February 5, 2021 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

The Space Force considers a new mission: tactical satellite imagery

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is still in its early days, but leaders are already considering adding a new mission for Guardians: providing tactical satellite imagery for beyond-line-of-sight targeting.

“That's something that we're thinking through as we speak. I've got a group of folks doing some work on what that design might look like,” Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, the chief of space operations, said Feb. 3 during a Defense Writers Group call.

The Space Force, like Air Force Space Command before it, provides the GPS signal, missile warning information, and wideband communications with its on orbit satellites. Tactical satellite imagery, however, has not been part of its workload.

“That's largely been more on the intelligence community side,” Raymond said.

Specifically, satellite imagery is generally the responsibility of two intelligence agencies: the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. While the NRO builds and operates the nation's spy satellites and contracts with commercial providers to access their imagery, NGA sets imagery requirements and transforms that raw satellite data into intelligence products. The military typically relies on NGA for geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) products.

“I do think as technology has allowed for smaller satellites to be more operationally relevant and you can do so at a price point that is cheaper, that there is a role for operational level tactical satellites as you described and that the Space Force would have a role in that,” Raymond said

“Again, it's early in the study efforts, if you will, and whatever we do we'll make sure that we do it in close partnership with our intelligence partners, because what we don't want to do is duplicate efforts,” he continued. “We want to save dollars and reduce taxpayer dollars, not duplicate.”

The proliferation of small and relatively affordable small imaging satellites and the growing commercial satellite imagery market has sparked interest at the Pentagon in using satellites for beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) targeting. The U.S. Army has been at the forefront of that effort, launching its own small imaging satellite — Kestrel Eye — in 2017. More recently at the Project Convergence 2020 exercise, the Army used commercial satellite imagery to develop targeting data and shoot at BLOS threats.

The Air Force and the Navy are also investing in tactical GEOINT products. The Air Force Research Laboratory is investing in commercial tactical GEOINT software to help them find moving targets with satellite imagery, while the Navy is paying for commercial synthetic aperture radar imagery and analytics.

Elsewhere in the Department of Defense, the Space Development Agency has set BLOS targeting as one of the main capabilities it is pursuing for its new proliferated constellation in low Earth orbit, which will eventually be made up of hundreds of satellites.

“That's where the Army is most affected and that's where we're working very closely with the Army to make sure that we're tied together. So this is the ability to detect and track and maintain custody of anything, say, larger than a truck and to be able to actually give a targeting fire control solution to a weapon in the field in real time anywhere on the globe,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in 2019. “That's the goal. That's the capability.”

The SDA is slated to become part of the Space Force in late 2022.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2021/02/03/the-space-force-is-considering-adopting-a-tactical-geoint-mission/

On the same subject

June 25, 2019 | International, Aerospace

Could these 5 projects transform defense?
By: Kelsey Reichmann The Defense Innovation Unit — the Department of Defense's emerging technology accelerator — is working on several projects aimed at improving national security by contracting with commercial providers: According to the DIU annual report for 2018, using AI to predict maintenance on aircraft and vehicles could save DoD $3 billion to $5 billion annually. DIU determined maintenance on aircraft and vehicles was often done too early, removing parts that still had a working life ahead of schedule, so, using AI, DIU analysts found they could predict 28 percent of unscheduled maintenance on the E-3 Sentry across six subsystems and 32 percent of on the C-5 Galaxy across 10 subsystems. DIU found deficiencies in the commercial drone industry, resulting in a lack of smaller options for war fighters. Through partnership with the Army's Program Executive Office Aviation, it was able to build an inexpensive, rucksack-portable VTOL drone fit for short-range reconnaissance, according to the report. DIU launched a project, VOLTRON, to discover vulnerabilities in DoD software. This follows a 2018 Government Accountability Office report that found $1.66 trillion work of weapons systems at risk for cyberattack. Using this automated detection and remediation system, DIU will be able to provide DoD software with more secure networks. DIU is also working to secure networks on the battlefield through its Fully Networked Command, Communications & Control Nodes, or FNC3N, project. This project wants to create wearable technology that will provide data to users in a secure interconnected tactical network, according to the report. Using commercial satellite images, DIU is filling gaps in space-based reconnaissance. The peactime indications and warning project has completed the launch of the first commercial, small synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. The use of commercial data will allow the department to easily share the data it receives with allies and partners because it is unclassified. In August 2018 DIU was solidified within the Defense Department when “experimental” was removed from the office's original name, according to the report. It also received a large funding increase, from $84 million in 2017 to $354 million in 2018. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/2019/06/21/could-these-5-projects-transform-defense/
January 14, 2019 | International, Land

