This EO couldn’t have arrived at a timelier moment in the U.S., as near-peer competitors are currently making major investments in AI space capabilities that pose a growing threat to the nation’s dominance and advantage in the space domain. The U.S. government and military are highly aware of adversaries’ investments in space-based AI military capabilities and are turning to the U.S. Space Force to answer the call to defend American assets in space by building its own AI capability set.

The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies recently hosted Dr. Lisa Costa, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) of the U.S. Space Force, at a Schriever Spacepower Forum to examine the AI advancements adversarial nations have made in the space domain and to outline how the Space Force will maintain a technological advantage over U.S. near-peer competitors.

As CTIO of the Space Force, Dr. Costa oversees the development of strategy and policy to advance science, technology, and research of cutting-edge technologies that will digitally transform the Space Force. She is also responsible for leading teams working on the advancement of AI in the space domain, as well as determining the AI capabilities adversarial nations like China are currently fielding and deploying in the domain.

China and AI
Dr. Costa opened the forum by discussing China’s approach to leveraging AI and machine learning (ML) in space. She explained that in 2023, China is projected to spend $14.7 billion on AI and that by 2026 that figure will increase to $26 billion.

“That’s an extremely large investment,” said Dr. Costa. “Not only are they applying that to AI research, they’re applying it to the operationalization of AI.” She explained that according to a recent Pentagon report to Congress, China is focused on AI domination in order to probe enemy vulnerabilities and advance the concept of intelligentized warfare. From applications to robotics, China is seeking to develop an autonomous, orbital platform in space that can make determinations on who is and isn’t an adversary through AI technologies. Through these investments in AI, China is effectively constructing an enhanced counter-space capability set.

“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) argue that the increasing frequency, complexity, and risks of space missions raise the need for incorporating AI and autonomy to support and protect China’s space assets,” she explained. And according to Dr. Costa, China is already testing and fielding these space-based capabilities.

In April of this year, China held an experiment where they allowed an autonomous AI to control and operate a camera on an optical satellite for 24 hours. The test results revealed that the AI focused on two main areas: a region in Japan that houses U.S. aircraft carriers, as well as a contentious zone between India and China that is known to have “skirmishes.” According to Dr. Costa, these demonstrations and tests, make it clear that China has and will continue to pursue new, space-based capabilities that can threaten the U.S.’ advantage in the domain.

So, what is the Space Force’s answer to this growing threat?

Space Force’s response
To keep up with the pace of China’s growing AI capability set, the U.S. Space Force is focusing on the digital transformation and modernization of its existing space assets. “A lot of people think that because we are a new service, we got all new equipment,” said Dr. Costa. “Well, that’s not quite true.” Dr. Costa explained that the U.S. Space Force has several satellite constellations that are currently operating on older networks.

“Working to modernize those capabilities is absolutely critical,” said Dr. Costa. “It’s very difficult to build incredibly advanced AI modeling, simulation, and digital twins on top of old infrastructure.” According to Dr. Costa, her office’s first priority is to fix the “tech debt” of its system and network foundations in order to accommodate the amount of data throughput and processing that is required to have a space-based advantage.

Another priority that Dr. Costa’s office is focusing on is upskilling current Space Force guardians to be “super coders.” Equipping guardians with the knowledge and skills to augment capabilities and systems through coding is a major advantage for the U.S., according to Dr. Costa. “That combination of modernization of the foundation, with the real-time changes to capabilities by super coders, is a huge game changer,” said Dr. Costa.

AI and data
One space-based challenge that both the U.S. and China share – as it pertains to space – is the quantity and quality of data that they must analyze. “It’s a common problem that cuts across all of these areas, not only for China, but for us as well,” said Dr. Costa.

But in Dr. Costa’s opinion, the data issue is one that is going to be fixed soon. “I fundamentally believe this is going to be a very solved problem very quickly,” she said. “Why do I believe that? Machine learning and natural language processing are at a point now that computer-based tagging of large amounts of information, in real-time, is possible.” Dr. Costa explained that computer systems and applications are more consistent and more efficient at marking up data than humans. “I believe this is going to be a real game changer in terms of being able to use AI in the operational space,” said Dr. Costa.

To hear more from Dr. Costa on how the U.S. Space Force is leveraging data and space-based AI capabilities to maintain a competitive edge in the space domain, click the video below.

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And these advancements do not stop at the air domain. According to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, Dr. John Plumb, China is gearing up and developing a wartime space architecture and is tirelessly working towards having the capability to deny U.S. offensive and defensive actions in orbit.

Dr. Plumb recently sat down with Gen. Kevin P. Chilton (Ret.) during a special Mitchell Institute Schreiver Spacepower Forum, where he discussed China’s pacing threat in the space domain, our nation’s expanding awareness of the threats adversaries pose in space, and how commercial satellite solutions are advancing the military’s mission of deploying a resilient space architecture.

China as a pacing threat
Dr. Plumb made it crystal clear from the start that one of the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) primary concerns is keeping pace with the threat China poses in the space domain. And though this adversarial threat is a top concern for the DoD, Dr. Plumb explained it has actually catalyzed a synergy within the Department which is allowing all agencies to push in the same direction as it pertains to protecting U.S. interests in space.

