Sponsored By Viasat
www.viasat.com/gov-uk
————————————————————————
29 May 20. US Space Force to enhance space warfighting capabilities. Without highly trained space professionals, the US Space Force cannot effectively utilise space systems to increase joint force lethality, cannot ensure the safety of the American public, nor can it defend against near-peer adversaries. The US Space Force has developed a new series of courses designed to give new space professionals warfighting mindsets they will carry with them throughout their entire careers.
The 319 CTS instructor cadre will begin teaching Space Warfighting Follow-on courses at Peterson’s Moorman Space Education and Training Center. Each course is based on a core space warfighting discipline: orbital warfare, space battle management and space electronic warfare.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Sebeck, 319th Combat Training Squadron Commander, explained the importance of the training program, “Our modern lives depend on our space capabilities, and potential adversaries are actively attempting to exploit the benefits space provides us.
“Every day our space warfighters purposefully prepare to negate potential adversaries’ attempts to claim space superiority over us.”
Space is a warfighting domain — secured and protected by the Space Force — in the same way the land, sea and air are protected by the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.
Lt Col Sebeck added, “With the implementation of SWD training, the US Space Force is transforming the way the US military develops its space warfighters and is laying the foundation for a highly trained, ready force.
“The Space Force must develop a cadre of space warfighters to protect US interests in space, deter aggression in, from and to space, and conduct space operations. The SWF courses are the first step towards mastering and applying space warfare discipline.”
Upon graduating from Undergraduate Space Training, new accessions and cross-trainees will immediately move on to the Space Warfighting Follow-on courses.
To develop the courses, stakeholder units across the USSF were solicited for inputs for what their inbound operators should know, value and be able to do.
The 319th CTS’ team of instructors then developed training task lists from those inputs, co-ordinated them through each of the wings and HQ USSF and then built final objectives lists that guided the development of each lesson. All curriculum was developed by a mix of active duty, Reserve and contractor personnel.
The 319th CTS instructor cadre will consist primarily of active duty personnel, contractors, civilians, and Reserve personnel from the 42nd Combat Training Squadron with extensive expertise in space operations.
Lt Col Sebeck added, “The SWF courses are adding an additional layer of depth to the space training pipeline in order to produce more lethal warfighters ready to execute combat operations in the complex space environment of today and tomorrow. These courses are designed to execute one of the primary missions of USSPACECOM: to develop ready and lethal joint warfighters in order to enhance space warfighting readiness and lethality.” (Source: Space Connect)
29 May 20. UK commits to new funding to counter space debris. The UK Space Agency is providing up to £1m ($1.8m) for organisations to come up with smart solutions to this problem by using cost-effective ways to monitor objects in low-Earth orbit, or applying artificial intelligence to make better use of existing orbital data.Tracking debris allows satellite operators to predict possible collisions so that they can manoeuvre them out of harm’s way.
One collision could create thousands of small, fast-moving fragments that can damage the satellites that provide everyday services such as communications, weather forecasting or satellite navigation.
UK Science Minister Amanda Solloway said, “From artificial intelligence to advanced tracking systems, the UK space industry is leading the way in developing ground-breaking solutions to worldwide problems.
The UK is committed to the international effort to clean up space debris as the largest investor in space safety for the European Space Agency, including a substantial £10m commitment to the ADRIOS (Active Debris Removal/In orbit servicing) program.
Later this year, Harwell in Oxfordshire will host the operations centre for the ELSA-d satellite clean-up and decommissioning program, led by Astroscale.
“Today’s funding will enable businesses to develop cutting-edge innovations to combat the growing amount of space debris orbiting the Earth – helping protect vital services like communications, weather forecasting and satellite navigation,” Minister Solloway added.
The new funding is part of the UK Space Agency’s plans to grow its national space surveillance and tracking (SST) capability and, working with international partners, become a global leader in space sustainability.
Dr Alice Bunn, international director of the UK Space Agency, added, “Space debris is a global problem and this funding will enable UK companies to develop new methods to help tackle the issue. Growing our space surveillance and tracking capabilities will be crucial for UK space businesses to innovate safely and sustainably in the future.”
Organisations will be able to bid for a maximum grant award of £250,000 ($463,376), out of a £1m ($1.8m) funding pot. Space surveillance and tracking is a growing international market, forecast to potentially reach over £100m ($185.3m) by 2035. With the demand for SST increasing, this provides an opportunity for the UK space industry to take a leading role in the sector.
“We want the UK to be at the forefront of a new era of space where we continue to push boundaries while ensuring the growth is sustainable for all,” Dr Bunn said.
The UK Space Agency is leading work across government to develop a comprehensive UK Space Strategy and to launch a new National Space Innovation Programme, which will fund transformative technologies and generate high-skilled jobs across the country. (Source: Space Connect)
27 May 20. The Nato Communications and Information (NCI) Agency has enabled its allied navies to access satellite communications, enhance their maritime operations, and update the cryptographic equipment on their ships. Earlier this year, the German Navy received satellite coverage from the NCI Agency. The navy’s frigate FGS Baden-Wurttemberg was running tropical weather trials in the Caribbean at the time.
Nato experts, with the help of military satellites, arranged the required bandwidth and connectivity to the vessel.
This helped the frigate to execute the mission and permitted the German Navy to avoid a protracted and expensive tender.
German Navy Captain Thomas Ackermann said: “Whenever they wish to convey a message of appreciation and gratitude, Nato mariners use the signal BRAVO ZULU.
“I would like to relay my BRAVO ZULU to all people that were involved in providing connectivity for FGS Baden-Wurttemberg.”
The satellite communications capability of Nato is provided by France, Italy, the UK and the US. In the following 15 years, Nato plans to further invest €1bn ($1.1bn) in satellite services.
The satellite communications assist a diverse range of operations, including intelligence gathering and navigation, tracking forces across the globe, and detecting missile launches.
Simultaneously, the NCI Agency is delivering accessories that will help allies to replace and upgrade cryptographic equipment on their maritime vessels.
Cryptographic equipment is used between ships, participating in Nato missions and operations for secure communications.
