Signals & Space Monthly Briefing

October 2019

Prepared by the CyberWire (Tuesday, October 1, 2019) Drones, cyberattacks, and the grey area in the Gulf. Drone strikes against Saudi oil fields on September 14th cut production in the Kingdom roughly in half. The Saudi Aramco facilities at the Abqaiq processing center and the Khurais oil field were both hit, as the Telegraph summarizes. The strikes were initially attributed to Houthi rebels in Yemen who have for some time been engaged with Saudi forces operating in Yemen’s complicated civil war, a conflict with regional implications. The Houthis themselves claimed responsibility for strike, saying they launched ten drones at Saudi targets. Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US have blamed Iran for the attacks. Minimally, the Houthis are Iranian clients who are generally regarded as working on behalf of Iran in the ongoing conflict among Gulf rivals. And the Houthi story doesn’t seem entirely consistent with evidence collected on the ground and during the strikes themselves. Imagery released by the US Government suggests that at least nineteen drones were launched, seventeen of which hit their targets. The US said that at least twenty drones were launched, along with an additional, unspecified number of cruise missiles. Saudi authorities released photographs of debris at the site of the strikes that’s consistent with Iranian Quds cruise missiles, and sources within the US Government say there’s evidence that the cruise missiles were launched from Iran. Iran has denied any involvement in the strikes; Tehran has also said that in any case the Houthi were entirely justified in carrying them out. Saudi Aramco is working quickly to restore production, but the strikes represent a significant escalation of conflict in the Gulf. The US so far has not taken kinetic military action against Iran, but cyber conflict between the two nations has continued to build since Iran’s destruction of a US Global Hawk surveillance drone on June 20th, and subsequent US retaliation with disabling cyberattacks. The strikes against the oil facilities has, however, led the US to respond by deploying an Army Patriot missile battery to Saudi Arabia. Two other Patriot batteries and one Terminal High Altitude Area Defense fire unit have been placed on standby for deployment. Novel anti-drone systems. Saudi air defenses deployed around the oil fields showed the classic air defense organization of mass and mix: the Abqaiq facility was defended by US-made Patriot missiles, Swiss-made 35mm Oerlikon automatic cannons with Skyguard radars, and versions of French-made Croatale missiles. These are together capable of engaging targets from low to high altitudes. Mass and mix (with mobility, which in this case doesn't apply to a fixed target like an oil field) are the basic principles of air defense. Yet none of these systems apparently engaged the drones and cruise missiles. Why they failed to do so remains unclear. In some respects, however, low altitude defense against drone swarms and low-altitude cruise missiles is a tougher task than defense against more conventional airborne threats. The difficulty lies in detecting small targets against a cluttered radar background, and other approaches to detection, including persistent overheard imagery, don't currently provide continuous regional coverage. The weapons themselves may also be imperfectly adapted to killing drones and low-flying cruise missiles. The US is working on a range of energy weapons that can destroy or neutralize such targets. Some of those systems, notably the Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS), have been used in combat with some success: a MADIS system deployed aboard USS Boxer successfully took down an Iranian drone earlier this summer. Work is also in progress on smaller kinetic weapons that might prove more effective against drone swarms than more conventional missile and gun systems. Central to such new approaches to air defense is the modelling and close study of drone technologies, including commercial drone technologies, that could be used to exploit their vulnerabilities in ways that enabled drones to be jammed, intercepted, or destroyed. The Air Force is working on a prototype of "PHASER," a microwave system designed to take down swarms. The Raytheon-developed system is entering a year-long operational assessment in an undisclosed overseas area of operations. The attacks against the Saudi oil facilities have lent urgency to the evaluation. PHASER and related systems like the Air Force's THOR are attractive options for defense against swarms in that they're area weapons, able to stop a large number of targets at once. Sponsored by Cosmic AES Do you have what it takes to solve complex signal-processing problems? At Cosmic AES, we design high-performance, adaptable solutions for the signals, space, and cyber domains. We’re looking for creative problem-solvers with engineering experience and a clearance. See what Cosmic AES has to offer. OPIR and rapid prototyping. The Senate Appropriations Committee recommended a $536 million plus-up for Next-Generation OPIR (Overheard Persistent Infrared) satellites. The Committee's report noted that “If the program is to have any chance of success, the department [of the Air Force] cannot continue to rely on reprogramming requests for its funding.” The Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center is pursuing rapid prototyping to field these systems in less than the seven or more years conventional acquisition approaches would require. Its use of Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) has been a characteristic feature of this procurement, and is widely seen as likely to be applied to other military space programs. Close approaches in orbit... A Russian satellite, variously called "Luch" or "Olymp," closely approached an Intelsat in geosynchronous orbit. Luch has been engaged in this sort of activity since its launch in September of 2014. Why it's doing so remains