“Where we are now is that the entire government understands the value of space,” said Dr. Plumb. “And the Department and the [Intelligence Community] are really focused together on the threat, which kind of pulls people along.”

Dr. Plumb also pointed out that adversaries like China and Russia have had years to observe how the U.S. military relies heavily on space as a lever arm. And though this type of adversarial reconnaissance and information gathering is not new, Dr. Plumb says that the adversaries’ aggression and pace of technological advancement are new.

“China has really accelerated their space systems…And it’s a wartime architecture…We have to be able to detect and attribute hostile acts in space.” -Dr. John Plumb

“They’ve been working hard on it,” said Dr. Plumb. “We know [China and Russia] have direct-ascent ASAT missiles…and continue to find different ways to try to come after our systems. We have to be ready to defend against that. And I think we’re making some good strides there.”

He explained that to counteract the advances China and Russia are making in the space domain, the DoD must focus on the mission assurance of U.S. space systems. “The warfighter absolutely needs our space systems to be able to fight,” said Dr. Plumb. “So how do we assure those systems? We have two main lines of effort. One is resilience…And the second part is we have to be able to defend our systems against these counter-space threats.”

He then stated that China is currently developing a “wartime architecture.” “And they’re doing it in a much different way,” said Dr. Plumb.

Decades ago when the U.S. began construction on its space architecture, space was primarily viewed as a benign, neutral domain. According to Dr. Plumb, that is no longer the case in today’s environment.

“China has really accelerated their space systems with a massive number of satellites going up every year,” explained Dr. Plumb. “And it’s a wartime architecture…So when we talk about how we’re going to defend U.S. national security interests against both space and counter-space threats… we have to be able to detect and attribute hostile acts in space…You have to know what’s happening in your domain.”

Harnessing industry to produce resiliency
Dr. Plumb told a brief story about how 10 years ago the DoD briefed then-Vice President Biden on how the Department was working towards achieving a resilient architecture. Fast forward a decade later, when the DoD tells now-President Biden that they are working to create a resilient architecture, the President replies that he was told that 10 years ago and that the government “needs to get going.”

One viable solution to advance the mission of deploying a resilient space architecture, according to Dr. Plumb, is the commercial industry. “The explosion of available commercial services for space clearly increases resilience for some mission sets,” explained Dr. Plumb. “SATCOM is a perfect example. There’s a tremendous amount of SATCOM bandwidth available. We can buy that kind of bandwidth…Our resilience plan should include the ability to access different commercially available pieces when needed.”

What Dr. Plumb says is true. The latest next-generation SATCOM technologies emerging out of the commercial satellite industry have proven they can fulfill the DoD’s mission set of achieving resiliency in space. However, if COMSATCOM and MILSATCOM solutions are going to be leveraged in tandem as part of a joint satellite architecture, the military needs a way to see its entire network on a single pane of glass. It also needs the ability to easily and seamlessly move communications and workloads across a multi-band and multi-orbit satellite ecosystem.

“The ICT Portal will be a window that will enable visibility into the network’s capabilities, how it is built, and how it is operating. This will deliver complete resiliency to military networks, and support the DoD’s JADC2 initiative.” -Ram Rao, SES Space & Defense

Solutions like the SES Space & Defense (SESSD) ICT Portal, a recently-released capability that can enable military users to see their entire network – including both space and ground assets – on a single pane of glass, have demonstrated they can support the DoD’s mission of staying ahead of the adversary advances, while also denying their capabilities in the domain. And recent testing with satellite antenna and terminal providers have illustrated the ability to roam seamlessly across a multi-band, multi-orbit satellite architecture.

According to SESSD’s Director of Business Development Engineering, Ram Rao, “The ICT Portal will be a window that will enable visibility into the network’s capabilities, how it is built, and how it is operating,” said Rao. “This will deliver complete resiliency to military networks, and support the DoD’s JADC2 initiative.”

To watch Dr. John Plumb’s interview in full, click the video below:

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During the event, Gen. Dickinson discussed what is required in order for the U.S. to gain and maintain space superiority, the distinction between space situational awareness and space domain awareness, and how the future transition of space traffic management to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) will enhance the Department of Defense’s (DoD) deterrence and defense capabilities in the arena.

What is space power?
Gen. Dickinson kicked off the forum by outlining the definition of space power. He explained, “Military space power exists to preserve freedom of, access to, and freedom of action in space.” According to Gen. Dickinson, these are the priorities of all joint and combined space forces in the U.S. military. And this freedom in the domain is only gained and maintained through space superiority, which is the primary objective of space warfare.

When space superiority is achieved, it means that freedom of action exists in the domain, while simultaneously denying dynamic freedom of action to the adversary. “It is designed to give us a strategic, operational, and tactical advantage” said Gen. Dickinson. “Space superiority requires coordinated offensive and defensive operations…Importantly, offensive and defensive operations are conducted across all three segments of the space architecture: ground, link, and space.”

Gen. Dickinson then touched upon the fact that achieving and maintaining space superiority requires the presence and support from SPACECOM’s joint allies and partners in the domain. “Our coalition approach affords us redundant capability and creates dilemmas for our adversaries,” said Gen. Dickinson. “In this way, space superiority is a critical component of integrated deterrence. Threats to U.S. and allied interests in space are substantial and – I think we can all agree – growing.”

