{"id":4084,"date":"2020-12-06T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/06\/pentagon-industry-investing-in-space-force-simulations\/"},"modified":"2020-12-06T23:59:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T23:59:00","slug":"pentagon-industry-investing-in-space-force-simulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techclot.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/06\/pentagon-industry-investing-in-space-force-simulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon, Industry Investing in Space Force Simulations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pentagon, Industry Investing in Space Force Simulations<\/a><\/p>\n

Pentagon, Industry Investing in Space Force Simulations<\/span><\/h2>\n
\n
\n Artist\u2019s rendering of two space situational awareness satellites<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

Air Force rendering<\/p>\n

As the Space Force nears the first anniversary of its creation, the new service is continuing to build out the framework for training warfighters for a future conflict that could take place in space.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. John Shaw, commander of the Combined Force Space Component at U.S. Space Command and deputy commander of the Space Force\u2019s Space Operations Command, touted the importance of better simulators during the virtual Training and Simulation Industry Symposium, which was hosted by the National Training and Simulation Association. NTSA is an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really don\u2019t have simulators today in which to train our folks,\u201d Shaw said. \u201cWe need to develop those and we need better modeling and simulation capabilities where we can actually model a potential conflict and fight, change the variables, conduct war games, and do this at a scale and scope that we have not really done … at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the service created career tracks to train its personnel to specialize in a number of areas including: orbital warfare, space electronic warfare, space battle management, space access and sustainment, said Space Force Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt, director of operations and communications.<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the service is looking at how it will train students to understand weapons systems and capabilities from the inside out, she said during an interview with the Space Force Association this summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to get very detailed and very specific in force packaging those various tracks and how we would fight a war that could potentially expand into space,\u201d she noted. <\/p>\n

As the service better defines these tactics, strategies and the positions its warfighters will fill, that clarity will drive how training evolves, said Frank Backes, senior vice president for federal space-related business at Kratos Defense and Security Solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re still defining a lot of those components, so we\u2019re starting to see training needs \u2026 on a program-by-program basis,\u201d he said. \u201cNext generation, I believe we\u2019re going to start seeing integrated training requirements across the Space Force as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to space being designated as a warfighting domain, it was seen as a benign environment, and designing a space infrastructure to withstand conflict that would extend up into the region was not heavily prioritized, Backes said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that scenario, … the way that our military operated when they did wargaming and those types of things, it didn\u2019t really include a lot of space capability,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, obviously, that has changed significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the military and industry are looking at how assets are affected by threats from the ground and other spacecraft, he noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose threats could be [radio frequency] communication interference \u2026 either intentional or unintentional, or those threats could be kinetic threats where two satellites collide, or a satellite is a kinetic threat vehicle that could intentionally collide with another space asset,\u201d he explained. There are \u201cother types of threats as well that could impact space systems, so really what we\u2019re trying to do now is retrain or train our new Space Force operators to understand these threats, understand how to recognize the threat and how to mitigate\u201d them.<\/p>\n

The company is investing in a Space Force Mission Trainer concept using virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology that it believes could be foundational to the service as it fleshes out and defines what its operators will do, he said. <\/p>\n

Virtual reality, or VR, immerses users in a computer generated environment, such as video gaming. Augmented reality, or AR, transposes data or other digitally created images on top of a real-world field of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a scripted or textbook kind of training environment. It\u2019s an environment that really immerses you into the reality of the [situation] \u2026 and in many cases allows you to use the actual tools you would use during a warfighting scenario and train as if you were in a conflict,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The technology is currently being used by the Defense Department to train KC-46 Pegasus tanker pilots. The company also created the Marine Common Aircrew Trainer that enables servicemembers to train on three different platforms. Kratos is taking those training and simulation engines and applying that technology to scenarios relevant for space warfighters, Backes said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology is the same technology \u2026 but now we\u2019re combining that with our other expertise we have in satellite communications and space command and control to bring a Space Force-focused capability,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The technology will allow warfighters to simulate combating threats in a contested, degraded and operationally limited space environment.
Backes described one training scenario: \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re trying to simulate a radio-frequency threat to the communications infrastructure of the space systems. You would want to be able to insert that threat \u2014 or a simulated version of that threat \u2014 into a live communications environment that would allow the operators to be using their actual systems and see how interference would impact their ability to do their job.\u201d <\/p>\n