Last week, Standing Nato Maritime Group One (SNMG1) participated in the Swedish naval exercise (SWENEX), conducted from 11 to 21 May off the southern coast of Sweden in the waters of Skagerak and the Baltic Sea. (Source: naval-technology.com)
27 May 20. What is a space weapon, and who has them? With the increasing militarization of space, there have been a number of efforts to find an international agreement to create controls on the use of space weaponry. But there’s a problem: How do you create a meaningful framework for a treaty against space weapons if no one defines them the same way?
It’s an issue that Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies tackles in a new paper, first viewed by C4ISRNET, in which he attempts to create a taxonomy of space weapons.
The report comes at a time when a number of countries, including Japan, France, South Korea and the United States, are expanding or standing up military organizations specifically focused on space, with officials in those nations hinting at, if not outright declaring, the need to expand their respective space weapon capabilities.
While the Partial Test Ban Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty place limits on the weaponization of space, Harrison argues there is no real consensus on what the weaponization of space means — even as it is becoming impossible to deny that a number of nations already have space weapons.
“To get to a consensus definition on what counts as a space weapon and what doesn’t, you would need a treaty mechanism that is widely accepted,” Harrison said. “The odds of that happening are slim to none. So I think in a practical sense, countries will continue to define space weapons to mean whatever they want it to mean to suit their own purposes. And we’re going to have to navigate through that, in terms of communicating with allies and partners and communicating with the public.
“People are still saying we shouldn’t militarize or weaponize space. When you go through the framework, and you look at what countries have already done, I think you have to stop and say it’s already been weaponized. And it’s been that way for decades.”
The report organizes space-based weapons into six categories, featuring kinetic and non-kinetic versions of Earth-to-space, space-to-space and space-to-Earth systems. Of those, three categories have been proven through testing, deployment or operational use:
- Earth-to-space kinetic: Physical systems launched from Earth, such as the anti-satellite missile test by India in 2019. Such weapons risk leaving behind fields of space debris, and they could be conventional or, in theory, nuclear warheads. The United States, Russia, China and India have shown such capability, with the U.S. and Russia having performed nuclear tests in space in the 1960s. Russia tested such a capability as recently as April.
- Earth-to-space non-kinetic: Jammers, laser dazzlers or cyberattacks launched from Earth, upward. The effects can vary wildly, but overall the goal is to interfere, temporarily or permanently, with satellite capability. Many nations have this capability, including the U.S., Russia, China and Iran.
- Space-to-space kinetic: Satellites physically intercepting other satellites to disrupt or destroy them, or weapons put specifically in space for this purpose. Debris is once again an issue here, as is the potential for use of a nuclear weapon, which could have fallout on a number of systems. The Soviet Union repeatedly tested co-orbital, kinetic anti-satellite weapons during the Cold War.
- Space-to-space non-kinetic: A satellite is placed into orbit and uses non-kinetic, high-powered microwaves, jammers or some other means to disrupt another space-based system. There are no open-source cases of such a system being used, though Harrison notes it might be hard for outside observers to tell if it happened; France directly accused Russia of performing this kind of action in 2018, in what Paris described as an attempt to intercept military communications.
- Space-to-Earth kinetic: A classic of science fiction, the ability to bombard a terrestrial target from space would give a true upper hand to whatever nation perfected it. Damage can be inflicted using the kinetic energy of the weapon itself (such as dropping a bunch of rods off a satellite and letting them build power during descent), or a warhead could be deployed on a reentry vehicle. The U.S. military has contemplated it in the past, but there are no open-source examples of such a system being tested.
- Space-to-space non-kinetic: A system that could target down, whether through jamming of signals or through targeting spacecraft or ballistic missiles. The U.S. has talked about a desire for space-based laser systems for missile defense, but there are no open-source examples of such a system being used.
Harrison does not include all counter-space capabilities in his framework, specifically excluding weapons that are based on Earth and have an impact there.
“A form of a counter-space weapon, something used to disrupt or degrade our space systems, could be a sea-launched cruise missile launched at a ground station,” Harrison explained. “That could disrupt our use of space. I wouldn’t call that a space weapon, though, because it never goes into space.”
Broadly speaking, expect the development and deployment of space weapons to continue in the near future, Harrison said, but with an emphasis on those capabilities being used for defensive measures only — even though, he noted, “the same system can be used in another capacity.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
28 May 20. Kleos Space signs with Canadian Global Spatial Technology Solutions. Highlights:
- Kleos and GSTS to collaborate on Maritime Situational Awareness product developments
- GSTS is a leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for the maritime domain
- GSTS to procure Kleos test data for demonstrations
- Kleos Space enters Canadian market
Kleos Space S.A. (ASX: KSS, Frankfurt: KS1), a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data provider, has partnered with GSTS to provide enhanced Maritime Domain Awareness capability to GSTS’s OCIANA product suite.
Andy Bowyer Kleos CEO said “Our satellites and our data will enhance GSTS capabilities when fused with other data sets in their innovative OCIANA environment, assisting in the goal to provide greater insights, detecting illegal activities and threats for their customers.”
Richard Kolacz GSTS CEO commented “Kleos will add another powerful data set to our OCIANA product suite to further enhance our maritime situational awareness capability and improve OCIANA’s ability to detect and predict vessel activity to support defence, civil and commercial solutions.”
GSTS (Global Spatial Technology Solutions) is a wholly owned Canadian company that provides innovative decision-support solutions for the maritime market through the use of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics.
GSTS predictive technologies empower future-friendly decision-making to help the maritime, security, logistics and service sectors navigate tomorrow, today. Kleos data will provide a valuable addition to GSTS services and data solutions by supporting vessel detection, classification and identification.
Kleos’ Scouting Mission satellites that are in Chennai, India awaiting launch on Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV C49, will detect and geolocate maritime radio frequency transmissions to provide global activity-based intelligence, enhancing the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities of governments and commercial entities when Automatic Identification System (AIS) is defeated, imagery unclear or targets out of patrol range. Kleos’ satellites will be in a 37-degree inclination orbit, covering crucial shipping regions for defense and security customers including the Strait of Hormuz, South China Sea, Australian coast, Southern US coast as well as the East and West African coast.
The Memorandum of Agreement signed by Kleos and GSTS allows for investigating opportunities to collaborate and develop marketable solutions; and to implement a scenario and demonstration to validate the technical feasibility and usability of collaborative solutions with the initial data licence procured for demonstration and assessment purposes.