He explained that U.S. adversaries are prepared and ready to contest the space domain. Gen. Dickinson pointed to China and Russia as prime examples of near-peer competitors that are rapidly developing and demonstrating space and counterspace capabilities that can deny the U.S. and its’ allies the advantages derived from space.

“In response to the rapidly changing strategic environment, U.S. Space Command is leveraging today’s space power in new ways to achieve greater effects,” said Gen. Dickinson. “Because of the speed of competition with China and Russia, I cannot wait for new capabilities over the next five years. I’m looking for what is good enough today, that I can use right now.”

Situational awareness vs. domain awareness
Gen. Dickinson then pivoted to the recent memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Defense on space traffic management. This MoA is the first step in transitioning space situational awareness and traffic management missions from the DoD to the DoC. As a result, SPACECOM will be able to focus its resources on enhanced space domain awareness for space superiority.

But what exactly is the difference between space situational awareness and space domain awareness? According to Gen. Dickinson, situational awareness in space is the high-level proliferation tracking of in-orbit satellites and other space assets. Domain awareness in space involves a more granular, strategic scrutiny of assets that are of interest to SPACECOM and the DoD.

“If I had to use an analogy, space situational awareness is a little bit like doing air traffic control,” said Gen. Dickinson. “Compare that to space domain awareness, that’s a couple of steps beyond that, in terms of being able to identify characteristics more closely, more accurately…and understanding the characterization of what’s happening on orbit.”

Gen. Dickinson explained that in 2019 the DoD tracked nearly 25,000 pieces of debris objects in orbit. These included old and defunct satellites, rocket bodies, etc. Today, there are about 48,000. “You can deduce very easily how complicated [space traffic] has become, how congested it has become. So we are open arms, welcoming, working hand-in-hand with Department of Commerce…on space traffic management.”

Commercial partnerships within SPACECOM
As Commander of SPACECOM, Gen. Dickinson is responsible for meeting capacity and capability challenges in order to deter and defeat any adversaries that pose the U.S. and its allies harm. “And we don’t have the luxury to wait for capabilities…I think we all agree our strategic competitors are not waiting for that,” said Gen. Dickinson.

He then explained how critical commercial mission partners are to the DoD’s mission of deterring and defending space assets in the domain, hence why the DoD has two commercial integration cells: one at Vandenberg Space Force Base and one at Schriever Space Force Base.

At Vandenberg SFB, commercial entities have operations consoles that are side-by-side with military operators, exchanging information in near real-time. At Schriever SFB, there is a commercial operations cell that supports the Joint Task Force-Space Defense (JTF-SD), enabling it with real-time synergy and information exchange between owner-operators and tactical users.

“This information exchange ensures that our industry partners and our operators can rapidly and accurately respond to anomalies on-orbit, share valuable lessons, and improve our overall readiness,” said Gen. Dickinson.

To watch the Mitchell Institute’s entire discussion with Gen. Dickinson, click HERE.

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During the modernization and digital transformation sessions at AUSA 2022, attendees learned that the U.S. Army has begun to adopt cutting-edge technologies to be able to maintain both deterrent and warfighting advantages over its adversaries. Autonomous technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), are top of mind for the Army, especially as it pertains to protecting its assets in space.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) interests in space do not end with the U.S. Space Force and Air Force. All military branches have a deep reliance on space, as most of the military connectivity, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities likely pass through the DoD’s space architecture at one point in time.

This is particularly true for the Army. For warfighters in off-grid environments, connectivity provided by satellite communications (SATCOM) can sometimes be their only line of communication to mission leaders and decision-makers at central command. Army leadership relies on SATCOM to make intel-based decisions and then transmit those orders to the warfighter in theatre. Without SATCOM, warfighters can be left in the dark, putting their mission and lives at risk, and senior decision-makers would lack the real-time intelligence they need to make data-driven decisions.

Army automation through AI/ML
U.S. near-peer competitors are fully aware of how critical SATCOM services are to the U.S. Army and look to undermine and degrade them by any means necessary. From jamming to kinetic attacks – which adversaries like China and Russia have proven to be capable of – the Army must protect its satellites and other space assets from these types of threats by developing and employing new technologies that are capable of defending against such attacks.

And it seems that the Army has found that cutting-edge defensive solution in AI/ML. Thankfully, these solutions couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, as U.S. adversaries are now explicitly calling for the attacks of American commercial satellites. In recent news coming out of Russia, senior foreign ministry officials at the Kremlin have stated that U.S. commercial satellites and their “quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.”

As the threat to Army assets in space moves from theoretical to looming reality, the DoD has kicked its vision for a resilient space architecture into high-gear, with military leadership looking to AI/ML for automated threat detection and defense of American space assets.

One area of particular interest to the Army is having the ability to switch frequencies and signals across satellites and orbits. If a satellite were about to be jammed, degraded, or destroyed, the Army can now begin deploying AI/ML software that can detect an attack before it occurs and transfer service over from the soon-to-be compromised satellite to another protected and available asset within the space architecture. 