obscure: speculation runs from inspection, to capability signaling, to interception of data from the satellites it approaches, but observers express concerns about the possibility of inadvertent collisions or deliberate destruction. The increasingly crowded near-earth orbit space saw an accidental near-collision as well. A SpaceX Starlink satellite, Starlink 44, narrowly missed hitting an ESA Aeolus earth observation spacecraft. ESA used Aeolus's thrusters to move the satellite to a safer position. Initial reports said, erroneously, that SpaceX refused a request to move Starlink 44 away from Aeolus after US Air Force monitoring detected the risk, but it appears instead that a communications failure left SpaceX in the dark about the increased risk of collision. Neither ESA nor Spacelink has called the other out as being at fault, and in any case international space law remains unclear on responsibility for avoiding collisions. But near-earth orbit is growing crowded. SpaceX alone plans to eventually have 12,000 satellites in its Starlink constellation, and the legacy approach of coordinating satellite maneuvers by phone calls, emails, and (apparently) pages between controllers at ground stations is no longer adequate to its task. Greater automation of collision avoidance seems imperative. Low-earth orbit will become increasingly important for missile defense satellites, as the Air Force intends to place its Next-Generation OPIR spacecraft closer to the planet. Debris is a growing problem as well. More than 8400 tons of it are believed to be in orbit. Several companies, many of them based in the UK, are working on systems designed to clear crowded regions of space. US agencies are engaged in a struggle, driven partly by differing visions of the challenge and partly by concerns over authorities (and agency equities) to sort out a national policy for dealing with orbital debris. ...And satellite hacking. The Air Force announced its intention of offering up a satellite to white hat hackers at next year's DefCon hackers' convention, which represents an extension of the increasingly popular bug bounty approach to vulnerability research. NSA has its own satellite security research program underway. The agency is studying satellite anomalies to develop ways of determining whether a spacecraft has come under hostile control. Launch competition. The US Air Force sees "viable competition" for National Security Space Launches. SpaceX, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, and the United Launch Alliance have all said that they're bidding on the work. Bids went in last month, and the Air Force intends to select two of the competitors by June of next year. Cloud contracts, security, and cyberspace. The Defense Department's very large $10 billion JEDI (Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure) cloud procurement, controversial over concerns with the way in which it appears headed for either Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, is also being questioned on grounds of security. Some 80% of the Department's data are expected to move to the JEDI cloud, and critics look at this and see a very large single point of failure. JEDI isn't the only large Defense cloud program to encounter controversy. Perspecta is protesting last month's award of the Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) to CSRA and General Dynamics. The General Services Administration evaluated the bids, and Perspecta alleges that the evaluation was both inadequate and conflicted, and that it should have been chosen over CSRA. The contract is nominally worth $7.6 billion over ten years, but it seems this estimate is low, and that in fact DEOS may come with an additional $5 billion. Other functions, including some related to the development of cybersecurity tools, are also headed for clouds. The Air Force is working out a blanket purchase agreement (another rapid acquisition mechanism) with fifteen vendors to support its LevelUp program. This will become a secure DevOps platform for cyber operations systems. The Air Force program is part of the Service's cybersecurity wish list, a suite of programs designed to keep pace with swiftly evolving technical and operational conditions in cyberspace. The Army continues to bring its multi-domain task forces online, pushing cyber and information operational capability that would formerly have been held as national assets down to the tactical level. The Service's vision is to make requests for offensive cyber and information operations as decentralized as artillery calls for fire. Satellites and satellite services. Air Force Space Command has awarded Iridium a seven-year, $738.5 million contract for satellite services. Iridium isn't new to the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services program, which it's supported for twenty years, but a seven-year extension is, Iridium says, "unprecedented." The National Reconnaissance Office is exploring commercial delivery of hyperspectral imagery. HySpecIQ has received a contract to study the feasibility of such sources of overhead imagery. This marks the NRO's fourth contract this year for expanded use of commercial satellite imagery. Earlier this summer NRO awarded study contracts to BlackSky Global, Maxar Technologies and Planet. The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's constellation is nearing its end-of-life, and the Air Force is looking for replacement capability. Some of that may be found in NOAA platforms already in orbit, but the Air Force expects to need to field its own ground stations. The Air Force is also working toward a development process that will enable it to cycle through satellites more rapidly, The Service's current thinking is that not only do development times need to be more compressed, but the satellites' lifetime in orbit should be shorter as well: they're thinking in terms of three-to-four years in each case, with eight years being about the maximum any spacecraft would spend in orbit. Such satellites