CYBERWORX PROJECT: How might the USAF best exploit commercial, academic, and foreign data to improve space situational awareness for operational advantage? Identify ways to better use available Space Situational Awareness (SSA) data in operations to improve situational awareness of satellite movements and threats to U.S. military satellites. (Short name: #AFSpaceSA)

Note: JP-3-14 defines SSA “as the requisite current and predictive knowledge of the space environment and the operational environment upon which space operations depend as well as all factors, activities, and event of friendly adversary space forces across the spectrum of conflict.”

OBJECTIVES:  How might the USAF best exploit commercial, academic, and foreign SSA data? How might we overcome classification, communications and data compatibility, legal, and segregation issues in order to ingest and exploit “Non-traditional” (non-metric and low quality metric) data, such as open sources, from other mission areas as well as commercial and foreign sources? Deliverable: Recommend best options for integrating SSA data from multiple sources into Air Force operational decision making.  Provide avenue for AF and industry to explore possible solution/s.  The design will utilize user stories, presentations, and vignettes as applicable and point to policy/law barriers to improving the user stories.

STAKEHOLDERS:  Project Champion: AFSPC/CC; AFSPC/A2/3/6; AF/A3S

VALUE PROPOSITION: The intent of this project is to provide better decision making for operational planning and execution. The innovative solutions will explore means of processing data from commercial, academic, foreign sources to address and better understand technological and policy limitations.  The sprint will result in follow-on directions for prototyping technological capabilities and policies/agreements to enable needed operational capabilities for SSA.

QUOTATIONS:

“The Air Force developed a warfighting construct to prepare for a conflict that extends to space, enhanced our ability to see threats, and is actively working to hone our ability to command and control space assets in a contested environment.” Generals Dave Goldfein and Jay Raymond

“There is no such thing as a war in space; there is just war, it’s with an adversary and if it extends into space we have to figure out how to fight it.” Gen John Hyten

(Source: The U.S. Air Force’s new push to brace for war in space. Defense News Online, February 22, 2017)

” In recognition of the fact that space is a global commons, over the past several years we have made a concerted effort to strengthen our partnerships with like-minded space faring nations and within the commercial sector and academia.”  Gen Jay Raymond