Through advancements in AI/ML automation, detection and response of potential interference or targeting occurs much faster than it would with manually monitoring. If a space asset has indeed been compromised, AI/ML enables satellite frequencies to automatically roll over to another satellite in the same orbit, or even a different orbit, denying any enemy attempts to interrupt service. This new technology is invaluable as Army decision-makers cannot afford to have congested or degraded communications, especially when critical missions and lives on the ground are at stake.

O3b mPOWER and smart tech
For commercial satellite companies like SES Space and Defense, these AI/ML advancements will complement the natively smart capabilities that have been installed on their newer satellites. The company’s highly anticipated Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) constellation – O3b mPOWER – will be inherently hardened against such adversarial attacks and will have automated detection and response capabilities already baked into the assets.

To take it a step further, SES has also successfully tested O3b mPOWER’s multi-orbit capability set, which is a critical component for AI/ML technology to operate seamlessly. In September of 2021, SES and Hughes successfully utilized the Hughes Resource Management System to seamlessly switch signals across SES satellites in MEO and Geostationary orbit (GEO).

According to Jim Hooper, SES Space and Defense’s Senior Vice President for Space Initiatives, the successfully multi-orbit tests illustrated, “…the power of next-generation satellite services and technologies to provide mission-critical, assured communications to the government and military, at a time when connectivity is increasingly essential.”

Increasingly autonomous COMSATCOM software that leverages AI/ML, combined with the smart technology that has already been built into commercial satellite constellations, like O3b mPOWER, can provide the U.S. Army with a more resilient space architecture. As a result, the Army will be fully prepared to thwart adversarial attacks and continue to deliver seamless and interrupted connectivity, communications, intel, and other mission-critical services to warfighters on the ground.

To learn more about how Hughes and SES successfully switched signals between GEO, MEO, and LEO satellites, click HERE.

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Gen. Whitney, who serves as Military Deputy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, believes that this additional second appointment highlights the importance the federal government is placing on “the space problem,” with acquisition being the clear pathway to the U.S. gaining a strategic edge over near-peer, space race competitors.

During a session on “Accelerating Space Acquisition” at last month’s AFA Air, Space, and Cyber Conference, Frank Calvelli, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration (ASAF/SQ), Dr. Kelly Hammett, Director of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, and Brig. Gen. Stephen J. Purdy, PEO of Assured Access to Space, joined Gen. Whitney to examine the current status of space acquisition within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), outline their space acquisition priorities as it pertains to each of their stations, as well as discuss how commercial industry can assist in propelling the U.S. ahead of its adversaries in the space domain.

Is speed King?
Though Calvelli is still settling into his new position as the first ASAF/SQ, there is no doubt that he already has a solid and clear vision for space acquisition within the Air Force. According to Calvelli, his three main priorities for the department’s space acquisition initiatives are speed, resiliency, and integration.

During the AFA session, Calvelli explained, “Speed in our acquisitions enables us to deliver new capabilities to our warfighters faster. Resiliency in our space architecture makes sure that space can be counted on during times of crisis and conflict. And integrating space with other warfighting domains supports our operational imperatives in the Department to give our warfighters a strategic edge.”

To achieve speed, Calvelli explained that the Department should begin focusing on building smaller spacecrafts, rather than giant assets that can take many years to produce. “Building smaller spacecraft can be done faster. It’s just a matter of physics. Going smaller and more manageable…are key enablers to speed.” He also suggested looking into cutting down on one-time, engineering costs by using existing technology and designs.

“If we build smaller, reduce non-recurring engineering, and execute our plans [on schedule], there’s nothing that can stop us,” said Calvelli.

For Dr. Hammett, his acquisition priorities are focus and alignment. Building off Calvelli’s comments on speed, Dr. Hammett took it a step further by saying, “Speed is not King…Velocity is King, because velocity is speed with direction.” According to Dr. Hammett, having a competent workforce that is focused on the same purpose and mission will also accelerate space acquisition. “If we’re all pulling in the same direction with the same unity of effort and purpose, we can go fast,” said Dr. Hammett.

For Gen. Whitney, his priority is delivering on capabilities, while simultaneously building relationships with other organizations. “You’ve heard a lot of talk…about how we play together with different entities, how the space side plays with the air side, and how we work together in different programs,” said Gen. Whitney. “We’ve got to get those right, and we’ve got to be able to work together.”

Commercial space and the adversary
A common theme that was echoed throughout the AFA conference is the growing threat China poses in the space domain. For Calvelli, the commercial space industry is a resource that the DoD must leverage to counteract our adversaries’ advancements, but delivery schedules need to be drastically reduced from the traditionally drawn out, multi-year contracts.

“We really, truly have a threat from China,” explained Calvelli. “If we really want to go fast, we have got to stop the traditional way of doing satellites with these large, seven-year plus contracts and go to smaller, more proliferated systems, whether they be at MEO, LEO, or even at GEO.”

He added, “So my message to industry is please bid on programs with realistic cost and realistic schedules. And please bid on programs that you can be successful with. And then when you win that contract, execute, and deliver those programs on-cost and on-schedule. That is going to be key to all of our success as a nation and to counter the threat against China.”