26 May 20. Infrared sensors for the Space Force’s future missile-warning satellites pass key milestone. Two candidate payloads for the U.S. Space Force’s Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites have passed their preliminary design review, with critical design review expected in fall 2021.
Next Gen OPIR is to replace the Space-Based Infrared System, a constellation of satellites hosting infrared sensors used to detect and track ballistic missile threats. The Space Force says the new system will be more survivable than its predecessor.
The Space and Missile Systems Center plans to place five satellites in the initial constellation: three geosynchronous, or NGG, satellites built by Lockheed Martin; and two polar satellites being built by Northrop Grumman. The two infrared payloads that passed preliminary design review are for the first two NGG satellites.
“NGG is a critical piece of our missile warning architecture that will deliver a capable, resilient, and defensible missile warning system to counter determined adversaries,” said Col. Dennis Bythewood, program executive officer for space development. “This milestone demonstrates our ability to move with deliberate speed, while maintaining the technical and programmatic rigor needed to ensure success.”
The Space and Missile Systems Center is developing the two NGG payloads competitively, with Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems behind one effort and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems working with Ball Aerospace on the other. Each will design, manufacture, assemble, integrate and deliver one payload to fly on the first two NGG satellites designed and integrated by Lockheed Martin. The efforts are taking place in parallel to mitigate schedule risks as the Space Force works to launch the first NGG satellite in 2025.
“Detecting missile launches early starts in space. Each layer, or orbit, provides a necessary and unique view of the Earth to initially detect and then track a missile. Passing the Preliminary Design Review shows that our approach meets mission requirements, putting this ‘Go Fast’ program one step closer to launch. What sets us apart is our deep technology bench. Being able to pull or modify critical technology, like focal planes and electronics, from our other programs allows us to rapidly develop new designs for any orbit,” said Wallis Laughrey, vice president of space systems for Raytheon Intelligence and Space in a statement.
Lockheed will work with the Space and Missile Systems Center to decide which payload goes on which space vehicle, and then competitively select one of the developers to build an additional payload for the third NGG.
“The two successful reviews were key milestones in demonstrating our readiness to move forward. Our next steps are the build and test of engineering design units, or EDUs, and procurement of critical flight hardware for the first Space Vehicle delivery in 2025,” said Col. Daniel Walter, the Next Generation OPIR space segment program manager. “The mission payload EDUs will be critical enablers to demonstrate mission capabilities and exercise key integration activities that will burn down program risk before the space flight hardware is delivered.” (Source: Defense News)
26 May 20. COVID, OneWeb and how the Space Development Agency has coped. In March 2019, the Department of Defense established the Space Development Agency to oversee the creation of a new national security space architecture, one that would forego the traditional U.S. Air Force approach of using a small number of large satellites in higher orbits in favor of a proliferated constellation of smaller satellites operating in low Earth orbit.
SDA was established to move faster than the traditional national security space establishment. It plans on launching its first satellites just three years after being stood up and placing new satellites on orbit every two years in a spiral development approach. Now just over a year after being organized, the agency has issued its first solicitation for tranche 0, that first set of about 20 satellites that will serve as a base for its constellation that will ultimately be made up of hundreds of satellites, and is close to issuing a second.
SDA Director Derek Tournear sat down (virtually) May 19 with C4ISRNET’s Nathan Strout to discuss his agency’s progress, the health of the industrial base and the impact of COVID-19 on his plans.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
C4ISRNET: First, the agency has been notably busy over the last month—can you give us an update on SDA’s progress?
DEREK TOURNEAR: Our (request for proposals) for our first tranche is rapidly coming to a close (and we’re) excited to see what proposals we get in there on June 1 for our transport Tranche 0. We’ve just put out our draft RFP for our tracking tranche 0, which is our [Overhead Persistent Infrared] for the advanced missile threat satellites. Our plan is to have that final RFP out June 15. We want to have both rapid turns because our plan is to get performers for tracking and transport tranche 0 on contract as rapidly as possible. The main feedback I’ve been getting from industry on both of these is the end of FY22 is rapidly approaching, so there’s not a lot of room for error to make sure that we get something up on that timeframe, and that’s our goal.
C4ISRNET: The draft tracking layer calls for eight Wide Field of View (WVOF) satellites to be launched in FY22, to be followed by a few Medium Field of View (MFOV) in FY23. Will we see a separate RFP for the MFOV satellites?
TOURNEAR: The MFOV satellites we want to launch as close as possible to the WFOV, but they’re a little bit larger, a little bit more complicated satellites and they’ll take a little longer and that’s what is dragging it out to the ‘23 timeframe. What we are doing for MFOV — those are actually MDA’s Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) satellites, so we’re working with them and MDA has their plans on how they’re going to downselect from the current performers to performers to build out one or two satellites for the MFOV. So any solicitation for the MFOV satellites will be the solicitations for the HBTSS satellites.
C4ISRNET: What feedback have you received from industry on these solicitations? Have you changed what you’re looking for in response to industry feedback?
TOURNEAR: Only small adjustments. On the transport RFP, when we had the draft out we got feedback regarding some technical specifications and details that we adjusted before we put out the final. I haven’t seen what kind of responses we’ve received for tracking, but I imagine they’ll be along those same lines. They’ll be very technical in nature.
But overall the baseline plan to be able to get tranche 0 up in this timeframe we haven’t changed at all and we’re continuing to press on that. And so far the main feedback I’ve gotten from industry in addition to “Wow that’s fast” is they’re very excited. They’re very excited that there is an agency out there that is pushing this model, that they can respond to, that is driving a market that will show that there are new capabilities going out, that will allow them to bid to on a rapid cadence.
C4ISRNET: And your impression so far is that industry can support that cadence?
TOURNEAR: A lot of the very specific bus components and some of the specific electronics and focal planes for tracking are the longest lead items. And those lead times are around 40 weeks for the longest, so that is supportable for the launch time scale that we’re talking about, with the advantage being that that’s kind of the initial setup. So once you get the first satellite up, then industry is able to respond and they’re able to build several of these a month after that. So I believe that the supply chain is strong to be able to support the number of satellites that we need and the cadence of a new tranche every two years seems to be right in the sweet spot of what is not easy to do, but certainly within the realm of the possible.
