Space Vehicles Directorate

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Air Force Research Laboratory’s New Space War-Fighting Facility

June 8, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Nathan Strout May 26, 2021 (c4isrnet.com)

• The Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate has opened a $12.8 million Space Warfighting Operations Research and Development (SWORD) laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. The SWORD lab will track objects in orbit, support satellite cybersecurity, and develop autonomous capabilities to help space vehicles avoid each other and space debris.

• “One of the reasons we stood up the US Space Force was to ensure our nation has the capabilities to deter any threats in space,” said Col. Eric Felt, the head of AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate. “Our job in the SWORD lab will be to continue to develop resilient and innovative technologies that will protect our nation and allies from threats by our adversaries. Recognizing that space is an emerging domain for warfighting, we want to make sure there is never a war in space.”

• The 26,000-square-foot facility that will serve as the home of 65 personnel from AFRL’s Space Control Branch. “This is a laboratory for the nation, for AFRL and the Air and Space Forces where new partnerships will be enabled,” Felt said. “We want to bring people together to ensure we will continue to deliver innovation to the nation.”

• The new facility continues AFRL’s development of new infrastructure at Kirtland Air Force Base dedicated to space. In October 2020, AFRL opened the $4 million Deployable Structures Laboratory, or DeSel, to host the Spacecraft Component Technology Center of Excellence, which develops materials for new deployable space structures.

WASHINGTON — The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate

recently opened a space research and development lab at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The $12.8 million Space Warfighting Operations Research and Development, or SWORD, lab will be used to track objects on orbit, advance satellite cybersecurity, and develop autonomous capabilities to help space vehicles avoid each other and space debris, Col. Eric Felt, the head of AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, said in an announcement Tuesday.

“One of the reasons we stood up the U.S. Space Force was to ensure our nation has the capabilities to deter any threats in space,” Felt said. “Our job in the SWORD lab will be to continue to develop resilient and innovative technologies that will protect our nation and allies from threats by our adversaries. Recognizing that space is an emerging domain for warfighting, we want to make sure there is never a war in space.”

The 26,000-square-foot facility that will serve as the home of 65 personnel from AFRL’s Space Control Branch.

“This is a laboratory for the nation, for AFRL and the Air and Space Forces where new partnerships will be enabled,” Felt said. “We want to bring people together to ensure we will continue to deliver innovation to the nation.”

The new facility continues AFRL’s development of new infrastructure at Kirtland Air Force Base dedicated to space. In October 2020, AFRL opened the Deployable Structures Laboratory, or DeSel. That $4 million lab hosts the Spacecraft Component Technology Center of Excellence to develop materials for new deployable space structures.

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Space Force Considering NASA-Style Partnerships With Private Companies

June 13, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Sandra Erwin June 4, 2020 (spacenews.com)

• The launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on May 30th that took NASA astronauts to the International Space Station was the “culmination of perhaps the most successful private-public partnership of all times,” said Colonel Eric Felt, head of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate. In a SpaceNews online event June 4th, Felt noted that Space Force will be far smaller than the other U.S. military services, so it plans to follow the NASA playbook and team up with the private sector. “The Space Force is going to be the most high tech of all of the services,” said Felt.

• Public-private partnerships, like deals with SpaceX and Boeing, have saved NASA billions of dollars. There are many commercial capabilities that can be used to meet military needs, with “hybrid architecture”. For example, commercial companies already have powerful sensors and data analytics systems to track and investigate space objects. The Space Force’s AFRL is looking into public-private deals to use these commercial satellites to enhance its “space domain awareness”, allowing Space Force to monitor every object in outer space. (see video below)

• Another application using private satellites in low Earth orbit is for the deployment of sensors for the Air Force’s ‘Advanced Battle Management System’, allowing the military to integrate and analyze data from space rather than from the more vulnerable command-and-control airplanes flying over enemy territory.

• Next year, AFRL plans to launch an experimental ‘cubesat’ satellite equipped with a ‘Link 16’ encrypted radio frequency data link, widely used on U.S. military and NATO aircraft and ground vehicles to share information, as a communications network relay in space. With “one of these Link 16 transponders (attached to) each of these low Earth orbit satellites, you would basically have Link 16 capability everywhere all the time,” said Felt.

• Private companies deploying broadband satellite constellations in low Earth orbit would be candidates for partnerships where these commercial satellites would also host government communications. The Defense Innovation Unit of the AFRL and the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center have been talking about setting up a ‘space commodities exchange’ where space services could be traded like commodities. “The space domain awareness data might be a great example of the kinds of things that the Space Force could purchase through a space commodities exchange,” said Felt.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force will be far smaller than the other military services but way more dependent on technology to do its job. While the Space Force will develop satellites and other technologies in-house, it also plans to follow the NASA playbook and team up with the private sector, said Col. Eric Felt, head of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Vehicles Directorate.

Speaking at a SpaceNews online event June 4, Felt said NASA’s commercial crew program is “super exciting” and one that the Space Force can learn from.

The launch of a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on May 30 that took NASA astronauts to the International Space Station was the “culmination of perhaps the most successful private-public partnership of all times,” said Felt.

The Space Vehicles Directorate, located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, is one of the organizations that Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett agreed to transfer to the Space Force. Felt said his office will remain at its current location but approximately 700 people will be reassigned to the Space Force.

“The Space Force is going to be the most high tech of all of the services,” said Felt.

Public-private partnerships like NASA’s commercial crew deals with SpaceX and Boeing have saved NASA billions of dollars and serve as a “powerful model” that the Defense Department could adopt, said Felt.

1:02:30 video on military/corporate partnerships for Space Force (‘SpaceNewsInc’ YouTube)

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