For Gen. Purdy, before the commercial space industry can assist the fight against U.S. adversaries, it must first fully understand the DoD’s needs and work towards developing capabilities and solutions that are mission-specific. “What I really need is for industry to understand where our systems are, what our needs are, and how you can plug into those needs in a non-proprietary way so that we can continue to move along [without] having to go buy licenses from here to eternity,” he said.

Gen. Whitney echoed Gen. Purdy by addressing the commercial space industry directly, “Industry, we need you to deliver on your commitments. Nothing will set us up for success more than you delivering on your commitments.”

Looking to 2023
Before addressing what is coming down the space acquisition pipeline in 2023, Calvelli wanted to first acknowledge and express that he is happily surprised by the pivot and the architecture changes that the U.S. Space Force has already started. “They have done an absolute magnificent job of getting to more of a hybrid architecture that includes more proliferated systems, more smaller systems, some larger systems, and a much more resilient architecture,” said Calvelli.

“For me, the focus of next year is executing and actually making sure that we deliver on the great set of work that’s been done in the past couple of years by the Department and by the Space Force…Execution is really a key thing for us this next year,” he said.

To learn more about Frank Calvelli’s space acquisition priorities and the role the commercial space industry will play in delivering upon his priorities, click HERE.

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But when it comes to the United States’ place in near-peer competitions, where exactly does the global superpower fall on the spectrum?

At last month’s Space Innovation Summit 2021, David Hamilton, the Founder and CEO of America’s Future Series, and Nicolas Chaillan, the former – but first-ever – Chief Software Officer (CSO) of the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, held a fireside chat focused on the topic of near-peer competition.

The session and discussion primarily revolved around Chaillan, who recently stepped down from his position last September, and his experiences as CSO. During the session, Chaillan shared his thoughts on the United States’ role as a global competitor and the changes he believes the U.S. government needs to make in order to remain a dominant force on the world stage.

Chaillan had many wins at the Department of Defense (DoD), which included nudging the Department towards modern IT and cybersecurity infrastructures and demonstrating that the DoD could put an advanced cyber stack with zero trust architecture and baked-in security on legacy hardware.

But, as great as Chaillan’s wins were for the Department, he couldn’t shake the startling realizations he was having as CSO. “We proved again and again that all this is possible,” said Chaillan. “It is possible to move at a pace of relevance in the U.S. government. Unfortunately, what we were not seeing is a sense of urgency, particularly when it comes to China.”

According to Chaillan, the term “near-peer adversary” should not be applied in any discussion pertaining to China. “We like to call them the near-peer adversary, but I completely disagree with that,” explained Chaillan. “I would argue that they’re leading actually in cybersecurity, and also in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) adoption.”

Chaillan pointed to strict mandates placed on enterprise and industry technologies by the Chinese government as the primary catalyst of China surpassing the U.S. in these areas. But, in the end, Chaillan ultimately places most of the blame on the U.S. government for China’s lead.

“We see the U.S. government becoming complacent and getting used to China catching up,” said Chaillian. “We should be leading so far with the amount of money we’re spending…We probably get a 10 cent ROI on the dollar.”

Chaillan also directed sharp criticism towards the DoD’s current reliance on waterfall IT approaches, its slow-drip pace on agile adoption, the Department’s “nightmare of an acquisition process,” as well as “siloes and egos,” all of which he believes is crippling the U.S. from becoming a credible competitor on the world stage.

According to Chaillan, all of the U.S. government’s pitfalls equate to a “very poor return on investment ratio, which leads to China catching up.”

To illustrate his vision of how he’d like the U.S. government to position itself in terms of being a global competitor, he used Tesla as an example.

“Tesla is completely fine open-sourcing their patents, because they’re moving so fast that they know by the time their competitors even remotely catch up, they’re going to be five miles ahead.” He explained that the U.S. should “be exactly in that role.”

Chaillan believes that the U.S. is in a bit of denial when it pertains to its attitude of where the country falls on the competitive spectrum. “We need to stop telling ourselves that we’re way ahead and someday they’ll catch us.”

Chaillan also explained that China is targeting to be the world leader in AI by 2030, and that the country is already far ahead of where our current capabilities stand. And even though the 2030 date may make it seem like the U.S. has time to catch up, Chaillan revealed a startling fact about China’s dominance in the AI arena. A fact that he believes should be a wake-up call for the U.S. government.

Due to the nature of AI technology and how it advances and evolves, “You get to a point where you won’t be able to catch up,” explained Chailllan. “So, we estimate December of 2022 to be the deadline by which if the U.S. government does not wake up, we will not have an ability to catch up. And that means a real existential threat for our kids and the nation.”

Despite Chaillan’s bleak outlook, he does believe there are solutions that can help change the U.S. government’s course for the better.

He believes that the concept of agility is key. “The whole concept of agile is the continuous, small, and incremental delivery of value in production in a tangible way used by the actual end-user warfighter,” explained Chaillan.

Chaillan explained that the U.S. government needs to improve on training leaders and warfighters on agile. He also believes that training to needs to happen much earlier during the on-boarding process. Chaillan also believes that mandating DevSecOps approaches to new programs would be a huge step forward for the DoD. He also pointed to further empowerment of current and future workforces, by investing in continuous learning and being on top of breaking IT and cybersecurity trends.

