New Space Nexus Day 2

 

 

Dr. Derek Tournear, Director, Space Development Agency

 

-Laser com, this is new. We’re going to actually laser com directly down to the ground with the transport layer.

 

-All of our transport satellites are able to get their own PNT signal and we can embed them into the data links in the event that GPS is unavailable.

 

-First, we’re doing things through proliferation. That’s different in DOD. We’re breaking larger satellites into hundreds of smaller ones.

-Second, we’re not building out the entire architecture in one go. We’re incrementally advancing capabilities and building out in spirals.

 

-Satellites have a five-year lifetime. We will decommission and deorbit those at the end of their lifetime and we do that purposely so we can continue to upgrade and update.

-At any given time you want two satellites overhead, we want to do five different transport missions times 80, so we get about 400 satellites.

 

-27 satellites on orbit. 28 were built, we left one on the ground. 19 transport sats on orbit, six of which are capable of link16. Then we have eight tracking sats on orbit now.

-These are all done and on orbit.

 

-T1 will be 160 sats. MW, MT, MD. MW is what we used in the 80s and 90s to do mutually assured destruction. That doesn’t really work anymore because missiles maneuver after they launch so you can’t predict where they land. So now we have to do MT. MD, you can track with such high quality that you can intercept missiles. We’ll continue to proliferate tracking and move more and more into MD.

-T2, we’re building off T1 but with more satellites. We have new performers, Rocket Lab and Sierra Space. They’re new providers.

 

-Space Force is a big proponent of using commercial space for different types of capability. We’re capitalizing on capital investments that have been done in the space industry. We want to buy satellites that have been developed by commercial and just buy them off the line.

-We want to pull commercial data directly onto our transport layer and do that as a service. We’re enabling this through spiral development. The goal is to make sure we keep affordability.

 

[See attached image]

 

-We’re working with other colleagues across SF that are focused more on rapid launch and rapid reconstitution. It’s not an area we’re super focused on. We’re launching as fast as industry is making satellites but we’re working closely with colleagues across SF.

 

-PGI, as we got feedback from industry, the scope was too nebulous that we were asking for. It was a little bit too big of an ask because there were too many unknowns.

-We narrowed it down, starting with FOO Fighter and FOO Fighter follow ons and we took the mission integrator piece out.

-We would have been forcing difficult marriages in industry so we decided to break it up a little bit.

 

[End]

 

 

Travis Langster, Principal Director, Space and Missile Defense Policy, DOD

 

-April, DOD released Commercial Space Integration Strategy. Overarching goal is to achieve commercial integration and I really do want everyone to pay attention to “integration” in the title. It’s not enough to leverage or utilize. The end state needs to be integration.

-Contractual mechanisms, we intend to set clear expectations.

-We need this now during peacetime to ensure we are trained if deterrence fails.

-We will promote security conditions in facilities and norms that enhance safety for all.

-We will support the development of emerging capabilities.

 

-Implementation is underway across the Department in various areas.

-CASR and what Col Kniseley is doing, Space Development Agency, DIU and what they’re doing, all of these are examples of implementation.

-Three mission area buckets. We did this because we’re looking at what degree commercial can help. Mission areas are primarily government, hybrid, and primarily commercial.

-All mission areas can integrate commercial solutions.

 

Measures of Success

-We must really proactively go above demand signals and put resources behind efforts.

-We are seeking to offer ways to work and partner with commercial to uncover vulnerabilities.

-Changing DOD’s practices and culture. Consider commercial solutions at the outset and share responsibility. Our warfighters rely on space everyday and it’s every stakeholders responsibility to look at how we can further collaboration.

-Holding DOD accountable, the strategy was developed through interactions, workshops, info sessions with government and commercial. We need to know what is working and what isn’t.

 

-I know that there are recent contract awards related to deorbit reentry, active debris removal, exploring how and when DOD can leverage and use in space refueling. US is a leader in responsible behavior and those are areas to explore.

 

-That’s more of a question for SDA or MDA. What I can say, being able to protect our joint force is something of critical importance. DOD is prioritizing this and we’ll continue to address this. Proliferation is a way to get after resilience.

 

[End]

 

 

Steve “Bucky” Butow, Director, Space Portfolio, DIU

 

-We need agility in our policy. We can’t just have doctrine. We’re trying to make changes and we’re having success. We’re trying to stay meaningful and focused.

 

-This is our new strategy. Focus, speed, and scale.

-Focus, we’re focusing on emerging technology that can help us with the problems we’re facing today. SDA has set two-year cycles. We’re focused on the combatant commands and the joint force. We need to bring things in and integrate. This is where standards are so important. You then set the foundation for new and emerging markets.

-Speed, we need to move at commercial speed which is outpacing everyone. Rate of change in technology today, it’s through the roof, nonlinear, and not everything is invented here.

-Scale, this is so important. When we say scale we mean production. DOD, we have had a love affair with exquisite things. They can do great things and they’re mind-blowing, James Webb telescope for example. We need production grade things. Production is important because the first tier of innovation is quality.

 

-This is an all-domain solution. The idea is we need to scale certain effects and be able to do that rapidly. There’s a whole new policy apparatus being wrapped around this right now.

-Exquisite things we build them, shut down where we made them and move on. We can’t do that today.

-Most commercial things we’re working on in our new strategy is focused on resiliency which is very important.

 

-Leaders throughout the department get together and look at the emerging needs and we are able to look at the commercial solutions and opportunities.

-There are regular meetings now throughout the department doing this.

 

-I would highly recommend for the report that’s published this year, looking at the theme of commercial integration for asymmetric advantage.

-Most meaningful commercial space things we’re doing today, they’re creating asymmetric advantages and that’s very important.

-We have our first Defense Industrial Strategy this year. Very exciting. Arsenal of democracy. How do we enable a commercial sector to be able to rapidly respond to challenges in GPC? There’s a lot of work being done on this right now.

-Intuitive Machines, for a commercial company to land on the moon, that’s amazing.

 

-We had an eight-fold increase in our budget. There’s a lot of talk about the importance of a hedge fund in the media. In DOD if we want to plan a new program, it’s part of a five-year cycle. It takes three years to even get money and kick it off, the POM cycle. How can we take and leverage hedge funding inside of this three-year cycle? Until we can fix this, how can we take hedge dollars and get after the most immediate, critical needs and how can we do that with commercial?

-What does it mean to be an integrator? Part of the work to be done is reestablishing what it means to be an integrator in a team environment? We want to do this today and be effective and believe we can because we have the contracting authority.

 

-We’ve added another portfolio at DIU recently. It’ll be in the space portfolio and we’re calling it emerging tech. Quantum, hypersonics (testing) and we’ll have our first launch of this within a year. Hypersonics has been a God send for small launch. We’re looking at how we can take technology and apply it to other areas.

-Mission area focuses continue to be AI, autonomy, space, cyber, human systems.

-Part of our authority, we can now contribute to STRATFIs and these types of things. We’ve already pulled the trigger on one and there are two others baking in the oven right now. We haven’t been able to do this before only letters of support or interest.

 

[End]