{"id":167093,"date":"2025-09-19T06:39:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/167093\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T06:39:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:39:05","slug":"beyond-potpourri-of-sensors-saltzman-pushes-holistic-approach-to-space-domain-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/167093\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond ‘potpourri’ of sensors: Saltzman pushes holistic approach to space domain awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAUI \u2014 The Space Force needs a more \u201ccomprehensive program,\u201d including more collaboration with commercial industry, to improve space domain awareness (SDA)<\/a> capabilities in order to \u201cavoid operational surprise,\u201d according to Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.<\/p>\n

The key is to get beyond \u201cjust enhance ongoing efforts incrementally,\u201d he told the annual Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS)<\/a> conference in Hawaii on Wednesday. \u201cWe need to solve SDA problems, not just improve SDA processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saltzman stressed that the space domain \u201cis becoming exponentially more congested each day, and our SDA capabilities are struggling to keep pace.\u201d And without \u201coperationally relevant SDA,\u201d he said, \u201cit will be nearly impossible to win in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must understand the domain, but it\u2019s more than just that, we must move beyond just a potpourri of sensors and data into an era of true decision quality understanding,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The current \u201ccatalog\u201d of space objects, their positions and trajectories maintained by the service \u2014 the public version of which is housed on the Space-Track.org <\/a>website \u2014 has significant gaps, Saltzman elaborated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot be satisfied if it takes us hours to detect on orbit activity, and we definitely cannot be satisfied [if] full characterization of on-orbit events takes weeks and months. Obviously, objects on orbit that don\u2019t have current state vectors [a snapshot of its position] in the catalog has a problem. An object with a state vector several days old is an issue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer it takes to update the catalog, the more problematic the issue, the less domain awareness we have. We need to retire our lost list, not manage it, because that creates ideal conditions for operational surprise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Saltzman explained that the fundamental issue is that much of the service\u2019s SDA architecture was \u201cbuilt for a different era, an era where space was not a warfighting domain.\u201d This means that the Space Force needs more personnel dedicated the mission, updated training, enhanced SDA tools, and revamped policies and procedures, he said.<\/p>\n

Saltzman admitted that on the policy front, the problem is internal to the service and the Pentagon write large. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, some of us here know what policies need to be adjusted. We lack the authority to direct the adjustment. Others have the authority, but don\u2019t know how or which policies need to be fixed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

This includes changing policies and attitudes toward use of commercial capabilities, Saltzman noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need you, everyone in this room today, to help us turn commercial innovations into war fighting advantage for mission priorities, for interagency requirements, and to strengthen our international partnerships. I believe, as does all the Space Force leadership, that we need to shift from a largely transactional relationship with industry to a much more collaborative partnership,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAUI \u2014 The Space Force needs a more \u201ccomprehensive program,\u201d including more collaboration with commercial industry, to improve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100671,4862,100672,79,193,59548,11716,100673],"class_list":{"0":"post-167093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-afa-2025","9":"tag-commercial-space","10":"tag-gen-chance-salty-saltzman","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-space-domain-awareness-sda","14":"tag-space-force","15":"tag-space-surveillance-network-ssn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}