DKosig/iStock

Space C4ISR Helps US Keep Military Edge in Warfighting Frontier

Presented by Leidos Leidos's logo

To maintain its ability to operate across the globe, the Pentagon turns to myriad tools and resources. Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, or C4ISR, is used to maintain situational awareness and keep decision-makers informed. And U.S. space-based C4ISR systems play an essential role.

Fifty years ago, when astronauts first explored outer space, it was uncharted territory. Today, thanks to the democratization of technology, things are getting a little crowded in orbit. Commercial giants, Silicon Valley startups, major defense companies and universities are all engaged in this era of developing and delivering space capabilities — including C4ISR solutions imperative to national security and U.S. space preeminence. 

C4ISR is an umbrella term for key elements of the global national security infrastructure. These sophisticated communications and information systems are vital to U.S. security and military superiority.

For example, the Defense Department relies on GPS satellites for navigation and remote sensing systems for situational awareness of U.S. adversaries.

The rapid increase in space-based technology is opening up new missions and giving the U.S. a competitive advantage. But there’s also a downfall to that proliferation.

New capabilities mean new risks for space-enabled services, says Keith Johnson, Leidos Intelligence Group’s chief technology officer. 

For instance, GPS signals can be spoofed to make something appear it’s in a different location. Images from satellites can also be manipulated to show something that doesn’t exist in reality. Additionally, jamming technologies could disrupt communications services and seriously interfere with military command and control.

“It’s hard to consistently spoof the human brain, but it’s easier to repeatedly trick our current generation of artificial intelligence and machine learning models,” Johnson says. “As we increasingly integrate algorithms into space-based C4ISR, we have to create mechanisms that can check and look for spoofing capabilities and not allow our systems to react in a way that they shouldn’t.”

Applying C4ISR Best Practices from Other Warfighting Domains

Leidos has been providing mission support and innovation across the defense and intelligence community for over 40 years, drawing on expertise gleaned from supporting customers across air, sea and land and figuring out how to apply them in space.

“We’re focusing on how we can use autonomy more in the space mission,” Johnson says. “We have some advanced capabilities around autonomy right now; some in space and some in the air, and a lot in the marine environment.”

One maritime success story is Sea Hunter, an autonomous unmanned surface vehicle powered by AI instead of a crew. Designed and built by Leidos, Sea Hunter made history last year as the first-ever vessel to sail from San Diego, California, to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and back entirely autonomously — a trip that’s over 5,750 miles.

Leidos now wants to do the same thing — but in space.

“We’re focused on taking legacy stovepipes and human-centric space systems and making them more autonomous, and leveraging commercial capabilities in space,” Johnson says.

New commercial launch capabilities from companies like Space X are getting the headlines, but there are other space-based commercial capabilities that offer opportunities to deliver novel or enhanced C4ISR services. Leidos has been working on pushing the boundaries of current commercial space-based processes and protocols. One example is the Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload, or CHIRP, which launched as a hosted payload on an SES commercial communications satellite.

CHIRP was built for a one-year mission life, but ended up being used for 27 months until finally decommissioned in December 2013. 

“We were able to demonstrate an incredible capability on a budget that’s much, much more effective than how our customers typically get systems into space,” Johnson says.

The Leidos Way

Leidos’ mission support and innovative capabilities span space surveillance, navigation and timing, missile warning and space situational awareness. The company’s approach to innovation in space is to help customers solve their mission challenges with emerging technologies. It starts with identifying the mission gaps customers have and then finding new, creative ways to solve them.

“We really are always trying to think of mission-outcome-based innovation,” Johnson said.

But to truly introduce innovation in technology, change management is vital.

In the area of space capabilities, the company considers an agency’s current workflows, workforce and systems — as well as the existing capabilities that meet national security missions.

“We can’t just start from scratch and think those don’t exist,” Johnson says. “We want to assume they are functioning within an overall mission context. And then we figure out how can we introduce new capabilities that augment and complement what’s already in place.”

It’s at this stage Leidos brings in the technology to deliver new innovative approaches for its customers, Johnson says.

“That’s where Leidos has the advantage; we’re embedded with major space agencies and the agencies that benefit from the resources we have in space,” he notes.

As new capabilities are launched, particularly in the commercial world, defense decision-makers should consider how they can leverage the growing commercial space ecosystem.

One area Leidos is investigating is figuring out how to ingest all the commercially generated space data and use it in conjunction with data the government space agencies have internally, so the company can create richer, better products for its national security customers, Johnson says.

“We are a data-centric organization; we have to think of data as the first-class citizen,” he notes. “Instead of thinking of applications or hardware as first class, it’s really the data that’s the key.”

The Future of C4ISR

Today, all the domains are fairly separated but future C4ISR will be multi-domain and seamlessly incorporated across space, air, land and sea, Johnson predicts.

Space operations will also become more automated, perhaps even allowing satellites to operate more autonomously, without waiting for new commands with the ground, he says.

Faced with increasing militarization and threats, Johnson forecasts space operations will also become more resilient.

Finally, space is going to be more democratized, according to Johnson, and as space costs decrease, even smaller countries will launch space capabilities.

But how that plays out is as of yet uncertain — and getting there requires some planning, Johnson points out.

“We’ll just have to think about what that looks like when there’s space C4ISR capabilities that are available to a larger amount of countries, organizations and agencies around the world,” he says.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.