Space and satellite innovation

China taking the lead in AI and ML innovation should be a wake-up call to our country – an example of how complacency can result in us losing our leadership position in other areas. The space domain would be one area where America has always led in innovation and capability, but could soon find their leadership in question.

The U.S. military has always relied on space capabilities to enable warfighters in the field. Our near-peer adversaries have seen the success and strategic edge that space and satellites technologies have given the U.S. in the past, and they want to emulate it. Though the U.S. has remained extremely competitive in space, it is anticipated that that edge could quickly evaporate.

One way that the U.S. can maintain its lead ahead of near-peer competitors is to turn to the innovations and solutions the commercial satellite industry can provide. Today’s commercial satellite industry is the clear innovator in the space domain, and the military should be looking to leverage their solutions whenever possible, instead of building their own.

Building and launching the satellites that the commercial satellite industry is launching today could take the U.S. military half a decade or more, depending on how smoothly the appropriation and acquisition processes run. Instead of the U.S. government building and launching its own purpose-built satellites and having them operational in five year’s time, it could partner with the commercial satellite companies whose technologies and services are immediately available, can be tailored to specific mission needs, and are priced at a fraction of the cost of building an entire satellite.

The concern about the U.S. losing its competitive and innovative edge extends well beyond AI, cybersecurity, and machine learning. In fact, it’s a problem that extends all the way into space. Partnering closely with industry, the true innovators in space, instead of trying to emulate what industry partners are doing today could save years of time and money for the U.S. government, and help the country maintain its competitive edge in space.

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As Vice Chief of Space Operations, General Thompson is responsible for assisting the Chief of Space Operations, and organizing, training, and equipping space forces in the U.S. and overseas – integrating space policy guidance and coordinating space-related activities. He is a career space officer with assignments in operations, acquisition, research and development, and command.

Thompson opened the forum by expressing his excitement over the recent confirmations of U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Under Secretary Gina Ortiz Jones. According to Thompson, both Secretary Kendall and Under Secretary Jones have hit the ground running and are quickly facilitating the next phase of Space Force. “We’re excited they’re here and that civilian leadership is in place,” expressed Thompson.

Thompson then gave an update on where Space Force currently stands. He explained that year one of Space Force was focused on inventing the force, designing it, and getting it in place. Though there will be several more years of fully building out the force, Thompson proudly announced that the design and resourcing phase of establishing Space Force is complete.

Year two’s primary focus has been on the integration of the force. “We’ve taken some pretty aggressive and significant steps thus far,” said Thompson. He explained that “integration” includes integration of the force with the services, the combatant commands, and with partners and allies.

“They’re trailblazing the path for large-scale interservice transfer from those services into the Space Force. They’ve already begun that activity. And even as we speak, we are selecting up to about 350 others from that group, who will follow behind them once they trailblaze the path to that inter-service transfer.” – General David “DT” Thompson

The first step of the force’s integration is interservice transfer. The Space Force began with a large transfer of individuals from the U.S. Air Force, resulting in about 5,800 individuals in uniforms. In addition to bringing in candidates from the Air Force Academy, Space Force is also looking to bring in 50 interservice transfers from the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and the Navy.

“They’re kind of our beta test,” said Thompson. “They’re trailblazing the path for large-scale interservice transfer from those services into the Space Force. They’ve already begun that activity. And even as we speak, we are selecting up to about 350 others from that group, who will follow behind them once they trailblaze the path to that inter-service transfer.”

In addition to manpower transfers, Thompson stated that Space Force is currently finalizing transfers of satellite communications, missions, and functions from the Army and the Navy.

Another recent and important milestone that Thompson highlighted was U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command sending elements to the United States Pacific Command’s (USPACOM) Pacific Sentry exercise. This step was key to understanding how the U.S. Space Force as a service, and U.S. Space Command as a combatant command, integrate, provide capabilities, and contribute to combatant commander operations and objectives. Both Space Force and Space Command sent one-star officers to the exercise to lead teams. According to Thompson, “I think it was incredibly productive, not just for our two organizations, but helping to inform the other combatant commands how we should proceed.”

Thompson also explained that Space Force is already deep into mil-to-mil connections with a host of countries. “They’ve reached out to us to look at how we develop and expand relationships, and how we better do in space, what the nation – and our allies and partners – have known how to do for decades in the air, on land, and at sea,” said Thompson.

Thompson further explained that these countries are not just “our tried-and-true and well-understood partners.” Space Force has had countries from South America and others in the Indo-Pacific who are interested in establishing some sort of a mil-to-mil relationship as it pertains to security in space.

To preface his update on Space Force’s proposed 2022 budget, Thompson explained that the main catalysts that drove the force’s creation were “the threats that we face, the fact that we now have to defend and protect those capabilities we provide, and to look at how we deny those capabilities to others.” He went on to say that Space Force brings “coherence, consistency, and unity to those activities inside of the Department of Defense.”