C4ISRNET: OneWeb, one of the two major companies building out a commercial proliferated LEO constellation, declared bankruptcy back in March. Does that concern you from an industrial base perspective?
TOURNEAR: (OneWeb’s) biggest contribution to what SDA needs in addition to just getting everyone excited about this proliferated architecture was that they set up a very good supply chain for the way they were going to run their satellites, and they had a very sophisticated ground network as well.
It is unfortunate that they declared bankruptcy because it would have been nice to continue that commoditization up for another generation, at least another couple of years. However, I don’t think that there is any fallout of that constellation going away that is really going to be that big of an impact. They had a very specific supply chain set up to feed their specific designs of their constellation, but overall it was not raising all of the different technologies that are needed for the SDA architecture. If anything, what it has done is actually force SDA to become one of the forefront customers for a lot of these commoditized vendors. That actually may help us because now they may actually tailor some of their commoditized offerings for what SDA needs versus what OneWeb needs.
It also kind of emphasized the SDA’s goal from the beginning that we wanted to make sure that we relied on commercial commoditized technology, but we did not want to rely on commercial companies for these kinds of reasons. We wanted to make sure that we could provide a capability that was guaranteed for the war fighter, and relying on a commercial entity (where) you may have resilience due to proliferation, but lose resilience due to market influences.
C4ISRNET: At an industry day a year ago, you said the SDA would be taking lessons learned from DARPA’s Project Blackjack for SDA’s constellation. Obviously it’s a very tight timeframe between when the first Blackjack satellites are going to launch and when the SDA’s satellites are set to launch. Do you still think there are lessons you’re going to be able to take from DARPA’s on orbit experiments to incorporate into SDA’s tranche 0?
TOURNEAR: Yes. Primarily the lessons learned will be lessons that industry has learned so that they can better bid to what we’re requesting in our tranche 0 satellite solicitations. So most of the lessons learned will not be on the government side, it will actually be on the performers side because they have been working on the Blackjack program and so they have been incorporating technology as it develops and they will incorporate that into their bids.
Now some specifics. On the WFOV IR payload, DARPA is actually flying one that is going to be very similar to what is going to be required to meet the specifications for our WFOV tranche 0 tracking satellite. So we anticipate all of the lessons learned on that particular payload will fit in directly to what is needed for tranche 0 and beyond on WFOV.
In addition, there has been a lot of developments on commoditized components on the buses, so a lot of the work on flight systems and attitude and control systems has been developed under Blackjack, and that has built up this industrial base that is able to support our solicitations. Further, so past tranche 0, most of the work that DARPA has done on the Pit Boss aspect — which is the really advanced flight computers and advanced algorithms to do different autonomous networking and data fusions, those types of things —they’ve done a lot of work pushing that. The timing of that technology may not come to bear until tranche 1, but that might not meet the tranche 0 timing.
C4ISRNET: How is SDA coping with the COVID-19 situation? What steps has the agency taken to mitigate its impact?
TOURNEAR: First and foremost, it is an agency goal to protect our employees, support staff and then the performers working on our projects. We’ve been taking the guidance that the (Secretary of Defense Mark Esper) has been giving out—he’s actually been leading very far forward to help the department mitigate that and come up with different options. So within the Pentagon itself, say the actual work that SDA is doing, the Pentagon has been very supportive in coming up with the tools necessary for telework. So almost all of our staff has all been teleworking for the past 10 weeks. A very small amount come in one or two days a week to make sure if there’s anything that needs to be done in the Pentagon, primarily for classification reasons and things like that. We’ve been supported very well within the department.
Now, on the performers side. Obviously teleworking works very well for what we’re doing within the government, but on the performers’ side, obviously you can’t have easily built satellites at home. But the performers have responded very well. For the smaller companies, they’ve actually moved a lot of their test equipment back to their garages and have been doing a lot of analysis and testing at home. And then the larger companies have move to shift work so they’re able to enforce social distancing while continuing to still make progress.
So for the activities that SDA is directly impacted by, there’s been a small COVID impact. The memo that the department sent out specifying that DoD programs are critical by nature helped a lot. That gave the industrial base what they needed to be able to keep producing and keep working. So it’s been pretty good.
The only major impact has been on that HBTSS with flight lead delay, and due to the classified nature of what that program is working on and their specifications. Almost everything that program is working on is classified and the people working out of MDA in Schriever Air Force Base were not allowed to work on site for a period, so there were some delays due to that. But we’ve been pretty fortunate that we’ve recovered well in being able to adapt and overcome. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
26 May 20. The U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) Geosynchronous Earth Orbiting (GEO) satellite program, commonly referred to as NGG, completed its preliminary design reviews (PDR) for its two candidate mission payloads, May 21.
“NGG is a critical piece of our missile warning architecture that will deliver a capable, resilient, and defensible missile warning system to counter determined adversaries,” said Col. Dennis Bythewood, program executive officer for Space Development. “This milestone demonstrates our ability to move with deliberate speed, while maintaining the technical and programmatic rigor needed to ensure success.”
The NGG program is developing two infrared mission payloads in a competitive, parallel development effort to mitigate schedule risks for the first NGG satellite launch in 2025.
The two mission payload provider teams, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (RSAS) and Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) with Ball Aerospace, will each design, manufacture, assemble, integrate, test, and deliver one mission payload to fly on the first two of three planned NGG satellites.
As the Space Force pushes for rapid delivery of the first NGG satellite for launch by 2025, this key milestone demonstrates the program is on track. Successfully completing the payload PDRs was especially important, as the payloads are the critical path for the first NGG satellite delivery. The team plans to wrap up the system PDR campaign this fall and drive towards the system critical design review (CDR) in the fall of 2021.
“These reviews demonstrated that the competing NGG mission payload contractors will provide the critical missile warning performance required for our nation to operate in a contested space environment,” said Col. Daniel Walter, the Next Generation OPIR Space Segment program manager. “The two successful reviews were key milestones in demonstrating our readiness to move forward. Our next steps are the build and test of engineering design units, or EDUs, and procurement of critical flight hardware for the first Space Vehicle delivery in 2025.
