NATO's collectively funded space efforts are focused on space domain awareness and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, Col. Jonathan Whitaker, who heads the NATO Combined Forces Space Component Command, told Breaking Defense.
The space service’s new “Data & AI Strategic Action Plan” emphasizes overhauling UDL, aiming to finally integrate its private-sector data with operational Space Force systems.
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
How cutting-edge technology from L3Harris is enabling rapid data processing—and faster, more informed decisions in space defense operations.
"I'm not criticizing ATLAS, but on the record, if it doesn't get there on time, I'm gonna find an alternative, because that's why I exist," Space RCO Director Kelly Hammett told Breaking Defense.
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant told Breaking Defense that the long-troubled effort to upgrade the C2 system for space domain awareness is making progress — with the ATLAS software due to become operational "at the end of next year."
"By breaking down barriers between government, coalition, and commercial space situational awareness data, CODA allows us to create a tailored, operations-relevant understanding that directly informs tactical fires and maneuver decisions,” said Col. Raj Agrawal, Space Operations Command Delta 2 commander.
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
The NDAA instructed Air Force space acquisition czar Frank Calvelli to detail a UDL integration plan, following criticism from the Government Accountability Office, as well as to explain the Space Force's process "to regularly identify and evaluate commercial space situational awareness capabilities."
"The next pivot for looking up is to look in outer space from outer space. There's no reason you only need to observe satellite maneuvers from the ground. You can do it from space," Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, Space Force deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, said today.
Besides tracking adversary satellites, said Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, deputy chief of space operations for intelligence, "sometimes I want to be looking at my own object to see if anything's going on, right?"
The Space Force, in essence, wants to move the 2018-conceived Unified Data Library from a card catalog system to a machine-to-machine search engine using artificial intelligence tools.
Standoff capability means warfighters stay connected and remain remotely located in a safer environment while making it harder for adversaries to target them.
"Providing space operators with relevant, timely data can help to prevent operational surprise and support efforts to protect and defend space assets," a recent report to Congress on Pentagon space policy and strategy says.
The draft National Space Authorization Act would also push Space Force on integrating commercial data and on over-classification of space programs.
If a modern integrated operations network is the foundation of the home, the Unified Data Library is the electricity flowing through it, Space Force Chief Technology Officer Lisa Costa told Breaking Defense. Also, the SpaceVerse will come into play somewhere down the line.
Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office is pushing the Space Force to move faster to actually integrate commercial SDA capabilities in order to fill capability gaps.