The pace at which space technology is advancing is proving a challenge for traditional Government programs. Typically undertaken over many years and with significant investment, standard Government procurement processes are struggling to keep pace with, and continue to provide the tactical advantage required of, Defence and National Security space operations.
Increasingly, the focus of these large investments in Government owned assets is into small numbers of critical enabling systems for intelligence, surveillance, communications and electronic spectrum operations – augmenting these capabilities with rapidly deployable, lower cost, commercially controlled assets often procured as a service. This approach allows for fast and cost-efficient access to emerging capabilities and data sources, underpinned by larger and more robust multi-national integrated capabilities with complex classified sharing regimes.
The resulting growth of the pool of both trusted and potentially toxic (untrusted, commercially sourced) data has the potential to reduce the pace at which informed decision making occurs by overwhelming the user, introducing decision paralysis. This requires Defence and National Security agencies to consider supporting tools that can be exploited to reduce the growing cognitive burden on end-users, ensuring near real-time decision making can still be achieved in support of multi-domain operations.
A layered approach to data management is required to capture and disseminate information and, in turn, intelligence. It must be pragmatic, scalable and affordable – and benefit from the rich services provided by commercial organisations to support ongoing strategic operations whilst delivering successful mission outcomes in highly contested environments. Such capability must support tactical commanders on the ground, as well as those making strategic and more orchestrated decisions in Headquarters, through secure and resilient communications.
The exploitation of all elements of the space domain – ground, data and space segments – is an essential component in this process, and a reason why it has fast become the fifth military domain
Strengthening multi-domain operations using space innovation
Space affords us reach and a degree of resilience to physical attack. Whilst the advancement of reusable space-planes and similar agile on-orbit spacecraft is increasing the likelihood of physical attacks, the primary threat to space capabilities continues to be susceptibility to cyber and electronic warfare (EW) advances.
The pace of adoption of Edge processing and machine learning in commercial operations is proving to be a double-edged sword in this regard. On the one hand, advancing Edge processing capabilities are enabling the creation of highly dynamic space-based data networks and accelerating the pace of transformation to multi-domain operations by supporting the successful deployment of complex machine learning to on-orbit assets.
However, it also presents additional avenues of vulnerability to cyber and electronic warfare interference. The potential for collected information to be modified could have significant impacts to Defence and National Security operations within the layered information construct of Commercial and Government sourced information.
Existing methods for treatment of potentially toxic data sources can be used to ensure the validity of commercially sourced information in developing intelligence products, but require closer collaboration and cooperation with commercial system operators. It may also require an increased level of investment beyond a ‘Space as a Service’ model to procure these information sets, potentially providing access to the pre-processed raw data as part of an ongoing assurance process.
The risk of potential vulnerabilities, however, are manageable and the overall benefit to operations through the ability to tailor and maintain local situational awareness is worth it. And thanks to the use of modern analytical tools, benefits can be achieved without over-burdening the user – allowing technologies such as machine learning to work in the background to maintain an “always relevant, always available” situational awareness. This is all significant in the context of multi-domain integration, where intelligence derived from data collected from multiple sources must be delivered quickly and securely to where it is needed most.
The impact of low earth orbit satellites
The other breakthrough has been in the democratisation and affordability of space through Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. For example, our Azalea™ LEO satellite cluster is designed to enable sustainable innovation in space by taking a software-driven approach. This enables new software to be uploaded to reprogrammable satellites that can be used for different purposes while still on orbit, leveraging the on-board hardware capabilities through application development and experimentation on the same satellite whilst balancing loads and requirements across the cluster.
When equipped with intelligent data devices, LEO satellites can share data and collaborate to analyse high quality imagery, radar or electromagnetic spectrum data and deliver near real-time intelligence, crucial to Defence and the multi-domain battlespace. They can work as teams to carry the load. They can support national resilience such as in the case of denied GNSS. And they can collaborate with more than just space assets, building a layered approach to resilience as part of a network of intelligence and reprogrammable data nodes.
For Australian Defence and National Security agencies to obtain relevant global coverage, leveraging Australian and friendly nations’ commercial systems to augment the future Commonwealth owned systems and FiveEyes networks will be essential. This is what will provide users with a good balance of trusted and untrusted sources of information. This model will also support the developing Australian Space ecosystem through sustainable commercial contracting models, driving further innovation and development of a sovereign capability without the significant upfront investment of traditional Defence programs.
From theory to action
To make this a reality, national skills need to be nurtured and scaled, as do supply chains with a view to enhance collaboration between the Five Eyes nations. The entrepreneurial and start-up nature of the Australia space ecosystem does present challenges related to working with and into Defence and National Security agencies. To help expedite pace and build momentum, there are ways of bringing specialist skills to bear in highly classified environments, without the need for individuals to be security vetted or operate from approved facilities.
For example, ground stations and hubs, fixed and deployed, can be secured with multi-level security devices produced in line with Australian Cyber Security Centre guidelines. Sovereign command and control links and sovereign encryption assure resilient operations. And, whilst the hardware devices and platforms don’t need to be sovereign capabilities themselves, they do need to support the flexibility and waveforms required.
Ultimately, we must protect our space assets from both vulnerabilities in the cyber and electronic warfare domain, as well as physically from supply chain interference during construction and on-orbit threats such as other satellites, defunct systems and space debris. Development of a common flexible Government and Commercial data fabric is likely to prove to be one of the most significant enablers of high tempo military operations. And it is possible today.
Australian Industry and Academia have the base ecosystem and skills to help Defence and National Security agencies take advantage of technological advances. The challenge remains the Commonwealth and Industry embracing an ecosystem of innovation and development of commercially viable capability at pace, utilising a risk-based approach that provides surety of revenue to industry and quality of data for Government agencies.
We have been working in this ‘Space’ for more than two decades. We have specialist technologies in waveforms, electronics, antenna and digital signal processing and analytics with 20 years in ground based signal processing for various space agencies.