would be more affordable than "exquisite" systems (the word is Space and Missile Systems Command boss Lieutenant General Thompson's) that stay in space for a generation. The National Geospatial Agency has posted a GEOINT support services request for information. Replies are due by October 31st, and interested parties should submit any questions no later than October 4th. Space Force, Space Command, and the Space Development Agency. Plans for a Space Force remain on track, but Space Command is here and operating. The new command is developing plans for warfighting in space--for the most part a series of options for protecting US satellites from hostile interference. The command is also clarifying its relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office. The Space Development Agency (SDA), the young acquisition organization that will serve both Space Force and Space Command, is also taking shape. The SDA will also have a complicated relationship with the National Reconnaissance Office, which will continue to purchase its own satellite systems. [1941]   Today's edition of the CyberWire reports events affecting Australia, China, France, India, Iran, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Selected Reading Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities (22) Trends (2) Marketplace (28) Products, Services, and Solutions (8) Technologies, Techniques, and Standards (20) Design and Innovation (5) Research and Development (11) Legislation, Policy, and Regulation (48) Attacks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities Cyber threat from Iran ‘very active’ following tensions in Gulf (Fifth Domain) As the United States contemplates a response to strike on Saudi oil facilities, Iran's cyberoperations against the U.S. are not abnormal What You Need to Know About the Attacks on Saudi Oil Facilities (Foreign Policy) So far, attacks attributed to Iran haven’t resulted in a military confrontation with the United States. How an Aerial Barrage Cut Saudi Oil Production in Half (Foreign Policy) Tensions in the region spike as U.S. blames Iran. US pinpoints launch sites for Saudi oil strikes (Times) Pentagon officials claim to have pinpointed the launch area for the weekend’s devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities, saying that cruise missiles were fired from western Iran. As Mike Pompeo... The Saudi strike is just the beginning of the machine revolution in warfare (The Telegraph) The drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields (which, despite Donald Trump’s tweets - “PLENTY OF OIL! Johnson blames Iran for Saudi Arabia oil attacks (BBC News) The prime minister declines to rule out military action ahead of talks with Iran at the UN. 200 air and missile defense soldiers set to deploy to Saudi Arabia (Military Times) One Patriot battery and four Sentinel radar crews will head to Saudi Arabia, while three more Army units are on-call. Are air defense systems ready to confront drone swarms? (Defense News) In a region where the threat of drone swarms and low-altitude cruise missiles is particularly acute, countries are left to reexamine existing air defense technology. Why Iran is getting the blame for an attack on Saudi Arabia claimed by Yemen’s Houthis (Washington Post) Tehran has long been accused of arming the Yemeni insurgent group. Trump says there are many options short of war with Iran after... (Reuters) U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday there were many options short of w... Iran is 'almost daring Donald Trump to respond,' says former diplomat (CNBC) President Donald Trump doesn't want war with Iran — but Tehran seems inclined to "test the Trump administration," says Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen. Trump leans against striking Iran (POLITICO) Confidants say the president may talk tough, but he’s deeply reluctant to drag the United States into a fresh war in the Middle East. U.S. Blames Iran for Attack on Saudi Oil Facilities (Wall Street Journal) U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for coordinated strikes on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, saying they marked an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. The strikes shut down half of the kingdom’s crude production, potentially roiling petroleum prices. Attacks on Saudi Oil Plants Reveal Weaknesses in US-Made Defenses (Military.com) The attacks on the Saudi oil facilities evaded Raytheon’s Patriot ballistic missile defense system. NATO’s Not Ready For Saudi-Style Drone Attacks; ‘It’s A Serious Problem’ (Breaking Defense) “The threat that we face has developed faster,” than countermeasures, giving adversaries like Russia, and Iran, some asymmetric advantages. The Latest: Owner of Iran-held ship: ‘Long wait’ for release (AP) The head of the Swedish shipping firm that owns a British-flagged oil tanker held by Iran since July says “it has been a long wait” for the Stena Impero to get it released. Target, Kaliningrad: Air Force Puts Putin On Notice (Breaking Defense) The threat of long-range missile launchers in the Russian enclave is driving the Air Force to develop new tactics for multi-domain attack and dispersed defense. Russian satellite creeps up to Intelsat satellite - again (C4ISRNET) Since launching in 2014, the Russian satellite Luch has sidled up to a number of other satellites, raising concerns that it could be intercepting data. Communication system 'bug' prevented SpaceX from receiving emails about potential satellite collision (Computing) ESA altered the trajectory of its observation satellites to prevent a collision with a SpaceX-launched satellite,Communications ,SpaceX,ESA,satellite collision,Aeolus SpaceX Declined To Move A Starlink Satellite At Risk Of Collision With A European Satellite (Forbes) The European Space Agency (ESA) says one of its satellites was forced to avoid a satellite from SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, raising concerns about the impact of Starlink on low Earth orbit operations, after