Arif Sheikh’s Post

ICYMI: DoD’s Commercial Space Integration Strategy has been published, just in time for next week’s Space Symposium. Link below! I can’t make it to the Symposium this year so someone let me know how it goes. ;)

🇺🇸 🛰️ The United States Department of Defense (DoD) has unveiled its Commercial Space Integration Strategy, outlining a future where commercial and governmental space solutions align more closely and 🇪🇺 Europe should take note. The strategy is a clear commitment by the US to advancing the path already taken, with an intention to increasingly rely on commercial services. Europe, let's embrace a similar approach. Integrating commercial space services into our strategic capabilities will bolster our position in the global space domain and foster innovation. Key takeaways include: - A balance between commercial and government solutions across various mission areas. - Enhanced use of open standards to foster interoperability. - Reduced classification to facilitate broader collaboration. - Emphasis on resilience, diversified supply chains, and responsible conduct. The DoD sees potential commercial contributions in: - Cyberspace operations - Satellite communication (SATCOM) - Spacecraft operations - Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) - Space domain awareness (SDA) - Environmental monitoring (EM) And continued utilization of commercial services for space access, mobility, and logistics. 📖 Full document: https://lnkd.in/eGYEXTpn #SpaceTech #DeepTech #Venture #DualUse

If you are in the space business, you need to read the latest from Federal Budget IQ's Becky Leggieri. Two new strategies have been released by DOD and understanding them and space budgets will be critical for industry. #federalbudget #federalcontracting #fy24 #fy25 #fydp #congress #senate #houseofrepresentatives #sasc #hasc #spaceforce #space

Want to know how the United States Department of Defense and the United States Space Force plan to integrate commercial solutions to their space architectures? Check out Becky Leggieri's article in April's Federal Budget IQ report. #space #technology #publicsectorforecast

Exciting news in the realm of space innovation and national security! The landscape of space exploration and technology is rapidly evolving, with private firms playing an increasingly significant role alongside the U.S. government. The DoD's commitment to collaboration with commercial entities is evident in its new space integration strategy, aimed at incorporating innovative solutions into national security space architectures. This not only enhances our defense capabilities but also opens up exciting opportunities for commercial companies to partner with the DoD, paving the way for more R&D funding through SPACEWERX and fostering a collaborative environment for cutting-edge advancements. #DOD #spaceinnovation #galliumsolutions

I used to emphasized this issue and he well organized in the article.

There is no such thing as an air-gapped network. We as the space-cyber community need to change this perception in the minds of mission and systems owners. As stated in the article, “the historical pattern of keeping assets essentially air-gapped inaccurately reduces the perception of exposure to growing risk of cyberattacks in the broader technology ecosystem”. Unfortunately, the false sense of security, provided by an air-gapped system, guides current and future engineering, funding, and operations considerations. This leads organizations to question why they should rush to engineer solutions to problems residing on systems no one can reach. If history is a good teacher, then the Stuxnet incident proves that even if you isolate your system in a remote mountain range, a determined adversary will find a way.

The Pentagon has unveiled its "Commercial Space Integration Strategy," a pioneering move that underscores the vital role of commercial space solutions in enhancing national security. This strategy represents a significant shift from traditional practices, aiming to fully integrate commercial innovations into the U.S. national security space architecture. Key Takeaways: Strategic Shift: Moving from DoD-specific capabilities to embracing commercial space solutions as integral, not just supplementary, components of national security. Broadened Horizons: The initiative seeks to leverage technologies and capabilities across the commercial market, which were not originally designed for government use but have immense potential to bolster space resilience and capability. Balancing Act: Acknowledging the trade-offs between speed and security, the strategy emphasizes the importance of finding the right balance to maximize the benefits of commercial space innovations. Top Priorities: Ensuring access to commercial solutions, achieving integration before crises, promoting secure integration conditions, and supporting the development of new space solutions. This strategy outlines a future where commercial space solutions are key players in our national defense strategy, showcasing unprecedented opportunities for innovation and collaboration in the space sector. #SpaceInnovation #DefenseStrategy #CommercialSpace #NationalSecurity