“In addition to protecting what we have today, we’re going to pivot toward architectures in the future that are designed to be resilient, robust, and deliver capabilities under attack.” – General David “DT” Thompson

Thompson then detailed Space Force’s priorities for the 2022 budget. He explained that the force is still working with Congress on final implementation. “Our priorities for that budget were to ensure that we can continue to provide the capabilities we already have,” said Thompson. “That includes everything from GPS to missile warning to satellite communications to supporting the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and others with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) in space. We’re really focusing on defending and protecting those capabilities so that they can continue to provide what they need under attack.”

He then discussed how Space Force is pivoting toward designs, systems, architectures, and forces that are designed to operate under threat. Thompson explained, “In addition to protecting what we have today, we’re going to pivot toward architectures in the future that are designed to be resilient, robust, and deliver capabilities under attack.”

Thompson said that Space Force must look at a host of ways to deny adverse use of space capabilities. He used the Indo-Pacific region as a prime example. “Left to its own devices, our forces in that part of the world – maritime, air, land, and others – will be under constant surveillance and monitoring by China over its space constellation,” said Thompson. “That poses a great threat to our joint forces and to our potential operations. We have to have a means by which to address them.”

According to Thompson, up until now, Space Force’s test and evaluation enterprise was focused on ensuring that its satellites operated effectively in the space domain. He explained that there now must be a shift to create a test and evaluation enterprise that tests and confirms that these capabilities operate under attack – similar to combat aircraft, combat action groups at sea, etc.

“We now have to build the enterprise that does that,” said Thompson. “We have to have more effective and detailed management of an entire suite of space professionals…we need all those enablers that need to support what is truly a military service, and more importantly, military forces in the domain.”

Featured image: Air Force Staff Sgt. Jamie Franco recites the oath of enlistment during a change of service ceremony at Osan Air Base, South Korea. Jamie and her husband, Frank, both made the jump from the Air Force to the Space Force. (Photo courtesy of Air Force Staff Sgt. Betty Chevalier.)

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In her current role as the scientific advisor to the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Air Force, she stands at the intersection of where government and industry meet, and she is ready to get after identifying and analyzing the technical challenges facing the Air Force today.

On May 18, 2021, Dr. Coleman sat down for a one-on-one interview during the Mitchell Institute’s Aerospace Nation to discuss the Air Force’s science and technology landscape, how the current microelectronic shortage is impacting the Air Force, and the importance of protecting the branch’s digital infrastructure in light of recent cyberattacks.

Dr. Coleman opened the forum by discussing the critical challenges her team is facing, as well as her top priorities going into the future. Throughout her entire computer science and technology career, Dr. Coleman has been trying to inch closer to fusing research into practice. When she started out in academia, she would become frustrated that the work that was being done in the lab would never see the light of day.

Because of this, she thinks a lot about the context and the technology environment within which the Air Force pursues its mission, which has changed in subtle ways over the years. Dr. Coleman commented that most of the innovation that the Air Force depended on used to come from the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). But today, the Air Force’s technology landscape operates differently.

Dr. Coleman explained that today’s Air Force is heavily influenced and shaped by retail and consumer technology. As a result, the branch has trouble satisfying its needs with the science and technology that comes from the private sector. And Dr. Coleman believes that it’s twice as difficult if the technology comes from consumer marketplace.

U.S. competitors on the world stage do not have this problem, Dr. Coleman explained. For instance, China has the Military Civil Fusion (MCF) which Chinese President Xi Jinping personally oversees. MCF’s objective is to make sure that every single innovation that happens in the private sector is harnessed to support China’s drive to become the premier military power in the world.

This baked-in partnership between industry and military doesn’t exist in the same form within the United States. This has created a challenge for Dr. Coleman and her department. However, during her remarks, she made it clear that this is a struggle that she anxious to overcome, looking forward to bridging that gap in absorbing technology into her department’s mission.

When speaking about the Air Force’s Science and Technology (S&T) strategy, she proudly boasts that it’s the most well-structured strategy that she’s seen in a long time. To her, the S&T strategy that the department put forward in 2018 is an exemplar of what a strategy should be, and that it goes beyond just simply listing accepted technologies.

Dr. Coleman believes that the strategy does a fantastic job of putting the technology in context of how it is used in the Air Force. And when there isn’t a technology that is available, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will build out the necessary capabilities. Dr. Coleman explained that the S&T strategy plays a critical role as the Air Force aligns its resources and efforts to make innovation happen and matter.

When asked about the Air Force’s main technological opportunities and hurdles that it needs to overcome, Dr. Coleman said that they are hoping to achieve change in five different domains:

• Global persistence awareness
• Resilient information sharing
• Rapid effective decision-making
• Complexity, unpredictability, and mass
• Speed and reach of disruption and lethality.

She said that she thinks about the “how” behind executing those goals quite often. She believes the answer is that they can achieve it by building out transformational cross-cutting capabilities.

Now that she’s on the inside, Dr. Coleman is encouraged to see how much change has already taken place, and how mindful and deliberate the change has been on behalf of the “how” component. She explained that the Air Force has a massive mission. They have to train, organize, and equip for today and for tomorrow with a massive set of missions. And they must be smart in how they can effectively approach all of the needs that they have.