SpaceX refused to move their satellite out of the way. Near miss between science craft and Starlink satellite shows need to improve orbital coordination (TechCrunch) A European satellite that measures the Earth's winds using lasers had a close encounter with one of SpaceX's Starlink constellation yesterday in a situation that illustrates the growing inadequacy of existing systems for global coordination of orbital issues. It's getting crowded up there, and emai… Tentacled clamps, net and harpoons: How the UK is leading the way on space junk clean-up (The Telegraph) The collision could have been catastrophic. Trends America Needs a New Strategic Triad to Face the 21st Century (Time) An emerging triad was illustrated by the drone strikes on key Saudi oil fields Blast From the Past (Foreign Policy) Forty years ago, a U.S. satellite detected the telltale signs of a nuclear explosion. An analysis of the evidence today points to a clandestine nuclear… Marketplace Is Pentagon JEDI Program a $10B Cloud Security Fiasco? (SDxCentral) Data breaches remain the No. 1 cloud security threat, costing companies millions of dollars per breach not to mention permanent reputational damage and loss of trust. But when and if the Pentagon suffers a breach, there’s a lot more to worry about than cost. Air Force Bids $95M Cloud Contract To Support Unified Cybersecurity Platform (Nextgov.com) The service plans to pick 15 vendors to support the LevelUP program with cloud-based DevOps platforms. The Air Force has 15 areas in cyber where it wants help (Fifth Domain) The Air Force is looking for broad contractor support across a wide range of cyber capabilities and services. Cyber Command’s first major weapons system needs the cloud (Fifth Domain) The Air Force plans to spend as much as $95 million on cloud services from several companies to work on one of Cyber Command’s first major weapon systems. NASA Awards Lockheed Martin Contract for Six Orion Spacecraft (PR Newswire) NASA and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) have finalized a contract for the production and operations of six Orion spacecraft... SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin-led alliance among contenders for Air Force space launches (Dallas News) SpaceX, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin-led alliance among contenders for Air Force space launches Air Force Sees ‘Viable’ Contenders in Contest for Space Launches (Bloomberg) Bezos’s Blue Origin now seeks outsider role of Musk’s SpaceX. Reusable boosters of interest to Air Force: General Thompson. Orbital nabs $1.1B contract for Missile Defense targets (UPI) Orbital Sciences Corp. received a $1.1 billion contract with the Missile Defense Agency for missile defense targets, which are used in military exercises to simulate ballistic missile attacks. Boeing calls for government intervention in ICBM program (SpaceNews.com) Boeing is asking the government to force a teaming arrangement with Northrop Grumman for the GBSD program. Should the Air Force spend even more on missile warning satellites? (C4ISRNET) The Senate Appropriations Committee wants to bring funding for a next-generation early warning missile defense satellite to almost $2 billion. NGA releases GEOINT services RFI (Intelligence Community News)  On September 16, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency posted a request for information for GEOINT support services. Questions are due no later than 5:00 p.m. Central on October 4, and … Not so bad? Window of opportunity may exist for US firms to benefit from EU’s defense fund (Defense News) The restrictions under the European Union's defense fund may not be great news for the U.S. industrial base, but one executive still sees opportunities. Why program cuts from Esper’s Pentagon-wide review could come sooner than expected (Defense News) An Aug. 2 memo kicked off a departmentwide review of programs ahead of the development for the fiscal 2021 budget request. Esper Has No ‘Hard Timeline’ for Review of $10 Billion JEDI Deal (Bloomberg) Defense chief says he’s spending hours studying cloud project. ‘Is JEDI the right strategy? Was it handled properly?’ he asks. Perspecta protests DoD’s $7.8B cloud contract award (Federal News Network) The Defense Department award to CSRA/GD-IT a contract to provide email and collaboration services in the cloud in late August has come under fire. Air Force awards Iridium $738M deal for satellite services (C4ISRNET) Iridium Communications said it received a $738.5 million, seven-year contract for unlimited satellite services through Air Force Space Command. Keeping the U.S. defense and aerospace sector strong (The Washington Times) The rules of modern warfare are changing. The folks who still believe victory goes to the side that “gets there the firstest with the mostest” need to step aside in favor of the strategists who realize it’s new technologies, applied appropriately, that will provide the margin of victory. This isn’t a radical idea. History is replete with examples of new technologies producing lasting strategic changes. That’s happening now as cyberspace becomes not just a potential future battlefield but the place where global weapons systems live. Space Sales Decelerate At Thales (Aviation Week) A drop-off in space business challenged French aerospace and defense prime Thales during the first half of 2019, the company acknowledged Sept. 4. Startup Kleos Nabs Air Force NanoSat Ship-Tracking Deal (Breaking Defense) Data from Kleos satellites will be able to cue other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites or aircraft as they spot ships. Northrop subsidiary inks $1.1B Missile Defense Agency contract (Washington Business Journal) The contract calls for the delivery of a series of ballistic missiles to test as potential subscale targets for the agency's missile defense system. Northrop Grumman Announces Organization and Leadership Changes (Northrop Grumman Newsroom) Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) announces