{"id":197604,"date":"2021-10-18T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=197604"},"modified":"2021-10-14T06:57:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T05:57:44","slug":"from-sci-fi-to-reality-how-the-us-space-force-launched-a-digital-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/10\/from-sci-fi-to-reality-how-the-us-space-force-launched-a-digital-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"From Sci-Fi to Reality: How the US Space Force Launched a Digital Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"
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All courtesy of the well-educated but\u00a0 passive masses who accept the falsehood that Armed Forces are a deterrent.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Military Space Report – 13 <\/strong>Oct 2021<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sponsored by a.i. solutions<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Axstokes Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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11 Oct 2021 – <\/em>\u201cThere is no spoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

So said a bald child in a toga to Keanu Reeves in the 1999 sci-fi flick \u201cThe Matrix,\u201d which (spoiler alert) depicts a dystopian future where most of humanity exists within a digital simulation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the title of a manifesto on digital acquisitions<\/a> by the former assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, Will Roper. Released in 2020 and littered with Matrix references (and designed with a green and black color scheme reminiscent of the movie), the 19-page document outlines how and why the Department of the Air Force must use digital simulations and models to design and build its systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last area that we have to have strategic agility is in being able to computerize or virtualize everything about our development and production, assembly, even sustainment of systems so that we can finally get past the tyranny of the real world and take learning and feedback into the digital one,\u201d Roper said in a Matrix-themed presentation nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n

The promises of a digital ecosystem \u2014 faster development, integrated assembly and the ability to test systems before they\u2019re built \u2014 are appealing to the Department of Defense, which frequently struggles with cost overruns and significant delays for its space systems.<\/p>\n

Roper has since left government, but the digital revolution continues, and the U.S. Space Force wants to lead the way.<\/p>\n

In May, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond announced the new service\u2019s intent to be the world\u2019s first fully digital service<\/a>, adopting digital engineering practices to transform how the military designs, buys and builds systems.<\/p>\n

The Space Force has abandoned Roper\u2019s Matrix-heavy framing, but it\u2019s using the same basic framework: hyper-realistic simulations of the environment in which its satellites will operate, and digital twins to help design and build architectures, constellations, satellites, payloads, ground systems and more to ensure operators can deliver the space-based capabilities needed by war fighters around the world.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious vision, but the Space Force is taking steps to implement it, and industry says it\u2019s ready.<\/p>\n

Enter the Matrix<\/h1>\n

The digital revolution begins at the very start of the acquisition process: force design.<\/p>\n

That step is the big-picture determination of the Space Force\u2019s needs and the best architecture to address its mission. The Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) will use high-fidelity simulations that can realistically depict the orbital environment, space and terrestrial weather, threats and the effects it anticipates encountering to create that force design, which can then be distilled into a set of requirements.<\/p>\n

According to SWAC Director Andrew Cox, these simulations have to represent three main elements with high fidelity: the threat; the physical and engineering constraints; and the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason those three things are important is because as we are at the headwaters, feeding requirements into the budget process that\u2019s run by [Lt. Gen. William] Liquori. We don\u2019t want to hand him force designs that he\u2019s building requirements off of and budgets off of that are unrealistic, that are not affordable and that are vulnerable,\u201d Cox said at the Air Force Association\u2019s Air, Space and Cyber Conference in September.<\/p>\n

Liquori, who serves as the Space Force\u2019s deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, requirements and analysis, said those force designs and \u201cperformance envelopes\u201d then move to his requirements team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent will be to put a wrapper on those to make a digital requirements package,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then we pass that onto the acquisition community, who then will take and move that into digital engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n

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