DOD- The New Battlefield in Space

NHDoD Government Solutions Newsletter

June 2023 - Newsletter

1. Space- The new Battlefield
2. Highlighted Training Courses

Your NHDoD Training / Resource Liaison by Location - Set up a meeting with your liaison to see if you are eligible to offset or add to your budget.

1.   Space- The new Battlefield

Yesterday- Today- Tomorrow

Outer space is the setting for many science fiction novels and movies, but what was once viewed as only fantasy may now be closer to reality than many realize. Space wars are no longer just a plot device, but rather a genuine issue that international law must acknowledge and address in the near future.

The control of space became a national security concern for the United States in 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into orbit. The United States responded by passing the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and propelling the world into the space race. The space race did not end when the United States successfully placed a man on the moon, but has instead accelerated from that point with advances in technology. Military support in space dramatically increased between the Vietnam War and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which caused many to call the Persian Gulf War the first “space war.”

The number of satellites in space has grown significantly since the 1991 Gulf War. Today, there are over 7,500 active satellites in space and over 5,465 in LEO. The United States owns the most with over half of the active satellites, China with about 541 each. Not all of these satellites are exclusively “military satellites,” but the growing trend is to have dual-purpose satellites by utilizing “civilian satellites” for military purposes or vice versa. For example, “a satellite that in peacetime uses the global positioning system (GPS) constellation of spacecraft for navigation purposes, may in wartime utilize that same capability to target bombs or remotely piloted vehicles.” This civilian/military overlap adds to the difficulty in developing a functioning legal framework for the militarization of space.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), by name Star Wars, proposed U.S. strategic defensive system against potential nuclear attacks—as originally conceived, from the Soviet Union. The SDI was first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in a nationwide television address on March 23, 1983. Because parts of the defensive system that Reagan advocated would be based in space, the proposed system was dubbed “Star Wars,” after the space weaponry of a popular motion picture of the same name.

The SDI was intended to defend the United States from attack from Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by intercepting the missiles at various phases of their flight. For the interception, the SDI would require extremely advanced technological systems, yet to be researched and developed. Among the potential components of the defense system were both space- and earth-based laser battle stations, which, by a combination of methods, would direct their killing beams toward moving Soviet targets. Air-based missile platforms and ground-based missiles using other nonnuclear killing mechanisms would constitute the rear echelon of defense and would be concentrated around such major targets as U.S. ICBM silos. The sensors to detect attacks would be based on the ground, in the air, and in space and would use radar, optical, and infrared threat-detection systems.

Though initial funding for the SDI had been approved by the U.S. Congress by the mid-1980s, the program aroused a heated debate among both arms experts and public officials over its military and political implications and its technical feasibility. Proponents of the SDI asserted that the overwhelming technological obstacles to its implementation could eventually be overcome and that an effective defensive system would deter potential Soviet attacks. Critics of the program argued variously that the scheme was unworkable, that it encouraged a further arms race, and that it undermined established arms-control agreements and weakened the prospects for further arms-control agreements. Testing continued on a number of SDI-related devices, but the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 changed the conditions of such defense.

Clementine, robotic U.S. spacecraft that orbited and observed all regions of the Moon over a two-month period in 1994 for purposes of scientific research and in-space testing of equipment developed primarily for national defense. It carried out geologic mapping in greater detail than any previous lunar mission; some of its data hinted at the possibility that water exists as ice in craters at the Moon’s south pole.

Moon's south polar region

Clementine, launched on January 25, 1994, was a joint project of the Department of Defense’s Strategic Defense Initiative and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The ingenious mission design used the Moon as a “target” for testing various sensors and spacecraft components intended for ballistic-missile-defense applications and, in the process, returned a vast amount of scientific data. Its suite of remote-sensing instruments allowed imaging at various visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths (multispectral imaging); detailed topographic mapping by laser altimetry; and charged-particle measurements. Clementine’s multispectral imagery was used to create global and regional maps of iron and titanium concentrations in lunar soil, and radar studies employing its radio transmitting equipment suggested that water might be present in the form of ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar south pole. Measurements of perturbations in the motion of the spacecraft were used to map the lunar gravity field and its anomalies (mascon). Clementine was originally intended to observe a near-Earth asteroid after leaving lunar orbit, but a spacecraft malfunction canceled that portion of the mission.

Weaponization of Space- the new battlefield reality

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is ramping up planning for the second phase of its medium-Earth orbit missile tracking program, part of a broader effort to make the service’s space-based missile defense capabilities more resilient against enemy threats.

Space Systems Command, the Space Force’s primary acquisition arm, released a notice seeking feedback from companies on its strategy to build a fleet of missile tracking satellites in medium Earth orbit, or MEO, which will reside at an altitude between 1,200 and 22,000 miles (1,931 and 35,406 kilometers) above sea level.