organization changes to its operating sectors to better align the company’s broad portfolio to serve its customers’ needs. There will be four operating sectors:... Northrop Grumman Announces Nationwide Team for Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) Program (Northrop Grumman Newsroom) Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) today announced a nationwide GBSD team, comprised of hundreds of small, medium and large companies. Northrop Grumman’s team, if selected, is ready to deliver on a national... National security fears threaten defence takeover (BBC News) The government is looking into Advent's £4bn takeover bid for British defence firm Cobham. Cobham family loses takeover battle with America’s Advent (Times) The founding family behind Cobham has renewed its call for the government to intervene in the £4 billion takeover of the British defence and aerospace company after failing to persuade shareholders... Advent International set to take Cobham as investors vote ‘with heavy heart’ (Times) Cobham, the aerospace group, is on course to fall into the hands of its American suitor next week despite scepticism over the £4 billion offer. Sources said that the takeover by Advent... SAIC Wins Australian Tactical Data Link Support Contract (Yahoo) Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) won a task order on the Joint Range Extension Support contract from the Australian Department of Defence. “We’re proud to partner with the Australian Department of Defence on this important initiative,” said David Armstrong, vice president and general Lockheed opens Colorado Springs lab for space simulations (Colorado Springs Gazette) Lockheed Martin has built a $2 million laboratory at its northern Colorado Springs campus that allows military commands and other customers to test drive how new software and hardware will Mercury Systems Announces Appointment of Dr. William Conley as Chief Technology Officer (Yahoo) Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mrcy.com) announced today that William Conley, Ph.D., will join the Company as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, effective Sept. 30, 2019. Products, Services, and Solutions Air Force certified Falcon Heavy for national security launch but more work needed to meet required orbits - SpaceNews.com (SpaceNews.com) SMC Commander Lt. Gen. Thompson: "They are fully certified now. But that doesn’t mean the work on the Falcon Heavy stops.” Branson: Virgin Launch Of USAF Sat By End Of Year (Breaking Defense) Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson hopes that his LauncherOne airborne launch system's capability to rapidly launch smallsats "will be a deterrent to an enemy state, that is to not attack satellites in the first place." Raytheon Unveils Cyber Threat Detection System for Aircraft, Weapon Systems (ExecutiveBiz) Raytheon has developed a threat detection software designed to alert users to cyber vulnerabilities and prevent attacks to aircraft, satellite, missile and vehicular systems. Microwave Converters Use Novel Agile Technology to Dynamically Respond to Emerging Electronic Threats (Nasdaq) Innovative solution maximizes electronic warfare system agility by reducing upgrade costs and enabling mission-to-mission optimization Wavestream First to Market with an In-Flight Connectivity Transceiver Supporting Multi-Orbit Constellations (Wavestream USA) High-power transceiver covers extended Ka frequency band with operation over LEO/MEO/GEO satellites for the delivery of cutting-edge performance Viasat's Suite of Network Encryption Products Available for Use by Five Eyes Coalition Forces (Yahoo) Interoperability of Network Encryption Products Enables Coalition Militaries to Securely Protect Critical Information and Improve Mission Effectiveness across a Diverse Battlespace LONDON , Sept. 10, 2019 ... MBDA readies new missile for electronic warfare (C4ISRNET) The idea is to replace the warhead with a payload for jamming enemy air defenses or beckoning them away from strike missiles. New encryption devices now available for Five Eyes partners (C4ISRNET) The United States government has approved new encryption devices developed by Viasat for broader use among Five Eyes partners. Technologies, Techniques, and Standards Here’s how the Army is making last-minute network fixes (C4ISRNET) The Army is conducting in-person tests of new gear, standing up a full network prior to delivering to units. This is how the Air Force plans on improving its electronic warfare capabilities (C4ISRNET) The Air Force is taking action to reshape its electronic warfare enterprise after a recent assessment found that the service was too stovepiped and not responsive enough to emerging threats, its No.-2 general said. How will the Air Force get the weather data it needs from space? (C4ISRNET) The Air Force is ditching its plans for a free flyer space vehicle for weather data and has submitted an informal plan to move to a proliferated low earth orbit constellation. The Air Force wants satellites that grow fast, die young (Defense News) As the U.S. Air Force considers moving to a Century Series-style process for building its next fighter jet, with new designs constantly being produced, the service’s Space and Missile Systems Center has a process already underway for building satellites. A new orbit for some of the Pentagon’s missile warning satellites (C4ISRNET) Space and Missile Systems Center leaders said they wanted a hybrid architecture for Next Gen OPIR, with satellites in geosynchronous and low earth orbits. Commercial threat intelligence has become a key Army tool (Fifth Domain) Leaders at Army Cyber Command have stressed the importance of relying on commercial threat intelligence. Virtual training ground in the works as Army pushes ahead with cyberwarfare plan (Stars and Stripes) The U.S. Army is adding more cyber defense teams and intensifying the training required of its high-tech operators to better equip them to take on 21st-century adversaries, the head of