Whether it\u2019s satellite communication, position, navigation or timing data or targeting data, Army leaders knows space capabilities can make their job easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But while the Air Force, Navy and intelligence community operate satellites in space, what is the Army\u2019s role in the fourth domain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, probably the least most advantageous thing would be the Army trying to build its own satellite to be able to put in space,\u201d Brig. Gen. Robert Collins, head of the Army\u2019s program executive office of Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, said during an Aug. 16 media day. \u201cWe are looking to leverage what\u2019s already out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Collins, the Army\u2019s focus on space is using the tools developed and maintained by other agencies, such as the Air Force\u2019s GPS for position, navigation and timing data, or looking to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide detailed mapping data. To do that, the Army wants a ground station capable of receiving data from all of the space assets held by other agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we work on is the ground station, or the catcher\u2019s mitt, to collect what\u2019s in space,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy ground station, I\u2019ve almost looked at it like a LEGO, right?\u201d Collins said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a base building block that my user interacts with, but it can be built on. Depending on commercial capability, I can tie into that. If [the National Reconnaissance Office] or NGA have things, I can tie into that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To take all that data and make it useful, Collins\u2019 office is continuing development of Distributed Common Ground System\u2013Army, a software platform that can layer intelligence data on maps to give war fighters a view of the battlefield or quickly pick out a safe and navigable route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs part of our multi-domain operations, I\u2019ll tell you that if we want to target deep, we have to be able to see deep. In order to see deep, you have to do that at elevation, and what better place to do that than space?\u201d he said. \u201cThere [are] a significant amount of layered sensors that are out there that we\u2019d like to posture this to be able to collect from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collins said such a ground station would ideally collect intelligence from manned and unmanned aircraft. By pulling in data from those sources, war fighters can create a holistic understanding of their environment that\u2019s based on the most accurate, up-to-date intelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added that the Army is following commercial satellites as well, and he\u2019s particularly interested in what capabilities microsats could bring to the battlefield. This could include commercially provided, space-based Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Army wants a ground station capable of taking in all of the intelligence gathered by American space assets and then transforming that into information usable by war fighters in the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":106,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"10":{"categories":["military-space-report","newsletters","space"],"primary_category":"military-space-report"}}},"categories":[7,106,29,32,37],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3143],"class_list":["post-17483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-battlefield-tech","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-space"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"LO7GR7NIPVASHDN63R52QGXTBY","arc_canonical_url":"\/newsletters\/daily-brief\/2019\/08\/20\/when-it-comes-to-space-the-army-is-focused-on-the-ground\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n