The company has the capability to continuously alter its training environment to keep pace with evolving threats, he said. \u201cThis virtualized and dynamic approach allows you to keep changing the way that you\u2019re doing training based on what\u2019s happening in the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kratos currently has contracts with the Pentagon that include training for space operators. However, they tend to be narrowly focused on particular missions, he noted. But Backes expects that trend to change as the service expands its readiness efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we believe will occur over the next few years is a focus on the training of the entire Space Force,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the new military branch has begun making small investments in training technology to teach warfighters space domain awareness. <\/p>\n

In October, it awarded Slingshot Aerospace, a startup focused on situational awareness, a $1 million Small Business Innovation Research contract to build a training-and-simulation tool. The company received an additional $1 million in funding from ATX Venture Partners, a venture capital firm, to build the capability.<\/p>\n

Slingshot Aerospace has been tasked with creating the Slingshot Orbital Laboratory, a web application-based platform to teach students and other professionals the fundamentals of space domain awareness, including complex astrodynamics. The aim is to provide a new and engaging way to understand and predict object relations in space and orbital scenarios, according to the company. <\/p>\n

The first iteration of the tool will allow students \u201cto adjust orbital elements of real or synthetic satellites in a way where they can see the objects, they can toggle on-and-off different aspects of \u2026 the physics associated with that satellite\u201d and the orbit that it is in, said Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and chief strategy officer at the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, they will be able to explore orbital and satellite parameters streaming across the interface in real time,\u201d she said in an interview. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe student can slow down and start up that visualization, and other students can be in looking at the same thing from different camera angles. So we\u2019re starting out from the get-go making it simple to load, simple to use and simple to visualize from multiple perspectives with the collaborative capability behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company is partnering with visualization studio The Third Floor to build the capability. The Third Floor has created virtual reality graphics for space-related films and shows such as The Martian, Gravity and The Mandalorian.<\/p>\n

Slingshot will provide the space domain and data expertise while The Third Floor will be responsible for the visualization component.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe quickly realized that they have a very distinct capability to create physics-accurate content that would make our product offering even more powerful,\u201d Stricklan said. \u201cThe team both over at The Third Floor and within Slingshot shares their creative vision and a shared vision for the way that we innovate and engineer around these kind of complex physics-based capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the Space Force contract with Slingshot runs through December 2021, the company is hoping to deliver the capability before that deadline, Stricklan said. The first prototype will be optimized for personal computers. However, the capability is being built with future augmented and virtual reality solutions in mind, she said. <\/p>\n

The contract is a step in the right direction for the service, as it needs tools such as the Slingshot Orbital Laboratory to continuously help students deepen their understanding of astrodynamics, Stricklan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlingshot Orbital Laboratory is one of the first [organizations] to be able to really take things as complex as astrodynamics and make them so that anyone from a PhD to a GED across that type of spectrum can leverage and learn from,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the service is beginning to make investments in these new capabilities, it will be awhile before new trainees rise high through the ranks, Burt noted. As students coming out of training are put into the follow-on tracks created for space operators, \u201cit is going to take 10 years before those individuals are squadron commanders and squadron superintendents both officer and enlisted,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

They will shape the way the service looks at its tactics, techniques and procedures, she added.<\/p>\n

Burt said she wanted the service to continue to leverage training processes and procedures from the Air Force and move as quickly as possible.
\u00ad<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Jon Harper<\/em><\/p>\n

\n Topics:<\/strong> Space<\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Published at Sun, 06 Dec 2020 23:15:00 +0000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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