“The mission payload EDUs will be critical enablers to demonstrate mission capabilities and exercise key integration activities that will burn down program risk before the space flight hardware is delivered.”
The NGG contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin on Aug. 14, 2018 for the design, development, manufacture, integration, test, and delivery of three Next Generation OPIR GEO space vehicles. Lockheed Martin held a competitive source selection and awarded subcontracts to both RSAS and NGAS/Ball for development and build of two separate mission payloads in October 2018. The Government and Lockheed Martin will determine later which of the payloads will integrate on the first and second satellites. Lockheed Martin will also competitively select one of the two subcontractors to build an additional payload to fly on the third NGG satellite.
26 May 20. Virgin Orbit fails first rocket launch attempt from modified plane. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from the belly of a 747 airplane on Monday, the company said.
In a test of the company’s plan to launch satellites into space, the 70-foot (21.34m) rocket called LauncherOne was to blast into orbit at about 6.5 miles altitude from a modified airplane named Cosmic Girl.
The mission from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California was “terminated” moments after the rocket’s release from the jetliner, just before 3 p.m. ET/1900 GMT over the Pacific Ocean, the company said in a statement on Twitter.
“An anomaly then occurred early in first stage flight. We’ll learn more as our engineers analyze the mountain of data we collected today,” the company said This was a key test for the company’s plan to launch satellites into space.”
In an additional statement, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said “We accomplished many of the goals we set for ourselves, though not as many as we would have liked. Nevertheless, we took a big step forward today.”
No other details were immediately released. There were no injuries reported in the flight. (Source: Reuters)
26 May 20. NASA confirms new telescope to be named after ‘Mother of Hubble.’ NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development (the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope) in honour of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.
The newly named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – or Roman Space Telescope, for short – is set to launch in the mid-2020s. It will investigate longstanding astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe’s expansion, and search for distant planets beyond our solar system.
Considered the “mother” of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which launched 30 years ago, Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “It is because of Nancy Grace Roman’s leadership and vision that NASA became a pioneer in astrophysics and launched Hubble, the world’s most powerful and productive space telescope.
“I can think of no better name for WFIRST, which will be the successor to NASA’s Hubble and Webb Telescopes,” Bridenstine added.
Former senator Barbara Mikulski, who worked with NASA on the Hubble and WFIRST space telescopes, said, “It is fitting that as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, NASA has announced the name of their new WFIRST telescope in honor of Dr Nancy Roman, the Mother of Hubble – well deserved. It recognises the incredible achievements of women in science and moves us even closer to no more hidden figures and no more hidden galaxies.”
Born on 16 May 1925 in Nashville, Tennessee, Roman consistently persevered in the face of challenges that plagued many women of her generation interested in science. By seventh grade, she knew she wanted to be an astronomer.
Despite being discouraged about going into science – the head of Swarthmore College’s physics department told her he usually dissuaded girls from majoring in physics, but that she “might make it” – Roman earned a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from Swarthmore in 1946 and a doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1949.
She remained at Chicago for six years and made discoveries about the compositions of stars that had implications for the evolution of our Milky Way galaxy. Knowing that her chances of achieving tenure at a university as a woman were slim at that time, she took a position at the US Naval Research Laboratory and made strides in researching cosmic questions through radio waves.
Roman came to NASA in 1959, just six months after the agency had been established. At that time, she served as the chief of astronomy and relativity in the Office of Space Science, managing astronomy-related programs and grants.
The late Roman said during a NASA interview, “I knew that taking on this responsibility would mean that I could no longer do research, but the challenge of formulating a program from scratch that I believed would influence astronomy for decades to come was too great to resist.”
Through Roman’s leadership, NASA launched four Orbiting Astronomical Observatories between 1966 and 1972. While only two of the four were successful, they demonstrated the value of space-based astrophysics and represented the precursors to Hubble.
She also championed the International Ultraviolet Explorer, which was built in the 1970s as a joint project between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the United Kingdom, as well as the Cosmic Background Explorer, which measured the leftover radiation from the Big Bang and led to two of its leading scientists receiving the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Above all, Roman is credited with making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality. In the mid-1960s, she set up a committee of astronomers and engineers to envision a telescope that could accomplish important scientific goals. She convinced NASA and Congress that it was a priority to launch the most powerful space telescope the world had ever seen.
The Roman Space Telescope will be a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics.
The telescope has a primary mirror that is 2.4 metres (7.9 feet) in diameter and is the same size as the Hubble Space Telescope’s primary mirror. The Roman Space Telescope is designed to have two instruments, the Wide Field Instrument and a technology demonstration Coronagraph Instrument.
The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view that is 100 times greater than the Hubble infrared instrument, allowing it to capture more of the sky with less observing time. The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.
The WFIRST project passed a critical programmatic and technical milestone in February, giving the mission the official green light to begin hardware development and testing.
With the passage of this latest key milestone, the team will begin finalising the mission design by building engineering test units and models to ensure the design will hold up under the extreme conditions during launch and while in space.
NASA’s Fiscal Year 2020 Consolidated Appropriations Act funds the WFIRST program through September 2020. It is not included in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget request, as the administration wants to focus on completing the James Webb Space Telescope. (Source: Space Connect)
21 May 20. The First 20nm Space-Grade FPGA for Satellite & Space Apps Debuts from Xilinx. Xilinx, Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) has announced the industry’s first 20-nanometer (nm) space-grade FPGA, delivering full radiation tolerance and ultra-high throughput and bandwidth performance for satellite and space applications.
The new 20nm Radiation Tolerant (RT) Kintex® UltraScale™ XQRKU060 FPGA provides true unlimited on-orbit reconfiguration, over a10x increase in digital signal processing (DSP) performance – ideal for payload applications – and full radiation tolerance across all orbits.
The XQRKU060 also brings high performance machine learning (ML) to space for the first time. A diverse portfolio of ML development tools supporting industry standard frameworks, including TensorFlow and PyTorch, enable neural network inference acceleration for real-time on-board processing in space with a complete “process and analyze” solution. The XQRKU060’s dense, power-efficient compute with scalable precision and large on-chip memory, provides 5.7 tera operations per second (TOPs) of peak INT8 performance optimized for deep learning, a nearly 25X increase compared to the prior generation.