The service hasn’t released the details of its strategy for the second phase of its MEO-based missile tracking architecture, dubbed “Epoch 2,” but said in a statement that it will build on the program’s first epoch, which will feature at least nine satellites built by Millennium Space Systems and Raytheon.

The program is one component of the Space Force’s plan to strengthen its missile warning and tracking capabilities against increasing threats from China and Russia by launching satellites to MEO and low-Earth orbit, or up to 1,200 miles above the planet. Today, those spacecraft mostly reside in geosynchronous orbit, or GEO, about 22,000 miles away. Satellites located at MEO, between LEO and GEO, can observe large areas without requiring the same level of complexity from sensors positioned further away from the planet.

The Space Force is seeking $538 million for the MEO tracking satellites in fiscal 2024, largely to support Epoch 1. The service projects it will need $3.5 billion for the program between FY24 and FY28.

Millennium, a Boeing subsidiary, and Raytheon have contracts to build Epoch 1 prototypes that will fly as soon as 2026. They include options for the service to purchase as many as three satellites each, though budget documents indicate it will purchase six from Millennium using a $130 million funding add Congress provided in FY23.

By 2028, the Space Force expects to have four MEO satellites on orbit with a goal of launching technology upgrades on a two-year cycle — similar to the Space Development Agency’s approach of regularly fielding new satellites to increase the performance of its fleet.

The U.S. Space Force awarded L3Harris Technologies a $29 million contract to design a sensor for the service’s planned Resilient Missile Warning and Tracking satellite constellation.

The program is one component of the Space Force’s plan to strengthen its missile-warning and -tracking capabilities against growing threats from China and Russia by launching satellites to medium and low Earth orbit, or up to 1,200 miles above the planet.

Today, missile warning spacecraft mostly reside in geosynchronous orbit, about 22,000 miles away. Satellites located at medium Earth orbit — between the low and geosynchronous Earth orbits — can observe large areas without requiring the same level of complexity from sensors positioned farther from the planet.

The first spacecraft are slated to launch in 2026, and the Space Force expects to have four medium-Earth orbit satellites on orbit by 2028 with a goal of fielding technology upgrades on a three-year cycle.

The service requested $538 million for medium-Earth orbit tracking satellites in fiscal 2024 to support Epoch 1. According to budget documents, the Space Force expects it will need $3.5 billion for the effort from FY24 through FY28.

The budget documents indicate the service plans to buy six satellites from Millennium, a Boeing subsidiary, and three from Raytheon for the program’s first phase. According to the June 5 news release, the service may buy up to three L3Harris satellites in Epoch 1.

Tomorrow Starts Now

When it comes to preparing for space warfare, senior defense leaders and intellectuals seem to be focused on artificial intelligence. Current paradigms of future war tend to either reflect incremental innovation (Missile systems that go farther) or the sort of science fiction that is always thirty to forty years away (Terminator – Skynet). The middle ground is a space defense enterprise that sees the changing nature of warfare rooted in information technology hardware and software, and prepare for this future of the battlefield.

Space Force commanders will use AI in space to optimize their decision-making capabilities during battle by providing and keeping to the speed of modern warfare, thanks to continuously updated sensor data. AI technologies will also help decision-makers and analysts combat the effects of information overload, and to better organize and process growing data pools on enemy behavior. AI will not only alleviate this information clutter, but it will allow for forces to make predictions about future events and outcomes, allowing states to better prepare for war.

Emerging weapons, such as hypersonic missiles, can avoid detection from defense systems due to their speed. Air defense systems integrated with AI processing capabilities will be able to properly detect and intercept these incoming missiles. In the area of information warfare, AI can, of course, help fabricate deep fakes and spread misinformation. Ironically, it can also help governments quickly verify information or recognize efforts by a hostile actor at shaping public perception in a harmful or disruptive manner.

The future of the battlefield in space is inevitable and governance is paramount.

2.   Highlighted Training Courses: Data Analytics to Artificial Intelligence

Cyber Security

• Penetration Testing Engineer
• Powershell Hacker
• Secure Web Application Engineer
• Cloud Security Officer
• Cyber Wireless Exploitation
• Adversarial threat modeling and emulation
• Cyber range (Red vs Blue)

Artificial Intelligence

• Threat Intellgence Analyst
• AI-900T00 - Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals
• AI-102T00 Designing and Implementing a Microsoft Azure AI Solution
• Cisco Introduction to Artificial Intelligence(CIAI)
• Machine Learning Essentials with Python
• Hands-On Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, AI Programming & Machine Learning
• DP-090T00: Implementing a Machine Learning Solution with Microsoft Azure Databricks
• AZ-040T00: Automating Administration with PowerShell
• PowerShell for System Center Configuration Manager Administrators

Data Analytics

• Building Batch Data Analytics Solutions on AWS
• Introduction to R Programming for Data Science & Analytics
• DP-500T00 Designing and Implementing Enterprise-Scale Analytics Solutions Using Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Power BI
• DEVSECOPS
• Introduction to AI in Test Automation

You can find all of our classes on our website: Read More Here