Digital Bloodhound will develop tools such as the Manticore software suite that identifies cyber vulnerabilities, and the Kraken software that throws up real-time defenses against ongoing attacks.
The 10 satellites, which will be lofted on a reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg SFB to low Earth orbit (LEO), are the first batch of the Tranche 0 constellation, building blocks of America's resilient space strategy.
The service is seeking the funds to “validate” modern tactics against a realistic peer adversary. Officials still “have a lot of studies to do to make sure we’re building the right kind of ranges and the right kind of simulators, and we’re learning as we go a little bit,” said CSO Gen. Chance Saltzman.
China's growing number of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites are "designed to find, fix, track and target US forces and allied forces. They're designed to help kill sailors, airmen, soldiers, and Marines," said Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, head of the Space Force's Indo-Pacific component command.
In a "Commander's Note" dated March 3, obtained by Breaking Defense, Saltzman argues that the need for space superiority in the face of adversary threats is a key reason the Space Force was created.
"I can't give you the specific numbers yet, but we are investing in developing what I'm loosely calling an operational test and training infrastructure," Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters at a roundtable today.
"A capable and resilient weapon system will be operationally ineffective if its personnel, expertise, tactical employment, and sustainment are insufficient for the mission," Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman says in his first commander's note on fielding combat-ready space forces.
Learning from Russia's failures in Ukraine, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said a key focus going forward is "making sure that not only do we have the systems to do the mission, but that our operators have the training the experience, and we have validated tactics that actually enable those capabilities."