Forging strong partnerships for warfighting communications in space (Studio)

Brought to you in partnership with Amazon Project Kuiper Government Solutions

In his keynote to DISC delegates, Moran emphasised the importance of low-Earth-orbit (LEO) constellations and integrating government and commercial innovation, particularly through hybrid architectures that leverage the best capabilities of all stakeholders.

To make the most of key government-commercial partnerships, he stressed the need for resiliency, seamless integration of space-based communications and informed, data-driven decision-making in an increasingly contested space environment.

Domain evolution

Moran said the space domain had evolved from a “non-contested to a congested, competitive and contested environment.”

“Space-based information has moved well beyond just a supporting element of the war fight,” he explained. “Space-based information is, in fact, often the decisive factor in military operations, and in today’s global battlespace, seconds matter. The difference between mission success and failure often hinges on a commander’s ability to make rapid, informed decisions based on accurate and near-real-time intelligence data.”

In the context of modern warfare, Moran discussed the challenges of ensuring secure access to trusted data: “That challenge is not just technology, but it's fundamentally about reimagining how we connect, process and deliver information across all domains to achieve a decisive advantage.”

Along with keeping up with new technologies and an evolving battlespace, Moran said it was important to “address the sheer volume and speed of data”, especially as multi-spectral payloads, ISR satellites and UAS sensors all generate quantities of information that can overwhelm traditional processing capabilities.

Dissolving boundaries

The technologies Moran focused on included LEO satellite constellations in a world where “the traditional boundaries between warfighting domains are dissolving into a synchronized operation across all of them – air, land, sea, space and cyber.”

“All-domain warfare isn’t simply about adding space as another checkbox in military planning,” he told the conference. “It’s about fundamentally re-conceiving how we integrate operations to achieve synergistic effects that no single domain can accomplish on its own.”

Moran described low-latency space communications as “the connective tissue that binds military operations together, enabling commanders to orchestrate effects across all domains with unprecedented speed and precision.”

“Our ultimate success against a rapidly emerging threat landscape depends on seamless coordination between soldiers on the ground, ships at sea, aircraft above, cyber operations in the virtual realm and increasingly on assets in space at the tactical edge,” he said.

“Secure, fast decision-making has replaced brute force as the decisive advantage in military operations, and adversaries are collapsing the decision timelines to minutes and seconds,” Moran continued, explaining that there is now a risk of losing if the right answer is delivered too slowly or the wrong answers are delivered too quickly.

To make the best decisions in high-pressure situations, Moran said armed forces are shifting to “more agile, software-driven communication using mesh networks and a hybrid approach,” with new systems being “rapidly prototyped and tested in the field, with a strong focus on secure coalitions and capable data-sharing in a contested environment.”

Space as a service

For Amazon Project Kuiper Government Solutions, the concept of space-as-a-service (SaaS) has become increasingly important, particularly due to its role in accelerating access to information for national security purposes. This was underlined by Moran’s emphasis on constructive partnerships between government and the commercial sector.

“What is new is the degree to which commercial capabilities are transforming what’s possible in space, including the creation of SaaS as a construct for consideration,” he said. “In this model, government and industry collaborate to deliver modular, scalable, on-demand service.”

He highlighted the importance of resilience and the move toward hybrid architectures in an SaaS context, such as ensuring access to data through multiple means, adding that such architectures need to be “interoperable, secure and mission-adapted.”

However, Moran cautioned that while there are benefits to accelerated access to information via the SaaS approach for the company's national security customers, it can draw the attention of adversaries who are “continuously seeking to interrupt, degrade, deny and sometimes even destroy communications architectures altogether.”

Sovereign security

Moran told delegates that space-based solutions are vital for national security, enabling secure systems to be developed in an environment of sovereignty. For a commercial player such as Amazon Project Kuiper Government Solutions, he said that “balancing commercial services with governmental systems require a focus on aligning capabilities with mission needs.”

“We recognise that national security demands certainty in communications availability, and sovereignty means control,” he said. “A new sovereign space model is evolving aligned with the increasing capability and flexibility of commercial networks, which offer governments control over their most valuable data, while ensuring their national security needs are met.”

He said this can be achieved through effective partnerships between “our warfighters across the joint forces, government, civilians, industry professionals and most certainly our allies, who each contribute their unique expertise and innovation”, along with “seamless integration across all domains and organisations.”

Interconnected future

Moran said that “future warfare will be shaped by how effectively we integrate space capabilities and more broader military architectures.”

“Those who master this integration, who can leverage space-based communications to seamlessly connect warriors in all domains, who can move data securely across these domains at the speed of relevance, will have the decisive information advantage.”

He concluded by saying that more than just a satellite constellation is required for success, emphasising the need to build “an information architecture that extends from space to the tactical edge, that connects commercial and government worlds, that achieves the speed of relevance for national security operations, and that delivers the information advantage our warfighters need to prevail in an increasingly complex battlefield.”

• Project Kuiper has now been rebranded as Amazon Leo. To find out more about space-as-a-service by Amazon LEO, click here