U.S. Cyber Command said. How the Army’s new multidomain forces could help (Fifth Domain) The Army unveiled details about one of its newest units designed to help the service compete with adversaries below the threshold of war. Marines Get New Tool for Delivering Deadly 'Call for Fire' Missions (Military.com) Marines in fire-support units can now coordinate artillery, mortar and naval gunfire from a handy, ruggedized tablet. U.S. cyber-offensive against ISIS continues, and eyes are now on Afghanistan, general says (CyberScoop) As loyalties among Afghanistan’s Islamic extremists continue to shift, the U.S. military may be poised to rely more heavily on offensive cyber capabilities to target one group in particular — the dispersed but still active membership of ISIS, according to one military cyber commander. How Cyber Command can limit the reach of ISIS (Fifth Domain) Joint Task Force-Ares helps provide necessary intelligence to agencies that aid in tracking terrorists. Information warfare should be treated like call-for-fire missions, Army Cyber says (Army Times) “It’s 2019. It still can’t be true that it’s easier to drop a bomb on somebody than to send them a leaflet or an email, Schriever Wargame Drives Command-and-Control Change at CSpOC (Air Force Magazine) ​The military will stand up a specialized command-and-control cell as part of Vandenberg AFB, Calif.’s Combined Space Operations Center, an action item that came out of the most recent Schriever Wargame. Virtual boots on the ground: British Army grapples with operating in the gray zone (Defense News) While still Iran poised for faster centrifuges as nuclear deal collapses (Military Times) Iran was poised Thursday to begin work on advanced centrifuges that will enrich uranium faster as the 2015 nuclear deal unravels further and a last-minute French proposal offering a $15 billion line of credit to compensate Iran for not being able to sell its crude oil abroad because of U.S. sanctions looked increasingly unlikely. Army develops new drone-killing technology (Fox News) They can form swarms of hundreds of mini, precision-guided explosives, overwhelm radar or simply blanket an area with targeting sensors. They can paint or light up air, ground or sea targets for enemy fighters, missiles or armored vehicles, massively increasing warzone vulnerability. See the Air Force's new microwave energy drone-destroyer - the PHASER (Military Times) The Pentagon has ordered a prototype of a microwave energy weapon designed to take down swarms of unmanned aerial drones on the battlefield. Slated for the Air Force, it will be tested for one year in the field to see if it works well enough to become part of the US arsenal. New internet security policy will help agency cloud migration (Fifth Domain) A new memo from the Office of Management and Budget outlines four approved use cases for Trusted Internet Connections. Pentagon's Non-Lethal Weapons Office Pushing Gray-Zone Warfare Tools (USNI News) The Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate is hoping to reframe the talk about non-lethal weapons amid a push by the Defense Department to boost lethality for high-end warfare. The office’s director, Marine Corps Col. Wendell Leimbach, instead wants to talk about capability gaps in an era of gray zone … Intel agency will test hyperspectral images from industry (C4ISRNET) The National Reconnaissance Office continues its preparations for a 2020 commercial imagery procurement with a study contract for hyperspectral imagery. Design and Innovation Five Reasons The Air Force's Digital Century Series Is Doomed To Failure (Forbes) The Air Force isn’t a hedge fund. Nor is it a science fair. A bold proposal to produce small batches of innovative combat aircraft in as little as five years has some major flaws. Inside Lockheed Martin’s New Facility for Simulating Space Wars (Vice) 'Pulsar Guardian' will let governmental and commercial customers run wargames simulating conflict in space. 4 questions about innovation with the US Air Force’s vice chief of staff (Defense News) Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson knows innovation can be stifled. But he won't stand by while it happens. The answer to these Army problems could be reverse engineering (C4ISRNET) The Army has awarded CACI a task order worth as much as $443 million to help the service fight threats from commercial technology, such as improvised explosive devices and drones. The US Navy says it’s doing its best to avoid a ‘Terminator’ scenario in quest for autonomous weapons (Defense News) The U.S. Navy hopes to avoid turning computers against humanity in its journey toward ever-smarter autonomous weapons. Research and Development Elon Musk unveils Starship prototype, says first test flight expected within two months (Computing) Musk describes SpaceX Starship as 'basically an ICBM that lands' The Silicon Valley Heavyweights Who Want to Settle the Moon (Bloomberg) The moon is all the rage these days. China wants to send people there. So too does the United States and NASA. In fact, just about every country with a space program has some sort of lunar ambition that they hope will play out over the next few years. A Pentagon experiment to process the torrent of data from space (C4ISRNET) A Ball Aerospace and Microsoft collaboration could provide a cloud solution for the Air Force's CASINO program. Air Force to offer up a satellite to hackers at Defcon 2020 (Naked Security) This year, the Air Force presented vetted hackers with a plane’s subsystem, which they duly tore up. Next year, it will be a satellite. The NSA Is Running a Satellite Hacking Experiment (Defense One) Low Earth orbit will soon be awash in small satellites, and the national security community is increasingly concerned about their security. Some NASA contractors appear to be trying to kill the Lunar Gateway (Ars Technica) "I am concerned that the decisions are not being driven by what is most efficient." India’s Moon Landing May Be Doomed (Wired) The Indian Space Research Organization