When asked how the current microelectronic manufacturing crisis is impacting the Air Force, Dr. Coleman responded by saying that microelectronics are the driving force behind the execution of Air Force missions. She explained that the Air Force needs advanced components that are available, performant, trustworthy, and affordable.

“We can’t execute the missions that we need to execute without high-end microelectronics in those systems,” she said. “We really don’t have an option. We can’t operate with antique parts and expect the levels of performance or support the missions that we know we need to fight, without making those components available.”

She said that in order to secure these components for the Air Force, it takes partnerships within the Department of Defense (DoD). The Under Secretary for Research and Engineering (R&E) and his counterparts in Acquisition and Sustainment (A&S) have made microelectronics their number one priority. In the past three or four years, they’ve put together a significant roadmap to produce mission-critical parts in order to secure, grow, and revitalize the domestic fabrication capability.

When asked if the Air Force is ready to begin fielding the technologies to enable human-machine teams, Dr. Coleman responded by saying that—in many ways—the Air Force has been operating human-machine teams for many years. Her personal assessment is that the way to deploy more human-machine teams is through more experimentation.

She said, “When we think about how we form human teams, how do we do that? …We form teams by building trust in each other. And we build trust in each other… by working together. By watching each other in action.”

She believes that human-machine teams will be no different, and that trust will be built in the machines once they see them in execution. And that the team that deploys, experiments, and learns more about each other will be the teams that succeeds. She explained that she has a cast iron belief that in order to produce big, transformational systems, one must “build a little, test a little, and field a little.”

When the conversation turned to the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), she admitted that she is hardly an expert on the subject. She did say that she doesn’t think that within the Air Force, the ABMS meets the standard requirements of what a program is. She believes that it’s a very advanced concept, but that it’s not a program.

She described ABMS as a very ambitious effort, and though she hopes it will succeed, she doesn’t know if it will. Returning to her motto, she said that having grand visions is important, but they must also deliver capability incrementally.

When asked about the importance of protecting the Air Force’s network infrastructure in light of recent cyberattacks, Dr. Coleman said, “I think that a lot of the infrastructure that we use will eventually need to come out from the commercial sector. From the world out there that has built it, has deployed it, has scaled it, has operated it, and has learned what works and what doesn’t work.”

She explained that if the approach is to custom-build it for themselves and avoid the pitfalls the private sector has encountered, then “we are kidding ourselves.”

According to Dr. Coleman, one of the worst aspects of the inability to field new science and technology in the department is that when they deploy it, it can take years to close vulnerability gaps and loopholes. She said that there are no systems that have zero vulnerabilities, and the longer they have it out there without addressing exposures, the more time the adversary has to find all of those vulnerabilities and exploit them.

To hear more from Dr. Coleman watch the Aerospace Nation forum on-demand here!

The post Slow and steady wins the Air Force’s science and technology race appeared first on SES Space and Defense.

Consequently, solutions that can provide that capability in short order have a lot of potential use cases in national security missions.

That is no less true in the Intelligence Community (IC).

When I was at the DoDIIS conference last month, which brought together “information geeks” from all 17 intelligence agencies in one place and one time, one theme that was very clear to me is that the IC is shifting its focus from counterterrorism and counterinsurgency to near-peer competition, and Lt. Gen. Robert Ashley, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has also recently endorsed this shift.

This has major implications for how the IC thinks about its network and—more importantly—how they will need to develop it to compete with near-peer adversaries, like Russia and China, who have the ability to jam, spoof or otherwise disrupt the means by which we get information from sources to intelligence agencies to the warfighter and back again.

To add to that challenge, the intelligence community needs to not only protect its ever-growing amount of data against jamming and spoofing attempts but also operate and transmit data across multiple levels of classification, from Classified all the way up to SCI.

In my mind, a readily available answer to these solutions—not to mention an avenue that will help the IC continue to modernize its data management with innovations like the IC cloud—is utilizing next generation commercial satellite solutions.

To touch on security concerns first, the newest commercial satellites offer governments unique ways to keep the adversary from denying us access to the signal environment. To use SES’s O3b mPOWER constellation as an example, each of our satellites have up to 3,000 beams through which they can actually steer very broad bandwidth in a narrow enough beam that makes it very difficult for an adversary to jam because they’d have to be within the beam to do so.

The resiliency in this one beam, plus the 2,999 others that are supported by just one satellite in this constellation, moreover, not only works to ensure that the network will be there when it’s needed, near-peer competition or not, but the high bandwidth and low latency of O3b mPOWER means that the IC can make its data available wherever it is needed.

This is a crucial challenge to the IC. They have a huge amount of data at multiple levels of classification coming in from all manner of places, from a moving aerial platform to a remote location in the desert of Syria, and they need to move that data, manage it, and store it in such a way that it is accessible anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

Moreover, the solutions that I heard over and over again at DoDIIS as a way to help manage the inflow of data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the use of the IC Cloud platform all require an incredibly high amount of bandwidth so that personnel in the field can get whatever analytics they need from the cloud from wherever in the world they happen to be.

Satellite solutions like O3b mPOWER offer a solution to these IC concerns, and, in keeping this year’s DoDIIS theme, promote “resiliency, redundancy and security” of their growing information systems.

To learn more about O3b mPOWER’s applications to government missions, click here.

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