US Invests Big In Space Force Cyber Security

As cyber warfare becomes the weapon of choice for adversaries, and the global economy becomes ever more dependent on space systems, space is a critical domain for cybersecurity.

Now the US Pentagon is planning to significantly increase the size of the United States Space Force’s cyber security team and the number cyber personnel will increase by over a thousand starting next year.

“Space systems will become the next front of the cyber conflict,” the US Space Force Major General Kimberly Crider said in a statement. The Pentagon is to significantly increase the size of the United States Space Force's cybersecurity team.  They plan to add over a thousand new personnel and Crider said that 130 cybersecurity officers would be transferred into the Space Force along with 1,000 enlisted personnel, who would be assigned cybersecurity work in 2021.

The staff who are to be transferred have been supporting the Space Force from their positions within the US Air Force. Once the transfer has been complete, the staff's main focus will be on the Space Force's defensive operations. Part of the Space Force's cyber future response would include technologies like GPS anti-jamming solutions and Protected Anti-Jam Tactical Satcom (PATS).

The force is also introducing military procurement events and programs that will allow its personnel to acquire state-of-the-art capabilities from non-traditional vendors.

One event Space Force Pitch Day, which is to take place in Los Angeles in the spring of 2021, hosted by the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC). 

The future of cyber warfare will be determined by US government strategic policies and the new technologies and US Space Command believes in the value of understanding the different types of cyber attack technologies and methods. General Crider praised the commercial defense industry for its work building security into military systems and networks and said that diversity will be a key element in building resilience. If one space system is jammed, the plan is to have other systems that they can fall back on. 

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