Federal Budget IQ's Becky Leggieri reviewed the long-anticipated DOD strategies to address integration of the commercial space industry into the national security space architecture. On April 2, the Defense Department’s first Commercial Space Integration Strategy was released. On April 10, The United States Space Force’s (USSF) Commercial Space Strategy was released by General Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, USSF at the 39th Space Symposium in Colorado. Bekcy says the national space community wants to invigorate the process for integration of commercial solutions to their space architectures. Traditionally, the National Security Space enterprise relied on defense-specific space capabilities built to exact specifications, using commercial solutions on a limited basis. No longer. As Secretary Austin writes in the forward of the Defense strategy, “Integrating commercial solutions, as opposed to merely augmenting existing government systems, will require a shift in the Department.” That's good news for industry and national security. Better integration from the start between commercial and government-designed systems will reduce the need for complex work-arounds and patches. Becky made special note of the second of four Lines of Effort LOE#2—Operational and Tactical Integration, which addresses the development of policies, practices and procedures to “…allow the commercial sector to integrate data and hardware with the USSF…”. Eight mission areas are identified with a high-level description of requirements. These mission areas are Satellite Communications (SATCOM), Space Domain Awareness (SDA), Space Access, Mobility, and Logistics (SAML), Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT), Space Based Environmental Monitoring (SBEM), Cyberspace Operations, Command and Control (C2), and Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). LOE #2 provides a clear road map for industry to follow. If a company's expertise line up with one or more of those mission areas its got an edge. If not, that leads to a series of business decisions: compete or not? hire former government experts or hire from competitors? provide training for in-house talent? reorganize to align better with government priorities? acquire small businesses that have the needed expertise? It also puts analysis of the Space Force and other DOD budgets plus competitive intelligence at the forefront. Where is the money now and how does that change over the FYDP? When are research and development efforts expected to shift to procurement and competition? Who are the incumbents? Are any programs suffering cost-schedule-performance issues. Read this analysis and you're in better shape to answer some of these question. https://lnkd.in/eQCn9P3T #budget #fydp #fy24 #fy25 #appropriations #federalbudget #federalcontracting #satellite #commercialspace #spaceforce #defense

The future of DoD C4 both ashore/garrison and expeditionary/tactical is wireless. But it's not going to be a future that just happens; we have to make it so. One wonders just how many small and short-term/temporary pilots we have to do for that rather obvious "epiphany" to kick in. It's more than past time to get after wireless at massive sustained scales. The thing is, you'll need a PEO and dedicated and fully chartered program office, with a precisely defined funding portfolio, to get on with this. Otherwise, it's sort of a "let a thousand flowers bloom" chaotic mish mash of "stuff" (albeit good stuff) – serving all manner of narrowly defined purposes all over the enterprise, some short-term experiments, some perhaps with a modicum of sustainment, but none with an overarching eye toward enterprise integration, unified and adaptable management and control, standard and effective integrated cyber security or overall Total Cost of Ownership efficiency or economy of scale. This represents its own kind of valley-of-death. A form of death by a thousand cuts. Coherent end-to-end architectures don't magically coalesce from tens or hundreds of disparate pilot builds. They have to be planned and executed with purpose. Governance still counts. Enterprises, when designed and fielded right, accrue numerous mid- and long-term benefits. As they say, it takes a fair amount of wired to effectively provision wireless. That will be a function of smart design in and around the ashore locations where you need to aggregate, consolidate and backhaul to long haul terrestrial/wired trunks. The same dedicated program you need for wireless at scale on both your ashore bases/stations as well as your forward and mobile platforms, is quite likely the same program that has to figure out the most efficient, diverse, secure and adaptable wired backhaul architecture. Said differently, you'd better organize your acquisition structures for this correctly. Legacy PEO structures, maybe not going to get us there; when "everybody and nobody" is your answer to pulling this together, you might consider getting after the "blocking and tackling" first. Inside of the next five years, we're going to see escalated competition among commercial LEO, MEO, GEO and multi-orbit industry players. That, and Direct-to-Device is fast emerging as a distinguishing capability by some of these same industry contenders. We're also seeing recognition by space industry providers of distinct military requirements associated with security, assurance, AJ/LPx characteristics, hyper-diversity enabled by laser crosslinks, and passive broadcast. Alongside that, the renaissance in 5G-FutureG by both TelCos/MNOs and space providers. In context, the notion that traditional distinctions between afloat and ashore networks need to be sustained, completely falls away. Now, how you set up your PEO/acquisition model to get after that at massive scale; that's something to work on right away.