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National security insights for space professionals. Delivered Tuesdays.

In this week's issue: Army's space vision

• Rocket motor for next-gen ICBM completes static fire test

• NGA launches new procurement of commercial geospatial data

• And much more

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Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Space Company, 1st Space Battalion, establish expeditionary communications with a 1.2 meter Hawkeye antenna at Fort Carson, Colorado (U.S. Army photo by Dottie White)

Space is vital to Army operations and will become increasingly more important going forward, top service leaders said in a newly released "Army Space Vision" document that outlines plans to step up integration of space capabilities on the battlefield.

The vision stresses space as the Army shifts toward "multi-domain operations" spanning land, air, sea, space, and cyberspace. It directs commanders to incorporate space-based data and tech into all ops.
Driving the change are growing worries about Chinese and Russian anti-satellite weapons and orbiting spy platforms.
The document signals the Army is getting serious about space as a domain for future warfare, not just a back-end enabler.

during a Change of Command at the Von Braun III auditorium on Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, on Jan. 9, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Carrie David Campbell)

The release of the Army's space policy document coincided with a change of command last week at the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Outgoing commander Lt. Gen. Daniel Karbler handed over the reins to Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey at a ceremony presided by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George.

George spoke about the new space vision, noting SMDC will play a key role carrying it out. "Our challenges in space, missile defense and high-altitude operations needs for the next fight are substantial," he said. The new guidance, he added, will give leaders a better understanding of how they can leverage space capabilities to succeed on the battlefield.

In the photo above, George (left) passes the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command unit colors to Gainey.

The Army last week also announced plans to launch a new procurement of satellite communications terminals through the so-called Family of Terminals – Large (FoT-L) program.

The service is trying to consolidate several terminal models into just two variants, and wants the new terminals to be compatible with modern space systems such as high-throughput satellites in geostationary and medium Earth orbits.

Responses to the new request for informationI are due Feb. 26. The program office said it plans to release a draft request for industry bids later this year.

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Illustration of Sentinel ICBM. Credit: US Air Force

The Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center on Friday announced it performed a successful static fire test of the second-stage solid rocket motor of the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Sentinel, developed by Northrop Grumman, is slated to replace the aging Minuteman 3 missiles that serve as the land-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, which ensures retaliation capability in case of a nuclear attack.

The closed chamber test was the second in a series of static fire tests during Sentinel's development to validate the design and performance of Sentinel's three-stage propulsion system.
The stage-2 SRM is the second largest of Sentinel's three stages and the second SRM to fire following the missile's launch.
The Sentinel program has come under growing scrutiny following comments by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall who expressed concerns about Sentinel's complexity and rising cost.

The National Security Innovation Network (NSIN) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) launched a new prize challenge focused on innovative uses of machine learning algorithms to analyze aerial and satellite imagery.

In this challenge participants can win up to $1 million by forecasting and characterizing illegal fishing activities.
Competitors will submit fishing forecasts and written summaries of proposed capabilities, from which a panel of subject matter experts will select up to 10 finalists to advance to the pitch round, projected to take place in the spring.
The 10 finalists selected from the proposal round will each be awarded $25,000. The top three competitors in the pitch round will be awarded an additional $500,000, $200,000 and $50,000, respectively. All finalists may be eligible for follow-on contracts with NGA.

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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) issued a new solicitation for commercial satellite Earth observation data under a program called Luno. NGA wants to leverage commercial satellite imagery and data analytics to bolster its global monitoring capabilities.

Luno builds upon a previous contract known as Economic Indicator Monitoring (EIM) that the agency started in 2021 to tap into commercial satellite data sources. Nearly $30 million in task orders were awarded to five vendors. NGA officials said they planned to increase the program ceiling to $60 million.

The startup Muon Space will explore the use of climate-monitoring satellites to capture cloud characterization data for the U.S. Air Force.

The Mountain View, California-based company, founded in 2021, is developing small satellites to monitor Earth's climate and ecosystems.

Under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 contract from the U.S. Air Force, Muon Space "will perform a feasibility study to determine the benefit of modifying its multispectral electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) instrument to support the Department of Defense's cloud characterization observation capability," the company said.

SpaceWERX last week provided some updates on the Digital Spaceport of the Future project.

SpaceWERX, the technology arm of the U.S. Space Force, plans to award a new round of Small Business Innovation Research contracts worth up to $1.9 million each for IT infrastructure upgrades at the Eastern and Western launch ranges.

The contracts will be "direct to Phase 2" Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer agreements. This means the selected companies will bypass the typical Phase I feasibility study and jump straight into developing and deploying solutions.

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