WASHINGTON — The House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee is proposing laws that might require DoD to share threat intelligence with industrial satellite operators.
That is one among several proposals within the subcommittee’s draft bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Yr 2024. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Rating Member Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) released their proposal June 12 and scheduled a markup of the bill June 13.
The draft bill:
- Requires DoD to submit a plan to share threat information with industrial space operators.
- Requires a review of classification guidance before granting milestone approval of space major defense acquisition programs.
- Requires DoD to determine a process to discover and evaluate industrial space situational awareness capabilities and to develop and implement a plan to integrate that data into Space Force operational systems.
- Establishes a Space National Guard limited to those states and territories with Air National Guard units currently performing space missions.
- Establishes a single military personnel management system for the US Space Force.
Sharing data with industrial operators
“Business space providers that contract with the Department of Defense are vulnerable to physical and cyber threats; and the US Space Command has established the industrial integration cell to assist in the mixing and protection of United States satellites and to construct awareness of threats,” the draft bill says.
The U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command are directed to develop a plan to expand existing threat-sharing arrangements with industrial space operators tha are under contract with the Department of Defense.
In addition they have to determine a process to frequently discover and evaluate industrial space situational awareness capabilities, including the extent to which industrial space situational awareness data could meet Space Force space situational awareness needs; and develop and implement a plan to integrate the unified data library into Space Force operational systems.
Other provisions on space policy and programs
In a report accompanying the NDAA proposal, the subcommittee included other space-related provisions.
The National Reconnaissance Office has to submit a report on its planned acquisition strategy and schedule for industrial space-based distant sensing phenomenologies like synthetic-aperture radar, radio frequency and hyperspectral. The briefing should include an update on how industrial data is ingested within the NRO’s imagery distribution architecture.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has to submit a report identifying classified and unclassified data analytics tasks that will best be performed or augmented by industrial vendors.
The Space Force has to supply the committee an update on the National Space Test and Training Complex, including plans to include modeling and simulation in a multi-level security framework, and the complete cost of the NSTTC.
The Department of the Air Force is directed to report back on the status of the Navigation Technology Satellite-3, an upcoming experiment to show space-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) to reinforce the Global Positioning System (GPS). The committee wants details on the Air Force’s plans to transition technologies demonstrated with NTS-3 to programs of record.
The Space Development Agency has to submit a report on its use of multibeam energetic phased array antennas for its low Earth orbit Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. “The Space Development Agency should prioritize on-orbit capabilities that maximize communication flexibility and reference to quite a lot of ground terminals, including tactical terminals.”
The Department of the Air Force has to supply an update on small business participation within the emerging activities of the Space Systems Command’s Business Space Office, including the present distribution of contract awards. “The briefing must also include an evaluation of prime contractor subcontractor relations and any impacts to programs consequently of poor communication, data management, or technology integration.”