Why the British army tested robots in muddy fields
By: Grant Turnbull Senior British army officers have signaled their intent to accelerate the fielding of several unmanned — and increasingly autonomous systems — following successful army trials at the end of 2018, but much like other forces around the world the United Kingdom faces challenges from how to modify archaic acquisition processes, to overcoming technical issues. In December, the British army concluded its landmark experimentation exercise known as Autonomous Warrior, in which the service evaluated more than 50 unmanned systems from industry over a month-long period in the south of England. The exercise, which put the robotic systems through grueling trials in muddy fields and a purpose-built facility for urban fighting, was the first attempt by the British army, as well as industry, to determine how the technology will work in a combat environment. Much like other forces around the world, the service hopes to use robots to carry out the dangerous, and often tedious, elements of combat. Over 200 troops — made up of infantry, marines, engineers, airmen as well as U.S. Army personnel — were equipped with a variety of robotic and autonomous systems with the aim of improving areas such as combat mass, soldier lethality and overall information gathering. For example, in one scenario, soldiers used robotic engineering vehicles to clear an obstacle, while a small quadcopter flew overhead to provide infrared imagery before armored infantry rolled in to take an enemy position. Robotic systems with varying levels of autonomy were a key part of the exercise, ranging from radar-equipped drones for detecting buried IEDs, to small two-wheeled robots that are thrown into buildings to search for enemy fighters. The head of the British army, Gen. Mark Carleton-Smith, has directed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to speed up the fielding of technology used during the exercise. “His direction to me is very clear,” said Maj. Gen. Chris Tickell, director of capability for the British army. “He wants to see some of this kit in the hands of the field army in 12 to 18 months. “Success or failure will absolutely hinge on what happens after the experiment,” he added. “And that is about the exploitation and proving to industry that we are as good as our word and we are going to take some of these ideas and put them into the hands of the user.” For Tickell, an equipment budget of £22 billion ($28 billion) over the next decade will allow the MoD to purchase new unmanned technologies, but the “trick is to turn the ideas that you see here into tangible capability.” This may require the MoD “to adjust and even devise new acquisition processes to enable rapid acquisition”, said Trevor Taylor, an expert in defense acquisition at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank. “How will requirements, business cases, competitive tendering or ‘partnering,' testing and safety cases be addressed?” A related challenge continues to be the British army's lack of experience using unmanned and autonomous systems, with commanders using the Autonomous Warrior exercise to better understand capability enhancements as well as the inevitable shortfalls. The officer responsible for coordinating the exercise, Lt Col Nick Serle, told C4ISRNET that while the British army has worked with industry on new technologies it had not previously focused on robots and autonomous systems. “That's why this year we decided to spend a month on Salisbury Plain just focusing on robotics and autonomous systems,” Serle said. He also commands the British army's experimentation unit, known as the Infantry Trials and Development Unit. “This is a real opportunity to bring stuff into the field and really see if it does what industry thinks it's going to do, but also to see if military users will use it the way [industry] thinks they will use it,” Serle said. “There's no one single piece of kit that will solve all our problems, it's a combination of something in the air such as a surveillance asset, something on the ground, perhaps with a weapon on it or just doing logistics, but then it all links through an information system where you can pass that data and make better decisions to generate tempo.” An issue highlighted by Serle was an increasingly crowded radiofrequency spectrum, especially as several unmanned systems jostle for space to beam back high-resolution data from onboard sensors. “The problem is when they start cutting each other out, we are dealing with physics here, if we want to have great high definition video passing across the battlefield we need to trade somewhere else.” Taylor noted that not only will there be a need to ensure that the control systems do not interfere with each other, but also that army leaders “will have to be convinced that new systems are not simply too vulnerable to jamming and other disruptive techniques by an adversary.” A promising development from the exercise is the ability to optionally man a standard vehicle using applique kits that can be fitted within a few hours. Several examples were on display when we visited the exercise in December, including a remote-controlled Warrior infantry fighting vehicle and a lightweight MRZR tactical vehicle. As part of the experimentation, troops used the vehicles in unintended ways. One U.S. Army soldier noting that the MRZR had been a helpful surveillance tool because of its onboard camera. Squads were also keen to use the UGVs to help in entering buildings and also as modern-day pack horses to carry supplies or people. “What we have found is that when troops are using these [UGVs], naturally they just want to jump on the vehicle because it goes faster than they can, and you can move groups very quickly on them,” Serle said. He added that for safety reasons the soldiers were not allowed to hop on board during the exercise. “Optionally manned is good, but whether it needs to be optionally manned with a steering wheel and a seat I don't know, I think you could do it more like a Segway. But there's no doubt people want to get on them.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/unmanned/robotics/2019/01/11/why-the-british-army-tested-robots-in-muddy-fields/
June 3, 2019 | International, C4ISR

Cyberthreat intelligence firms sells for $780M
By: Kelsey Reichmann Insight Partners, a leading global capital and private equity firm, has acquired Recorded Futures, an intelligence solution company that has made its name in the cybersecurity world in recent years by providing threat intelligence. The cash deal is for $780 million. Recorded Future focuses on information related to public, private, and open source data associated with cyber intrusions. Insight had made a previous investment in the company. Recorded Future claims to be the largest privately held threat intelligence software in the world. The company has ties to the defense and intelligence communities. Recorded Future was awarded a Defense Innovation Unit contract in September 2017. In-Q-Tel, the intelligence community's investment arm, had made an initial investment in the company in 2010. “We have relied heavily on a unique blend of focused data science concepts, advanced machine-enabled collection, and intelligence subject matter expertise, always with an eye toward the usability of the intelligence that we present to our clients — be it government agencies, large corporations, or forward-leaning companies,” said Christopher Ahlberg, co-founder and CEO of Recorded Future, in a May 30 press release. “This deal represents one of the largest security software transactions of the year, and the largest ever in the threat intelligence space. Insight's renewed commitment to our future validates the path that we are on and lays the foundation to drive our collective requirements forward." https://www.fifthdomain.com/industry/2019/05/31/cyberthreat-intelligence-firms-sells-for-780m

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