Jerry Petersen
For executives in the space industry, ensuring the resilience of hybrid space architectures would require greater integration between military and commercial capabilities, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.
Integration involves having “the ability to take the best that commercial brings to bear right alongside and foundational to the core military capabilities,” according to Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, senior vice president of government policy and strategy at Viasat.
Cowen-Hirsch made the remarks at the recently-held Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida, where the she discussed an incident that demonstrated the value of government-industry partnerships when it comes to addressing challenges in the space domain.
According to Cowen-Hirsch, at the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a cyber attack was carried out against a Viasat satellite network. The National Security Agency and National Cyber Center helped the company combat the threat.
The Viasat official noted, however, that a lot of work remains to be done before integration can be achieved. Optimization and improving interoperability are critical to the effort. Also crucial are transparency and the fostering of unified responses to threats.