Building on Xilinx’s space heritage and highly successful 65nm space-grade devices, the launch of the first 20nm part for space applications advances the space industry by three process node generations. It delivers a significant reduction in size, weight and power, and is engineered with robust radiation tolerant features. The XQRKU060 provides customers with a space-resilient device equipped to handle both short and long duration missions in harsh space environments.
Reconfigurable Processing
The XQRKU060 is the industry’s only true unlimited on-orbit reconfigurable solution. The on-orbit reconfiguration capabilities, together with real-time on-board processing and ML acceleration, allows satellites to update in real-time, deliver video-on-demand, and perform compute “on-the-fly” to process complex algorithms. The ML capabilities are suitable to a variety of problems spanning scientific analysis, object detection, and image classification – such as cloud detection – enabling improved processing efficiency and reduced decision latency both in space and on the ground. As protocols and applications progressively change, the adaptive compute architecture of the XQRKU060 allows unlimited on-orbit reconfiguration to enable customers to perform last-minute product updates prior to launch, as well as after it has been deployed in orbit.
Performance and Resiliency for Space
The XQRKU060 offers rich DSP capabilities optimized for dense power-efficient compute. It is equipped with 2,760 UltraScale DSP slices and provides up to 1.6 TeraMACs of signal processing compute, more than a 10X increase compared to the prior generation, as well as dramatic efficiency gains for floating point computations. The increased compute capability in space is paired with massive I/O bandwidth from 32 high-speed transceivers (SerDes) that can run up to 12.5Gbps to deliver 400Gbps aggregate bandwidth.
The XQRKU060 also features robust 40x40mm ceramic packaging capable of withstanding vibrations and handling during launch as well as radiation effects in harsh orbit environments. The architecture features an innovative design for single event effects (SEE) mitigation thereby meeting the industry requirements for all orbits, including LEO, MEO, GEO, and deep space missions.
Development Tools
The XQRKU060 brings a new, simplified development environment with the Xilinx® Vivado® Design Suite. The redesigned routing architecture provides extensive routing capacity to resolve common industry bottleneck challenges. Programming with the Vivado Design Suite helps to eliminate routing congestion, allowing more than 90 percent of the device to be used without any performance degradation. With Vivado, system designers and radiation teams can maximize productivity and reduce development time, helping to enable aggressive launch schedules.
Additionally, the Vitis™ unified software platform provides support for embedded software development on the Triple Modular Redundant (TMR)-capable MicroBlaze™ soft processor. Future extensions will add support for Vitis™ AI, the Xilinx unified software platform for AI inference on Xilinx devices and production cards.
A robust partner ecosystem of compatible solutions for the XQRKU060 are available as of this writing. Ecosystem partner solutions offer an array of assets for customers to accelerate their space-application designs, ranging from prototyping boards, space-qualified power, memory and configuration solutions, and single event upsets (SEU) mitigation tools and IP.
Availability
Flight units of the 20nm RT Kintex UltraScale space-grade XQRKU060-1CNA1509 FPGA will be available in Xilinx Class B and Class Y test flows per the MIL-PRF-38535, starting in September of this year. Mechanical samples and prototype units are available now. Customers can start prototyping with the KCU105 Evaluation Kit or the Kintex UltraScale Space Development Kit.
Minal Sawant, space systems architect, Aerospace and Defense Vertical Marketing, at Xilinx, said that with our extensive history in developing leading-edge, radiation tolerant technology and deploying this in reliable space-grade solutions, Xilinx continues its lead with the launch of the world’s most advanced process node for space. The 20nm RT Kintex UltraScale FPGA is breaking industry standards and setting a new benchmark for meeting the high compute requirements of high bandwidth payloads, space exploration and research missions.”
Paul Rutt, CTO at SEAKR, said the company has collaborated with Xilinx for 15 years to consistently achieve challenging mission objectives for advanced space communications applications. The firm has baselined Xilinx’s 20nm Kintex UltraScale FPGAs with 12.5 Gbps SerDes links, enabling high-throughput, flexible and reconfigurable modulation, demodulation, channelization and routing capability in our newest advanced RF Reconfigurable processor, Wolverine. The Processor leverages the 10x increase in DSP compute capability for direct RF Sampling compared to prior generation systems. (Source: Satnews)
25 May 20. Australia will need to develop its own Space Force. Australia’s ongoing Defence planning review, culminating in a new Force Posture Review and eventually a new Defence White Paper, will have to factor in one major domain: space. And while many criticised America’s creation of the Space Force, the growing tactical and strategic dependence on the domain means Australia’s own Space Force should be a top priority.
It’s 2020, all of Australia’s multibillion-dollar advanced weapons systems and capabilities are relying on secure tactical communication technologies to function and deliver the joint military effect, none of which would be possible without utilising and controlling the space domain.
With the battlefield of tomorrow driven and controlled by communications and information, it is vital to know the impact an aggressor would have should these assets be disabled in a conflict.
Why space matters to Defence
The general public often forgets the importance of space in their everyday lives. The ubiquitous GPS (global positioning system) is a satellite system that provides precise position, navigation and timing capabilities to our iPhones, fitness devices and general satellite navigation products.
GPS satellites also provide our Defence Force with the capability to pinpoint enemy locations, aid in search and rescue missions, even to find shelter for troops under fire. In fact, every mobile or kinetic system, including precision guided weapons, relies on GPS to accurately navigate to fixed targets.
Meanwhile, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) satellites – often referred to as “spy” satellites – inform Defence and Intelligence communities of concerning developments in urban environments or on the battlefield. ISR satellites provide real-time data associated with enemy and friendly troop or vehicle movements; they are used to keep track of those who seek to do harm to our nation, and give advance notice of incursions in or near Australia’s borders from maritime or airborne threats.
Communications satellites (SatCom) enable Defence personnel to maintain contact with each other anywhere in the world and to deliver updates from ISR satellites and other sensors in the field. SatComs support unmanned drones and vehicles on land that operate semi- or fully autonomously. Indeed, future systems will need a combination of GPS navigation sensors and satellite communications to deliver the potent response we will need to fight and win.