says it lost contact with its lunar lander shortly before touchdown. Chandrayaan 2 landing: 100m above Moon, Vikram will pick final landing spot (The Times of India) India News: Forty-seven days after it left Earth, Chandrayaan-2 lander Vikram will decide on the exact landing spot on Moon when it would be 100m above the lunar The new head of US Space Command wants to focus here (C4ISRNET) U.S. Space Command, which was officially reestablished Aug. 29, will focus on these four distinct areas as it begins operations. Technology demo suggests how to keep drone traffic flowing smoothly (VT News) As demand for drone use rises, how to safely coordinate traffic has become an increasingly urgent question. A week of tests pointed toward an answer. Executives Say $1 Billion for AI Research Isn’t Enough (Wall Street Journal) The announcement of a nearly $1 billion federal commitment toward artificial-intelligence research drew a mixed response from business leaders who said the U.S. needs to do more to maintain a competitive edge in AI. Legislation, Policy, and Regulation Australia’s leading space organisation prepares for take off (NewsLeads) The head of the recently formed SmartSat CRC explains how recent global events reinforce the importance of Australia developing its own sovereign capability in space. Defense report stresses space, cyber security (NHK WORLD) Japan's annual defense report stresses the importance of gaining superiority in new areas, including space and cyber security. Iran Is Testing the Trump Administration (Foreign Affairs) The United States needs to ask itself whether its strategy of "maximum economic pressure" against Iran matches the current test. Iran president says West should ‘distance’ themselves from Persian Gulf, leave security to regional nations (Military Times) Iran’s president called Sunday on Western powers to leave the security of the Persian Gulf to regional nations led by Tehran, criticizing a new U.S.-led coalition patrolling the region’s waterways as nationwide parades showcased the Islamic Republic’s military arsenal. U.S. Sanctions Iran’s Central Bank, Says It Will Send Military Forces to Saudi Arabia (Wall Street Journal) The U.S. said it would send military forces and hardware to Gulf allies and moved to sever some of Iran’s last ties to world markets on Friday, while preparing to outline a case for international action next week when world leaders gather at the United Nations. UAE joins naval security coalition in the Gulf (Defense News) The UAE joins four other members of the International Maritime Security Construct — the United Kingdom, Australia, Bahrain and the United States. Trump Orders Substantial New Sanctions on Iran (Wall Street Journal) President Trump said on Wednesday that he ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to substantially raise sanctions on Iran, the first U.S. policy response to last week’s attack on critical Saudi Arabian oil facilities. New Space Debris Rules Stalled By Year-Long Interagency Spat (Breaking Defense) "Of all people, it's the 'space warmongers' doing the most to try to sustain the (space) environment," one DoD official said. SecDef Esper: The Military's Next Big Fight May Start in Space (Military.com) The U.S. military needs to move quickly to stand up U.S. Space Force as a military branch, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. How to Win the Battle Over Data (Foreign Affairs) The United States dithers while authoritarians seize the day. Why the US needs to improve intelligence sharing on Russian military activities with NATO allies (Military Times) The U.S. should step up its distribution of intelligence with all NATO members to weaken Russian influence attempts and to help unify the alliance, in the event Russia targeted an attack against a NATO ally, a new report says. Trump administration sanctions Iran's space agency (TheHill) The Trump administration on Tuesday announced sanctions against the Iranian Space Agency as tensions continue to escalate between Washington and Tehran. Iran says U.S. sanctions on its space agencies 'ineffective': TV (Reuters) Iran rejected on Wednesday as "ineffective" U.S. sanctions imposed on ... Documents reveal how the Space Force would launch in 90 days (Defense News) The Pentagon is waiting for Congress to decide whether to create a Space Force. This is what would happen next. Op-ed: With Space Corps, let’s boldly go where no bureaucrat has gone before! (Navy Times) To succeed, the Space Corps must first confront a hard reality: The military faces an anthropological catastrophe. Op-ed | The U.S. Space Force must be independent but not insular (SpaceNews.com) The Space Force cannot be insular, aloof, or detached from clear and present security challenges and joint needs in the terrestrial domains. Dunford: US faces ‘Sputnik moment’ in space race competition (Air Force Times) The U.S. has reached a new Air Force nominee lays out her approach to space (C4ISRNET) Air Force secretary nominee Barbara Barrett told senators the U.S. AF Education & Training Shifts To ‘Space Warfighting Ethos’: Gen. Webb (Breaking Defense) "Gen. Raymond has asked me, in particular, to make sure that we are incorporating all aspects of space warfighting ... into our curriculum." The Space Development Agency’s plans have changed. Here are the revisions. (Defense News) Some satellites are going higher than originally planned, according to the acting director of the Space Development Agency. The growing pains of the Pentagon’s new space acquisition arm (POLITICO) The Space Development Agency struggles to get going and recruit talent. SDA Will Control Many Sat Buys, But NOT NROs: Tournear (Breaking Defense) "We are the ones that say this is what needs to be done" to build a next-gen space architecture, says SDA Acting Director Derek Tournear. Except when they don't. Space Force price tag clouds decision to formally launch, despite White House push (Defense News) Changing Title 10 would enshrine a U.S. Space Force as a separate