
Sharing this information with countries and federal agencies goes beyond tracking down criminals.
The coordination protects satellites used for banking and navigation. It also helps when a natural disaster strikes.
“That image quality is super helpful in assisting partner nations, especially in disaster response,” Croft told NBC 6.
Croft said the technology helped his team’s efforts in Haiti last Summer.
“In the Haitian earthquake that we just responded … we can use previous digital imagery, and then new digital imagery to see where a lot of the destruction occurred and where areas need to be fixed or repaired. That quality of that imagery is getting better every, every year that we continue on,” he said.
NBC 6 was onboard Coast Guard helicopters as they left Port-au-Prince and headed for rural areas in the days after the earthquake to evacuate the injured and bring supplies.
NBC 6 didn’t know then, but it was one of the satellites launched by the U.S. military that helped the Coast Guard figure out where to go.
“Information is everything, particularly when you are responding to a disaster, especially in remote and isolated places where information sharing can be difficult,” Neiman said. “You know when you have emerging technology that can make that easier that make our mission safer and make our mission effectiveness better and you know we use any information we can to help save lives in a disaster situation.”
“It’s really good to know that we are making a difference day to day,” Croft added.
Nolan Laufenberg, a business management major and All-Mountain West guard at Air Force Academy, signed to the Washington Football Team’s practice squad in late September, ending his brief free agency. (Air Force Football Facebook)
For more than a month, Nolan Laufenberg was without a status. The former Air Force Academy offensive lineman signed with the Denver Broncos in May as a college free agent, but was released before the start of the NFL season, leaving him without a football home and little certainty beyond the game. Such is the life of NFL free agency.
But Laufenberg’s career path isn’t that of a typical player.
The business management major and All-Mountain West guard at Air Force signed to the Washington Football Team’s practice squad in late September, ending his brief free agency.
But when football does end for him, Laufenberg has a second career waiting — in the United States Space Force, a new military branch established in 2019 when former president Donald Trump signed a $738 billion defense spending bill. In fact, Laufenberg was set to become an acquisitions officer in the Space Force, based in California, before the Broncos called.
“Just in the broad scheme of things, I think it’s cool the possibility that space brings to the military in general and how the world is evolving nowadays,” Laufenberg said. “So I felt like it would be a cool thing to be a part of that new kind of race to see who can become the most advanced in space and stuff like that.”
In 2021, Laufenberg was one of four football prospects from the military academies — along with Army’s Jon Rhattigan, Air Force’s George Silvanic and, after a controversial delay, Navy’s Cameron Kinley — to receive approval from the Department of Defense to defer their postgraduate service and turn pro.
Rhattigan, a linebacker on the Seattle Seahawks’ active roster, and Laufenberg are the only ones of the four to still be under contract.
Laufenberg, who is in the Independent Ready Reserve for the Air Force, was granted a five-year deferment of his service, at which point he can either leave football and fulfill his required active duty, or pay back his tuition at the academy (tuition for cadets is taxpayer funded). Depending on when he begins his required service, Laufenberg could still go into the Space Force, or he could be asked to fulfill whatever position is most needed in the Air Force at the time, if he returns in later years.
But the Air Force regularly keeps tabs on his status, he says, and during his free agency in September, discussions had begun about starting his service if a team didn’t sign him in the following months.
When Washington did, he quickly shifted his mind-set to navigating a new city, a new team and a new playbook. Transitioning from Air Force’s triple option to a pro style offense can often be a steep adjustment for rookies.
“Triple option, you’re kind of racing off the ball, not a lot of pass-blocking,” Laufenberg said. “So that was definitely one of the biggest hurdles with NFL football that I went through with the Broncos, especially learning technique. The triple-option has a lot of plays, too, and I think I pick up plays pretty well. So learning what to do has been less of an obstacle than how to do it, if that makes sense.”
In Denver, where Hall of Fame former guard Mike Munchak was his offensive line coach and Pat Shurmur his offensive coordinator, Laufenberg built a foundation of NFL-specific technique. Although Washington’s offensive line coach John Matsko and coordinator Scott Turner mandate some adjustments, the translation from Denver’s scheme has been relatively smooth, Laufenberg said.
The more significant adjustment: Starting over in the District of Columbia area after spending the entirety of his football career in Colorado. But he arrived to some familiarity. Washington linebackers coach Steve Russ, a standout at Air Force and two-time Super Bowl winner with the Denver Broncos, was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at the academy when he recruited Laufenberg in high school.
“Going into a new environment and to have someone you know is always good,” Laufenberg said. “He actually lent me one of his cars, which has been huge, because his daughter is actually a freshman at the Air Force Academy right now and they can’t have cars there. So they had an extra car for me to drive around until I could get my car out here.”
Washington’s offensive line has been one of the team’s few bright spots this season, allowing only 10 sacks (tied for seventh-fewest in the NFL) while helping its ball-carriers gain 4.55 yards per carry (ninth-most). Over the past month, Laufenberg has received a crash course in Turner’s playbook to fulfill a different kind of ready reserve as a practice squad guard.
For now, his focus is football. But the rookie knows eventually, he could don a different uniform in the Space Force.
“Whenever that time comes and I go back, it’ll be great,” he said. “Obviously going to the Academy and graduating from there, they want to make sure they’re getting an Air Force officer out of it, and to be able to fulfill my commitment to them is definitely a big thing while I’m still playing football.”
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