The jump in R&D funding reflects SDA’s ambitious plans to launch “dozens” of satellites by 2022 to create a skeleton architecture in Low Earth Orbit to provide communications between satellites and ships, aircraft and ground-based weapon systems; track advanced missile threats including low-flying hypersonic cruise missiles; and to support targeting of adversary mobile ground systems.
By Theresa HitchensBetter user interface and experience create faster decision-making in multi-domain operations
Improved UX and UI can enable smarter use of AI and automation, helping warfighters manage data-rich environments and make faster, more informed decisions.
Tournear says SDA is involved with wider DoD efforts to develop capabilities for multi-domain operations. The sapce agency’s planned satellites will serve as the “backbone” used by all the services to share targeting data.
By Theresa Hitchens
Griffin’s seeming skepticism about commercial ventures to provide global broadband and Internet services is in stark contrast to the enthusiasm bubbling out of the Air Force and the Army.
By Theresa Hitchens
“I’ve never gotten a briefing from the Space Development Agency,” Roper said, “so I don’t know what their plan, I don’t know what they’re intending.”
By Theresa Hitchens
Aerospace was able to build and test both sats within 16 months, and launch them after only 18 months — a fraction of the average seven to eight years it traditionally has taken the service.
By Theresa Hitchens
“Of all people, it’s the ‘space warmongers’ doing the most to try to sustain the (space) environment,” one DoD official said.
By Theresa Hitchens
“The external and internal communication regarding [DoD] smallsat strategy is not consistent and not clear,” Carissa Christensen, CEO of Bryce Space and Technologies, said wryly.
By Theresa Hitchens
Integrating commercial off-the-shelf computing on military platforms and how to make it work
The systems may be off-the-shelf, but the packaging for integration on vehicles and ships provides cradle-to-grave resiliency.
“Let’s not practice ASAT technology in Low Earth Orbit,” says Rick Ambrose, Lockheed Martin’s executive vice president for Space.
By Theresa Hitchens
Newly proposed licensing rules for commercial remote sensing will eliminate automatic DoD review rights for of a majority of applications.
By Theresa Hitchens
“It is rocket science, after all,” says Trump-appointed FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, who questions the commission’s mandate on orbital debris mitigation oversight for commercial space companies.
By Theresa Hitchens
“We will be using proliferated LEO,” says Lt. Gen. David Thompson, vice commander of Air Force Space Command. “It is simply a matter of for what missions.”
By Theresa Hitchens
Congress should pass laws to ensure that the Pentagon fully commits to creating a “large, updatable, and resilient national security constellation” in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
By Theresa Hitchens
Nine years after the Pentagon tried and failed to build laser communications satellites, can the private sector get it done?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The State Department and Pentagon are expressing concern over new Russian and Chinese activities in space, while the White House is pushing for the creation of a Space Force.
By Paul McLeary
