October 20, 2024 | International, Land
July 22, 2020 | International, Aerospace
US, UK launch military-space competition for startups
By: Andrew Chuter
LONDON – The U.K. and U.S. governments have turned to startups and inventors in a competition to adapt commercial technology solutions to answer pressing challenges in the military space sector.
The two countries have jointly put up £1 million, or $1.3 million, to tap into potential new ideas in six technology areas from small companies, innovators and others around the world.
The finalists will face a beauty parade in front of senior British, American and NATO military officials at a space conference scheduled to take place in London in November.
Up to 15 proposals will be selected to go forward with further work on what is being called International Space Pitch Day.
Launching the scheme, the U.K.'s first-ever, recently appointed director for space matters, Air Vice-Marshal Harv Smyth, said the initiative is “all about fast-tracking innovation and cutting-edge technology to the front line quicker than ever before, and fresh ways of working with industry to make sure we stay ahead of our shared adversaries and the threats they pose.”
Smyth will be one of the judges at the conference, which will be held virtually if the live event is cancelled.
The format will be the first international collaboration of its kind between two allies, the Ministry of Defence said.
Organizations who make it through to the space conference final will be in contention to secure a $66,000 contract from the judges to speed up development of what is expected to be mainly commercial innovations and technology.
The effort, run by Britain's Defence and Security Accelerator organization, is funded by the U.K. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, the Royal Air Force and the US Air Force.
The aim is to find, fund and fast track innovations by tech startups and other experts in order to accelerate the development of commercial space technology s to solve problems in the defense space sector.
This year's competition is seeking solutions to six challenges set by the U.K. and U.S. space teams:
- Visualization of key events and information for combined space operations with allies and commercial partners.
- Understanding current satellite systems relevant to the operations of a particular commander.
- Understanding the present and potential impact of space weather on users across all domains.
- Provision of training against realistic threats and opportunities, incorporating live data, and integrating space across multiple domains.
- Enabling common and user-defined operational pictures to support multinational space domain awareness and command and control.
- A verification and comparison tool for space domain awareness, which can take orbital observation data from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats and produce a single, reliable operational picture.
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December 27, 2018 | International, C4ISR
Why the Pentagon’s cyber innovation could fall behind
By: Justin Lynch Silicon Valley is the home to the transistor and the birthplace of the IT industry. Boston is the home of prominent universities and technology companies such as Raytheon and Boston Scientific. So where will the country's hub of cybersecurity innovation reside? A new paper argues that a nucleus of new cybersecurity technologies may struggle to form in the United States. Because the Department of Defense's research facilities are dispersed throughout the country and located in smaller metropolitan regions, the Army is in danger of stagnating when it comes to technology innovation, a Dec. 18 paper in the Army's Cyber Defense Review argued. “Without immediate, bold action, the Army will miss its best opportunity to seize the initiative in the current Cyber Cold War,” wrote Col. Stoney Trent, an Army official who now works for the Pentagon's top IT officer in the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. “The Secretary of Defense fully understands the need for dramatic improvement, and fifteen years of Army acquisition failures have created the crisis necessary for change.” Trent took aim at the Army's decision to move its cyber headquarters to Fort Gordon, Georgia, saying it “lacks most of the characteristics that have attracted technologists to other innovation regions.” “Limited public infrastructure and services, sparse employment options, a humid subtropical climate, a lack of a private research university, and distance from urban centers will likely delay the emergence of innovative technologists in Augusta-Richmond County,” he wrote. The state of Georgia, which is partnering with the Army on innovation near Fort Gordon, opened the first phase of a planned a $100 million dollar center earlier this year. But while Trent argued that the Army has “limited input over the location of its installations and major activities,” because basing decisions are made by Congress, the dispersed locations are not ideal for improving the Pentagon's cyber prowess. “Due to the location of Army research activities, very few scientists and engineers have access to the operators and analysts who will have to use the technologies under development,” he wrote. On the contrary, large cities are engines of innovation because they have more local resources, a higher degree of subject area experts and a larger local workforce, Trent argued. “This exponential increase in innovation is related to social networks and access to ideas, resources, and expertise in more populated urban settings.” That makes locations like Moffett Air Field in Santa Clara County near Silicon Valley, Fort Devens near Boston, and Fort Hamilton in New York City as potential hubs that “have been left fallow,” Trent argued. “Decades of studies indicate the importance of a culture of experimentation. While our adversaries are experimenting, we must not dither.” https://www.fifthdomain.com/dod/2018/12/26/why-the-pentagons-cyber-innovation-could-fall-behind