branch of the military next year ― but it's not in the Senate's defense policy bill. Opinion | Trump's Space Force can seem funny. But space threats are deadly serious. (NBC News) Some of the joking about Trump’s space designs is deserved, but U.S. national security relies on space capabilities that are at risk. Space Force could transform a once-peaceful realm into war-focused regime (Axios) Trump's supporters champion Space Force as a way to deter nations that plan to weaponize space. SPACECOM To Write New Ops War Plan: 100km And Up (Breaking Defense) If the US receives intelligence that Russia is prepping a strike against a US satellite, does SPACECOM task a drone or a B-21 bomber to take it out before it launches? Or does Gen. Raymond choose to simply maneuver the targeted satellite out of the way? Space Command projects what it would need in a real world Star Trek (C4ISRNET) A new report put out by Air Force Space Command lays out eight future scenarios for the space domain. NRO and US Space Command test out new relationship (C4ISRNET) A recent exercise allowed the National Reconnaissance Office and US Space Command to test out a new agreement for defending the nation’s spy satellites during a conflict in space. The new head of US Space Command wants to focus here (C4ISRNET) U.S. Space Command, which was officially reestablished Aug. 29, will focus on these four distinct areas as it begins operations. Raymond’s First SPACECOM Move: Two New Subcommands and Their Leaders (Breaking Defense) Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting is the new head of SPACECOM's Combined Force Space Component Command; Gen. Tom James leads the new Joint Task Force Space Defense. Increasing allied role in space a ‘priority’ for Space Command head (Defense News) Working with allies isn’t always easy, but partnerships in space are breaking through traditional barriers. Declassify Space Threats, US Capabilities For Stronger Deterrence: AFCENT (Breaking Defense) "Right now space is a supporting element to a geographic [component command] ... but that paradigm is going to flip over time, where the supported command -- the primacy, where the actions will happen first -- is going to be space," says Lt. Gen. Joseph Guastella, head of Air Force Central Command. AFSPC Mulls Intel, Personnel Questions of the New Space Age (Air Force Magazine) Figuring out how to keep a closer eye on what’s happening in outer space instead of using space to peer down at Earth is among the uncharted capability and personnel issues USAF must navigate as a possible Space Force comes to fruition, Shaw said. AFCENT Boss: As Space Threats Grow, US Needs to Know Who’s Out There (Air Force Magazine) The Pentagon, building up its ability to identify and respond to nontraditional, faceless attacks on cyber networks, may soon face another similar problem: how to figure out who’s behind provocations or outright damage in space. The Newly Designated Space Domain Requires Its Own Intelligence. (SIGNAL Magazine) Long a source of key intelligence for Earth-based operations, the space domain now requires its own specialized intelligence. Why the Pentagon could need a National Space Intelligence Center (C4ISRNET) The military needs to be more focused on gathering intelligence about space as a war fighting domain, said Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of the Air Force Space Command. Japan’s budget document reveals electronic warfare plans (C4ISRNET) Japan is stepping up its investments in electronic warfare, with its latest defense budget request containing a number of related acquisitions and research activities in this domain. Air Force Brass Lead New SpaceCom Subcommand (Breaking Defense) CFSCC's mission includes executing "tactical control over globally dispersed Air Force, Army, and Navy space units that command satellites in every orbital regime." Killing programs is ‘like working out,’ says acting US Army secretary (Defense News) The program-killing project How the Air Force has reorganized its cyber staff (Fifth Domain) The Air Force released its cyber flight plan, aimed at guiding the service in the cyber realm for the next decade. Air Force creates new information warfare organization, revamps Cyber Command teams (Fifth Domain) The Air Force is creating 16th Air Force that will combine cyber, electronic warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and information operations into a single organization. What does state-of-the-art cybersecurity look like to the Pentagon? (Fifth Domain) The Department of Defense is cracking down on contractor cybersecurity. Months after release of new tech strategy, US Air Force is still deliberating a path forward (Defense News) Putting the U.S. Air Force's new science and technology strategy into practice is still a work in progress. Air Force Ad Campaign Will Leverage Space Force Buzz to Drive Recruitment (Military.com) The Air Force is already crafting a marketing campaign that leverages space to boost recruiting. Security clearance reforms: our nation depends on it (Federal Times) Recent actions have dramatically reduced the backlog for investigations needed to grant security clearances. However, increases in the number of completed investigations created a whole new backlog in the next step of the process. NASA is trying to land on the moon. The biggest challenge might be Congress. (Washington Post) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has been lobbying hard for the Artemis program. Hyten expected to be confirmed this week | Defense News Minute, Sept. 24, 2019 (Defense News) The Senate's top Republican says the Air Force general is set to be confirmed as Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs this week after a tough confirmation process. Senate sends shutdown-averting CR to Trump’s desk (Federal News Network) The Senate on Thursday cleared a seven-week continuing resolution through Nov. 21. The CR includes nearly $50 million more for OPM.

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