Space Systems Command is prototyping a Joint Antenna Marketplace to offload some of the SCN's burden and expand its capacity by using existing commercial and non-DoD agency antennas, rather than building costly new ones for the network.
"[T]his capability is so important to where we're headed in the next couple of years, with having the capacity to make the SCN [Satellite Control Network] stand up to all the new systems that are coming and all the new mission requirements that they're going to have," Hammett told Breaking Defense.
Do more with less: streamline workflows, reduce duplication, invest upfront to save long-term.
The SCAR program is being seen as more urgent for keeping satellite communications flowing as top brass have begun to worry more about possible great power conflict with China and/or Russia, Space Rapid Capabilities Office Director Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense.
Under the contract, SpRCO's Rapid Resilient Command and Control project, nicknamed R2C2, will buy ground software in "bite-sized pieces" to support new Space Force satellites capable of rapid and sustained maneuver.
The $883.7 billion bill makes several major changes to President Joe Biden's FY25 budget request, including a more narrow approach to transferring Air National Guard units into the Space Force. But budgetary matters will ultimately be decided by congressional appropriators.
"This is not only new; it's astounding. It's shocking. It's a huge change (if adopted)," one industry contractor told Breaking Defense of the proposal.
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Space Rapid Capabilities Office Director Kelly Hammett declined to share much about the new "threat warning" sensors, but gave updates on other closely held programs.
BADGER's first demonstration, held in late August, "marks the first end-to-end test of the steerable phased array modules and software," Col. Greg Hoffman, of SpRCO's Strategic Capabilities Acquisition Delta, said.
From antennas that can only "talk" to one satellite at a time to much of the work in the control center being done by paper, operators told reporters on a rare tour of the ops center that they're in dire need of modernization.
The overdue Satellite Control Network’s Life Cycle Sustainment Plan is expected to address the many ways space has changed since the last 2017 version, including the over-extension of too few antennas to communicate with too many satellites.
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
SpRCO head Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense in an interview that the "operational integration" process involves "tens of force generation elements with POAMS [plans of action and milestones] that take years to close everything out."
Space Force's Delta 6, known as the "Cyber Delta," currently has three squadrons assigned to cyber defense. Four new squadrons will stand up in the summer, Col. Roy Rockwell, who heads the delta, said.