Space Force approaches industry for space situational awareness, battle management, and cyber security

Questions and answers:

• What is the purpose of the U.S. Space Force’s recent call for industry solutions? To find new ways of controlling space and protect U.S. and allied forces from space and cyber threats by exploring technologies that enhance space situational awareness, cyber security, and space battle management.
• What are the key areas of interest in this project? Resiliency technologies for space systems, improving space domain awareness, defensive and offensive counter-space capabilities, enhancing space battle management, and advancing training environments for space operations.
• What are the submission requirements for interested companies? 10-page concept papers by 23 Feb. 2029 that detail proposed solutions. Submissions should meet at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3, and may lead to invitations for full proposals if promising.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – U.S. Space Force battle-management experts are reaching out to industry for new ways to control space to protect U.S. and allied forces from enemy space and cyber attacks.

Officials of the U.S. Space Systems Command in El Segundo, Calif., issued a broad agency announcement (FA8819-24-R-B003) on Tuesday asking industry for space and cyber technologies to counter emerging space threats. Space Force will explore pathfinders to test assumptions, validate answers, and potentially field ad-hoc solutions.

The intent is to gain a better understanding of requirements for improved space situational awareness and cyber security, while addressing the need for integrated space and cyber solutions.

This project has five areas of interest: resiliency technologies and techniques that increase survivability of space systems; Improvements to space domain awareness that enhance the knowledge of space objects, status, activities, threats, and environment to enable courses of action; using space for defensive and offensive counter-space to protect friendly space-related capabilities from attack; efficiencies that promote space battle management command control and communications (BMC3); and methods for advancing exercises, tests, and training environment.

Tell me more about space situational awareness ...

• Space situational awareness uses radar and telescopes, and involves tracking, understanding, and predicting the behavior of natural and man-made objects in space. Objects of interest include space junk; space weather like solar flares, geomagnetic storms; and near-earth objects like asteroids and comets. It tracks size, orbit, velocity, and ownership of space objects for collision avoidance; predicting possible collisions between satellites or with debris; issuing warnings for operators to perform collision-avoidance maneuvers. Work also predicts effects on satellites, GPS navigation, communications, and power grids. Space cyber operations involve protecting satellites and ground systems from hacking or jamming; detecting abnormal behavior that could indicate cyber threats or hostile actions; monitoring deep space; tracking objects beyond earth orbit like interplanetary missions and asteroids; and plans planetary defense and exploration missions.

Resiliency technologies and techniques that increase survivability of space systems involve proliferation strategies; commercial standards and multi-domain reuse; data flows and information sharing; redundancies; and rapid reconstitution.

Improvements to space domain awareness that enhance the knowledge of space objects, status, activities, threats and environment to enable courses of action involves low-cost and resilient ground-based space surveillance; low size, weight, and power consumption space- and ground-based weather sensors; and optics.

Innovative abilities to exploit space to its advantage for defensive and offensive counter-space to protect friendly space-related capabilities from attack involves capability gap studies; cyber capabilities; active and passive phenomenology; and satellite servicing.

Space battle management

Efficiencies that promote battle management command control and communications (BMC3) involve space data analytic tools for large data sets and networks; and artificial intelligence (AI) and automation for space operations.

Methods for advancing exercises, tests, and training environment involve ride share opportunities' solutions across multiple domains; and inter-satellite links for small satellites.

Companies interested should submit 10-page concept papers no later than 23 Feb. 2029 via Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRnet) to the contracting officer, 1st Lt. Heeyeun Joo, at [email protected], with copies to Christopher Colon, the security point of contact, at [email protected], and Robert Chernoff, the alternative contracting officer, at [email protected].

Submitting white papers

Those submitting promising white papers may be invited to submit full proposals. Solutions should be at least at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3, or experimental proofs of concent, or higher.

Submissions shall be either PDF files or Microsoft Word Documents. The contract value for this project is to be as much as $99 million over five years.

Email questions or concerns to the Space Force's 1st Lt. Heeyeun Joo at [email protected] and Robert Chernoff at [email protected]. More information is online at https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/a352aa0b414641b19fcbccc3cf88ed1f/view.