USSF Delta 8 Enhances Situational Awareness
by Space Forces - Space Commercial Integration Office
October 9, 2024

Capt. Kristine Kovacs, formerly 4th Space Operations Squadron (SOPS) Weapons and Tactics, and Specialist 4 Jack Wallace, 4th SOPS Tactician, Exercise and Integration, spearheaded an initiative within the 4th SOPS and Space Delta 8 to integrate Saber Astronautics’ Space Cockpit Battle Management System as their Common Operating Picture on their operations floors.

This initiative allows Barbara Golf, the U.S. Space Forces Space-Combined Joint Force Space Component Commercial Integration Office director, to share non-classified Joint Commercial Operations commercial space domain awareness data, including electro-optical, radar, passive RF observations and orbital positioning data to feed this COP through the Unified Data Library.

“With the addition of the near real time data flow from the JCO, operators have situational awareness of orbital threats and more time to make critical decisions,” Wallace said. “For the first time, crews can better visualize and understand the pattern of life of satellites in vicinity of their wideband and protected satellites.”

In addition, tacticians can now show their leadership when other satellites maneuver, perform rendezvous and proximity operations or come close to their satellite communications constellations.

DEL 8 uses Space Cockpit-customized dashboards, and constellation monitors to independently track and monitor their space-based assets and the activity within their respective orbital regimes. This provides them a tailored approach to domain awareness and allows them to set specific alert parameters to bring their attention quickly to an asset that may be at risk.

The Space Cockpit Battle Management System also provides modeling and simulation capabilities to develop courses of action, maneuver plans and strategies to minimize risk to their assets.

In 2020, U.S. Space Command established the JCO cell to augment the National Space Defense Center’s mission to protect and defend the space domain by leveraging commercial capabilities to provide timely, non-classified SDA and alerting services.

Today, the JCO operates 24/5 in partnership with 18 nations to monitor high interest satellites for threatening activity and disseminate alerts.

“Use of non-classified commercial data allows for transparency and collaborative data sharing,” said Anne Konnath, JCO Integration lead. “The JCO is working closely with allies and commercial owner operators of high value assets to ensure they, too, are armed with real time understanding of activity in the vicinity of their assets.

The JCO works with allied and commercial satellite operators to host JCO Live Fly exercises three times per year. The exercises provide realistic threat scenario simulation to allow satellite operators to use JCO Notice to space operators and their COP to become proficient in recognizing threat activity and then “tell the story” of what’s happening in orbit so they can make informed decisions and rapidly execute their strategies to preserve freedom of action in space.

Through the innovative process of incorporating commercial data into daily operations and conducting exercises to help train operators on how to best apply that commercial data, Guardians at DEL 8 are better prepared provide protected and assured Military Satellite Communications to joint and coalition warfighters during peacetime and throughout the full spectrum of conflict.

U.S. Space Forces - Space | U.S. Space Force | U.S. Department of Defense

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