“A lot of the challenges we face in space are big data problems,” says Gen. John Raymond, who is dual-hatted as commander of Space Command and Air Force Space Command.

CFSCC’s mission includes executing “tactical control over globally dispersed Air Force, Army, and Navy space units that command satellites in every orbital regime.”

“We are the ones that say this is what needs to be done” to build a next-gen space architecture, says SDA Acting Director Derek Tournear. Except when they don’t.

Oh yes, we at Breaking D are delving into a murky realm that is not usually covered by defense publications: semantics and etymology, the study of the meaning and the origin of words and phrases including idioms.

Air Force Space Command deputy Maj. Gen. John Shaw says the US probably won’t be using piloted Tie Fighters in future space wars. But…

Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting is the new head of SPACECOM’s Combined Force Space Component Command; Gen. Tom James leads the new Joint Task Force Space Defense.

NGA’s Global EDG program is a good example of how the 2017 bifurcation of authority over commercial remote sensing acquisition between the NGA and the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO) — a transition that remains somewhat troubled –is supposed to work.

“People at the NRO and others hiding in unmarked cubicles in other parts of northern Virginia started breathing into bags like never before,” said one DoD about the 2018 SSA transparency policy.

“[A]dversaries could track the movements of U.S. and allied military equipment, detecting patterns of training and operations; hyperspectral imaging can identify chemical compositions; short-wavelength infrared imaging can see through clouds; and SAR sensors can image at night. When determining risks to national security, one can define it as the risk of being seen or detected.”

“To be quite honest most of our space systems are not the leading edge technologies,” Troy Meink, head of GEOINT at NRO, said. “We’ve not kept up in many cases with the commercial environment.”