More recently, internet of things (IOT) technologies are enabling a large number of sensors (thermal/infrared, among others) to be deployed into the battlefield, relaying information through an orbiting satellite to command and control locations.
Without these critical assets in space, our Defence Forces could effectively be rendered inoperable, relying on World War II-like communications technology (as described in a 2017 AARC article by Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Greg Rowlands), and our multibillion-dollar strategic and tactical assets, such as the F-35, Growler and P-8A, would have their capabilities severely degraded.
What has changed
We can no longer assume that satellites are safe in orbit. Key adversaries have already demonstrated potent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon systems from Earth and in space, proving that all of our key communications infrastructure are at risk as high-value targets.
The Russian, Chinese and Indian armed forces, among others, have successfully tested ASAT missiles. The Chinese are purported to have the ability to attack geostationary satellites over 36,000 km in altitude, and the Russians recently put to test small satellites capable of changing orbits to “shadow” larger reconnaissance satellites. Indeed, the latter’s potential to destroy strategic satellites in orbit has generated great concern in our key ally, the US.
What’s more, given recent geopolitical events, we can no longer assume that our allies will come to our aid with launch and satellite technology. They too could be suffering similar losses, and in such cases would likely prioritise their own national interests.
Our response…?
It is vital for Australia’s Defence Force to recognise that today our satellite network has the same strategic importance as an Air Force base, an Army tank platoon or a Navy destroyer, and that it is significantly more vulnerable to threats.
A coordinated attack from a capable adversary could destroy a significant number of our key defence and civilian satellites within 24 hours, altering our way of life and ability to defend ourselves faster than any virus ever seen.
In this new world, tactical responsive and sovereign space is no longer just a “nice to have” but a Defence capability that would ensure we have:
- back-up satellites ready to be placed into orbit;
- the ability to launch and replace destroyed or damaged satellites within a 24-hour period in the event of a conflict;
- to control when and where these satellites are placed (perhaps even launching ISR satellites to specific orbits over troubled areas); and
- directly protect and control the launch site they are launched from.
Standard military doctrine requires key assets/equipment (tanks, fighter planes, ships etc) to be held in reserve during a sustained conflict. The size of this reserve or “magazine” is monitored across a whole range of Defence systems. Our magazine in space is zero.
Sovereign space, responsive launch
The good news is that Australia is naturally blessed with a coastline that would allow us to launch into almost every orbit possible from Earth. Very few countries have that capability today, making an Australian launch capability valuable to our allies for their own tactically responsive space needs.
What is also significant and different now is that there are Australian companies working on small satellite manufacturing (e.g. Skycraft, Inovor), orbital launch vehicles (Gilmour Space) and launch sites (Southern Launch, Equatorial Launch) to support this sovereign launch capability.
With relatively small investments from Defence, these Australian companies could be producing ‘mission-ready’ space vehicles within the next two to three years.
As ASPI’s senior analyst, Malcolm Davis, highlighted: “Australia’s space industry can directly support Defence’s space requirements in coming years through local development of small satellites for defence purposes, and to build the capability to launch those Australian satellites on Australian launch vehicles from Australian launch sites.”[ii]
Decisive action will be needed for Australia to have its own sovereign space and launch capabilities, to manufacture and secure its own supply chain, to support our allied interoperability in space, to protect our cherished way of life and our national security – all of which should be brought together by an Australian Space Force. It’s time for a Defence strategy that encompasses land, sea, air, cyber – and space. (Source: Space Connect)
21 May 20. Major Milestone’ As Allies Join SPACECOM’s War Plan.
“The hesitation to include allies in Olympic Defender was on our end as well,” says Secure World Foundation’s Brian Weeden. “National security space is sort of the last bastion of America’s ‘crown jewels’.”
A number of US allies may now join Space Command in the US military’s baseline plan for protecting and defending satellites during war, Operation Olympic Defender, we hear, following in the footsteps of the first country to sign up, the United Kingdom.
SPACECOM today announced its leader, Gen. Jay Raymond, has signed the first order under OOD in his capacity as head of the combatant command. OOD is the US military’s operational plan for protecting and defending US and allied satellites in conflict.
“This is a major milestone for the newly established command,” Raymond said. “As the threats in the space domain continue to evolve, it is important we leverage and synchronize capabilities with our allies not only to understand each other’s national perspectives, but to work seamlessly together to optimize our multinational space efforts.”
Strategic Command created OOD in 2013 as the foundational plan for how the military will protect and defend US and allied satellites in a conflict. As Breaking D readers know, OOD was updated in 2018 to open up allied participation.
“The purpose of OOD is to strengthen allies’ abilities to deter hostile acts in space, strengthen deterrence against hostile actors, and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the earth,” the SPACECOM release explains.
OOD is only one of a number of operational plans for space war Raymond has been working on since SPACECOM was established as a geographic command with an area of responsibility (AOR) 100 kilometers above sea level and up to infinity.
He told reporters yesterday that he last week inked the new “campaign plan” for SPACECOM’s day-to-day operations; every Combatant Command has such a campaign plan; this will be SPACECOM’s first. “That’s our foundational plan, if you will,” Raymond explained, “that drives our day-to-day activities across the command of SPACECOM.”
In addition, SPACECOM now has responsibility for developing, updating and enacting when the ball drops specialized contingency plans for space war, mapped to specific adversary countries. Former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter back in 2016 set the precedent, naming Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as the key strategic challengers to the US military.
SPACECOM’s announcement today also noted that the United Kingdom was the first ally to publicly acknowledge this past July its participation in OOD. London subsequently sent additional personnel to Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) and the 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg AFB to support its decision, SPACECOM added. CSpOC is responsible for command and control of day-to-day space operations and includes allies representation. The 18th Space Control Squadron is responsible for space domain awareness operations.
Up to now, many allies were leery of signing up due to the fact that space operations were being commanded by STRATCOM, which also oversees US nuclear war planning. Public opinion in many US allies, such as Germany and Italy, traditionally has been strongly anti-nuclear. It is not by chance that even the UK, which had joined OOD under STRATCOM’s control, kept its participation silent until now.
