WASHINGTON — During a recent military exercise in South America, US Space Force imaging experts helped locate illegal fishing boats and track other activity using commercial satellites.
The exercise showed how unclassified data from commercial satellites can be leveraged for maritime security and other military applications, said 1st Lt. McKenna Medina, chief of the Space Systems Command’s Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Team, in a statement. August 10 press release.
A team from the Space Systems Command participated in 2023 The Resolute Ranger Exercise in Lima, Peru. Imaging and data analysis experts from the United States, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Brazil United kingdom She worked at the National Satellite Image Operations Center in Peru.
Medina said the best part about commercial products is that they aren’t labeled. “It gives users the flexibility to share business data with international partners.”
The need for timely data
Despite a commercial boom in easily accessible satellite imagery—which has allowed the U.S. government to release information publicly about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—the Department of Defense has struggled to integrate these capabilities into military operations.
This year, Space Systems Command established a Commercial Service Office to help support U.S. combatant commanders who need the data in a timely manner.
The commercial office’s program for acquiring data from commercial satellites is called SRT, which stands for Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking. It has also been referred to as “tactical ISR” (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), but the Space Force changed the term to convey that the SRT program is not attempting to replace imagery support provided by the US intelligence community.
The Space Force plans to create a unit within U.S. Southern Command, said Lt. Col. Jonathan Whitaker, director of Space Forces at Southern Command, and the exercise was a test run for how future operations could be conducted with the support of space assets. Hosts in Peru and Colombia have given us a global opportunity to test the operational aspects of field command for the southern component of future space forces.”
Commercial photo requests
Gen. Laura Richardson, head of US Southern Command, said the space data could help address challenges in the region, such as deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. “These issues and other Southern Command security challenges — including illegal mining and illegal logging operations — can be learned from space … and that information can be shared among partner nations in the region,” Richardson said in August. Center for Strategic and International Studies.
During the exercise in Lima, the United States and its allies relied on satellite imagery to locate a vessel suspected of fishing illegally in Peruvian waters. The suspicious ships turned off the radar and disappeared.”dark. “
Satellite data also supported disaster planning by obtaining images of a volcano in Colombia that showed signs of an imminent eruption. The Space Systems Command team captured Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data showing volcano conditions in Colombia and compared it to data from the recently erupting Peruvian volcano.
“It’s interesting to see partner nation image implementations because they have given analysts new ways for staff to work with partners,” said Capt. Benjamin Berezin, SSC Branch Vice President.
Col. Minbu Xue, director of SSC’s Hunter Integration Office, said the Space Systems Command is trying to “demonstrate the benefit of commercial technology to fighter commands and partner nations.”
“We expect all fighter commands to pursue this capability,” he said.
The SRT Program Office is planning a six-month pilot project to assess the needs of the US Africa Command for commercial detection and analysis products.
Commercial space office
Space Force Command has made it a priority to meet the needs of fighter commanders in a timely manner, said Jeremy Leader, deputy director of Space Systems Command’s Office of Commercial Space.
The SRT program aims to collaborate with the intelligence community “while we can focus more on that timely piece rather than the more strategic piece of intelligence,” Lederer said Aug. 8 at the Intelligence and Security Alliance Forum. National.
“The big difference between SRT and ISR is really focusing on the punctuality piece,” he said. “As we push for these types of solutions to be able to get things together in a timely manner, the more business resources we can bring into that pool, the better we can address the timing gap.”
