\u201cOur adversaries are coming after us in cyberspace,\u201d U.S. Space Force Col. John Smail did not mince words in a Nov. 4 CyberSatGov keynote. <\/p>\n
The U.S. needs to be ready to defend itself in cyberspace against Russia and China\u2019s cyber capabilities, said Smail, senior cyber officer for the Space Force. Smail, who advises the Chief of Space Operations on the U.S. Space Force\u2019s cyber, spectrum and warfighting communications policy, strategy, and operations, said cyber operations are \u201ccritical\u201d to the U.S. Space Force and to secure U.S. space power. <\/p>\n
Of the warfighting domains, space is particularly intertwined with cyber, he said. Smail pointed to the seven spacepower disciplines laid out by the Space Force in the inaugural space capstone publication \u201cSpacepower\u201d \u2014 orbital warfare, space electromagnetic warfare, space battle management, space access and sustainment, military intelligence, cyber operations, and engineering\/acquisitions. These disciplines cannot be performed without cyber operations, he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpace is unique in the domain that it is really dependent on cyber. Other warfighting domains are not in cyberspace all the time,\u201d Smail said. \u201cYou have no space power without cyberpower.\u201d <\/p>\n
As part of the efforts to secure cyberspace for the Space Force, Smail spoke about the U.S. Space Force initiative called cyber-enabled space operations, in which cyber squadrons are embedded in space deltas. Deltas in the Space Force are comparable to wings in the Air Force. According to the Space Force, these cyber squadrons will work side-by-side with space operators and intelligence experts, providing cyber capability to operational missions.<\/p>\n
Delta commanders will have cyber squadrons attached to their delta, he said. \u201c[For a] cyber squadron commander, although they will be defending systems at the end of the day, their primary purpose is ensuring the mission of the delta commander.\u201d <\/p>\n
These cyber squadrons will also run vulnerability management programs, a growing area of importance. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think we are moving into an era where vulnerability management is not just a cybersecurity thing, it is moving into an area of operations, if it hasn\u2019t already. We have to continue to close that OODA loop,\u201d Smail said, referencing the four-step decision-making process of observe, orient, decide, act. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we get into a conflict, and nation-states are breaking out some advanced capabilities, we\u2019re not going to be able to just sit there and talk about \u2014 \u2018We\u2019ll get to that in the next big Block release\u2019 \u2014 that is not going to work,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe need to exercise these processes now. It means agile development, agile processing. It means changing the culture, and bringing acquisitions and operations closer and closer together.\u201d <\/p>\n
The U.S. is the last nation that wants to see conflict in outer space, Smail said. \u201cWe are trying to build a force to deter conflict in space. But if it comes at us, we\u2019ll be ready to defend its capabilities.\u201d <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur adversaries are coming after us in cyberspace,\u201d U.S. Space Force Col. John Smail did not mince words in a Nov. 4 CyberSatGov keynote. The U.S. needs to be ready to defend itself in cyberspace against Russia and China\u2019s cyber capabilities, said Smail, senior cyber officer for the Space Force. Smail, who advises the Chief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}