“Some of those same concerns were initially raised about having USSTRATCOM be the lead agency for signing SSA data sharing agreements with other countries,” noted Brian Weeden, head of program planning at Secure World Foundation and a former Air Force officer who worked on space situational awareness operations at STRATCOM.
“But the hesitation to include allies in Olympic Defender was on our end as well,” Weeden added. “National security space is sort of the last bastion of America’s “crown jewels” and there are a lot of people in that community who are very reluctant to open the kimono to our allies, even the allies who we’ve been deeply collaborating on intelligence sharing for decades.”
DoD and expert sources say interest in participation in space war planning has increased not just because of SPACECOM’s standup, but also because concerns about Russian and Chinese efforts to build up their military space capabilities.
Indeed, NATO in December declared space an operational domain of joint allied action — albeit insisted that this does not mean NATO endorses space weaponization. France last summer adopted an aggressive space strategy, including pursuit of offensive anti-satellite weapons. Japan on May 19 announced its new Space Operations Squadron, under the Japanese Air-Self Defense Force, to monitor and protect Japanese satellites.
For example, the number of countries signing SSA agreements with DoD has jumped to 25, with Peru signing a memorandum of understanding with SPACECOM just last week to gain access to data about space objects collected by the military’s Space Surveillance Network of radar and optical telescopes, as well as data to help the country’s satellites avoid on-orbit collisions.
“This agreement will give Peru access to the highest quality satellite tracking data available to assist them with PerúSat-1 and its eventual follow-on and will provide a linkage to the experts at the 18th Space Control Squadron. In addition, the SSA Agreement enables Peru to request seven advanced services available only to agreement holders,” SPACECOM said in a May 12 announcement.
Spain, France and Italy — all of which operate military satellites — have expressed interest in participating in OOD, we are told. Besides the UK, the other members of the so-called “Five Eyes” — Australia, Canada and New Zealand — who already shared intelligence with the US are expected to join in.
Although Germany has been hesitant to be seen as pro-space weapons, Berlin has a sophisticated military space program and is unlikely to stay outside of operational planning if rival France joins in.
Japan too can be expected to sign on, as it has been seeking myriad ways to be more active in partnering with the US military on space protection — including agreeing to host US military payloads on Japanese satellites.
21 May 20. Space Force lays out acquisitions reforms in new report. In a new proposal, the U.S. Space Force is asking Congress to overhaul the tools it uses to acquire new space systems, allowing the new service to move with more agility and keep pace with near-peer adversaries.
“Our nation requires a bold Alternative Space Acquisition System that not only matches the pace of change but also manages unpredictability and regularly disrupts our adversaries’ threat cadence,” the Department of the U.S. Air Force report concludes. “The features outlined in this report will create a new space acquisition approach for the USSF that is the envy of all other services and ultimately enables the USSF to rapidly leverage industry innovation to outpace space threats.”
When Congress passed legislation establishing the Space Force as the nation’s sixth branch of the armed services in December, it included a provision requiring the Secretary of the Air Force to provide a report by the end of March on whether the military should adopt an alternative space acquisition system. While the Pentagon did deliver a report to Congress in March, it largely kicked the can down the road on any specific acquisitions reforms. Space Force leadership have touted this more detailed acquisitions report as “groundbreaking” in recent appearances.
The new report, which was first reported by Bloomberg Government, includes nine specific proposals to improve Space Force contracting, although it doesn’t make any suggestions towards unifying the various organizations involved in purchasing space platforms and systems, such as the Space Development Agency, the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, the Space and Missile Systems Center, or the National Reconnaissance Office, which purchases satellites for the intelligence community.
Instead, the report’s recommendations include changes to the contracting tools and reporting requirements the Space Force will use to acquire new systems, with a focus on increasing flexibility and delegating authority. Three of the suggestions require legislative action, while the remaining proposals will simply require internal Department of Defense adjustments.
Perhaps the most important recommendation in the report, according to the Air Force, is the consolidation of budget line items along mission portfolios, such as missile warning or communications, instead of by platform. While this has been done on a limited basis in the past for the Space Rapid Capabilities Office and some classified efforts, it marks a change from standard DoD budgeting practices.
Theoretically, this would allow the Space Force to move funding between missile warning systems without having to submit reprogramming requests to Congress, something it did several times last year in order to move up the delivery date for the first Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellite. The Air Force’s repeated reprogramming requests rankled some members of Congress, leading to a fight between lawmakers and the White House over the program’s funding for fiscal 2020.
The Air Force claims this fix is needed to give program managers the flexibility to adapt to growing threats. According to the report, transparency at the program level would be preserved in future budget documents. This change would not require legislation.
Beyond that, the Air Force is asking Congress for permission to push milestone decision authority down the chain of command, similar to what’s been demonstrated by the Missile Defense Agency and National Reconnaissance Office. This change would speed up decision making for space programs.
The third major change the Air Force is pursuing is authority for the Space Force to use incremental funding for space systems and programs. This “Efficient Space Procurement” coding was used to acquire the fifth and sixth satellites in the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites at the same time as well as the fifth and sixth Space-Based Infrared System satellites, resulting in significant savings. The department claims full funding each space vehicle has lead to affordability issues in the past, and can “lead to production breaks, obsolescence, and industrial base impacts.” Instead, the department wants to spread out funding for satellites over multiple years to help keep costs in check and avoid funding spikes.
Other changes include streamlining requirements validation and reporting requirements.
“Under these reforms, our Nation’s newest military service will have unprecedented agility to build resilient, defendable, and affordable space capabilities through streamlined processes and closer partnerships with one of America’s decisive advantages—its innovative and rapidly changing commercial space industry,” Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett wrote in the introduction to the report. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
————————————————————————-
At Viasat, we’re driven to connect every warfighter, platform, and node on the battlefield. As a global communications company, we power millions of fast, resilient connections for military forces around the world – connections that have the capacity to revolutionize the mission – in the air, on the ground, and at sea. Our customers depend on us for connectivity that brings greater operational capabilities, whether we’re securing the U.S. Government’s networks, delivering satellite and wireless communications to the remote edges of the battlefield, or providing senior leaders with the ability to perform mission-critical communications while in flight. We’re a team of fearless innovators, driven to redefine what’s possible. And we’re not done – we’re just beginning.
————————————————————————