29-Aug-23
Dr Frank Turner, Technical Director, Space Development Agency
Sensor to Shooter
-Sensor to shooter that means data from point of creation to employment at the fastest possible time and it enables our decision loop
-Enforced data driven, knowledge-based decisions
-We need to get it there in a timeframe that we’ve never achieved before. As fast as you can think.
SDA
-We were created because the threat demands it. They’re doing things faster than we are so we set out to do that.
-We’re buying things faster than has ever happened in the government. That alone is changing the nature of AQ and in the space enterprise.
-Beyond line-of-sight mesh network. Turns out SpaceX was absolutely right.
-I reached out to colleagues on Maui. Folks out there at AFRL, the people on Maui have pickup trucks, generators, and Starlink terminals. SpaceX is helping them talk to their loved ones, helping them order things they need off Amazon. This is all with a terminal on a pickup truck with a generator. The world is changing.
Commercial
-We could not be doing what we’re doing without commercial. Our goal is to buy things off an assembly line, off the shelf.
-I want to be a Walmart buyer. I want to buy vehicles and launch. When it’s done, I want to go buy a new one.
Tranche Series
-Launching in September. Capabilities to come down hopefully.
-We’ll start looking at if we can go up to MEO. Maybe one of these days up to GEO. We’re really having these conversations.
-T1 is infrastructure. We can see every point on the ground but not necessarily communicate with every point.
-Tranche 2 now we’ll have about 225 and at that point it’ll be full warfighting capability. Warfighter will be able to depend on those in 2027. We are working to reduce latency and get the time down.
SDA Investments Into OCT Development
-Coalition of the willing and able
-There are technologies that have to be developed. We started with work at DARPA, NRL.
-We don’t want a single company to own this market. We want a marketplace where people can go buy what they need to buy and have multiple sources.
-We get to do small business contracts. We take that and apply the dollars to the areas we really want to look at and increase the capability.
-Terminals will be point to point. One of these days we’d like to have terminals that can serve multiple users and satellites as opposed to 1-1. We’ll be able to do end-to-end.
-SDA has pots of money we can pull from. We have a lot going on. We have a giant pot for SBIR. What we have is money. We have more money than we know what to do with in some cases. If you have ideas, please come to us and there’s a big chance we can help to get you going. Come see us.
SDA Optical Communications Terminal Standard
-Providers interoperability specifications for optical communication systems employed by SDA and its partners.
-Allies and partners integrated at the beginning of the process.
-Partners are very concerned about what will happen in the next few years and they want to get capabilities up now
-We’ve got a capability and when we connect it to the test bed of AFRL… does that mean it’s working? We’re getting there.
A Viable OCT Marketplace
-Creating a marketplace of viable vendors is vital to long term sustainability
-If you read through RFPs if you can send us a link to a PDF slick sheet, that proves that what you’re talking about it commercial.
-Skyloom, TESAT, Mynaric, they all have them you can go buy them this is what we’re looking for.
-When we send out an RFI we’re asking a question because we don’t know the answer. We’re asking ‘Is this feasible, can you do this?’ We don’t know the answers and we want you to tell us.
Q- T2 selections, they were similar to T1, what was the thinking?
-I’m going to be careful. We announced two weeks ago we selected Lockheed and Northrop. As we moved into T2, warfighters asked for direct to weapon to enable engagements and integrator broadcast service.
-To enable what we’re trying to do, you have to have mission understanding and a good commercially proven solution.
-Neither Lockheed nor Northrop are building the satellites. They’re buying.
-We really want to be able to expand the supplier base. We have a couple of other things on the table that we’re still looking at. It may or may not be finished.
-The key is that it was not a decision that was made lightly.
Q- Has SDA talked with NGA, NRO to help with latency timelines? Commercial remote sensing?
-We have conversations with those orgs weekly trying to figure out how to pull all of this together
-We talk about commercial RS companies all the time
-Our terminals are too big and too heavy for most commercial RS companies. We’re trying to fix that. We’re talking through the services, HawkEye, BlackSky, we’re trying to create the marketplace and environment that allows this to happen.
[End]
Panel
Dr. Linda Thomas, Senior Electronics Engineer, NRL
Badri Younes, deputy associate administrator, space communications and navigation, nasa
Robert Zitz, President, RZ&A
Q- Earth observation satellites, incapable of hosting larger SDA terminals. Future of small but capable SDA optical terminals?
Thomas:
-Government should do what the government does well, seed innovation through S&T dollars. There’s a bunch of this going on, NASA, DARPA, AFRL. We’re seeing a lot of innovation and companies are partnering with larger primes.
-SDA by throwing down optical comms standards and through competition, they got the same capability as DOD. We’re going to see value propositions from vendors, and I think the best we can do in the near term is keep seeding that S&T money.
Q- Rapid adoption of optical technology by industry?
Thomas:
-We’re a small buyer in the big picture. I use my authorities, tailor as much as I can for the adoption of the military. Through the authorities we have, we can leverage new authorities to access vendors and pull capability in.
-It’s what I can do to demonstrate capability for our users and pull as much from the commercial sector as I can. I’m not a big buyer even though people think government is. Commercial drives a lot of it and how can we leverage and keep the enthusiasm up
Q- Thoughts on commercial augmentation?
Zitz:
I really applaud it. From commercial RS perspective, it’s good news because it sends a demand signal for an enduring need. It shows investors that the government is invested in you. I think it’s a good thing and I’m glad to see Space Force is doing that.
Thomas:
Very much so we need to diversify supplier base. Beyond commercial base, it’s about making sure we get to a service that’s available when something terrible happens and we need it.
[End]
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