Shaun Waterman
Recent stories by Shaun Waterman
As Questions Hang Over the 16th Air Force, New Boss Moves to Fine Tune Info Warfare
The 16th Air Force, a sprawling Numbered Air Force that encompasses cyber attacks, electronic warfare, traditional surveillance and reconnaissance, public affairs and information operations, and weather forecasting, is due for a major shakeup, new commander Lt. Gen Thomas K. Hensley acknowledged, as Air Forces Cyber ...
Experts: Time Is Running Out for DOD to Execute Its Commercial Space Strategy
Time is running out for the Pentagon to fully integrate commercial space capabilities into its architectures as it said it would in its April strategy, former officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
Air Force’s New Integrated Capabilities Office Aims to Overhaul Acquisition
Tim Grayson, who heads the Department of the Air Force's new Integrated Capabilities Office, has a mandate to tear up the department's acquisition playbook in order to get new technologies into warfighter hands more quickly, he explained July 31.
The Air Force’s Zero Trust Strategy Is Out—and Acknowledges Big Hurdles.
The Department of the Air Force faces significant hurdles in implementing the Pentagon’s latest cybersecurity approach, dubbed Zero Trust, and will fail altogether if it continues to lag on key issues, according to its own strategy document.
For the Air Force, Warrant Officers Will Be a Critical Link in Digital War with China
The Air Force’s first cohort of warrant officers in 65 years will be already skilled cyber or IT specialists, and their training is designed to teach them how to become the critical link between warfighters and their leaders on technical issues, according to the officer ...
Russian Jamming Is Wreaking Havoc on GPS in Eastern Europe. But Is It Hybrid Warfare?
Amid unprecedented amounts of electronic warfare in Russia’s war on Ukraine, there is no doubt that the Russians are jamming GPS and other satellite-based navigation systems around the Baltic Sea. But is it just spillover from Russian air defense and force protection measures—jamming GPS so ...
Growing Commercial SATCOM Raises Trust Issues for Pentagon
News last fall that SpaceX owner and CEO Elon Musk restricted the Ukrainian military’s use of his Starlink satellite broadband service to stymie an attack on Russian forces highlighted the extraordinary power wielded in that war by a single business owner with some outlandish ideas. But ...
General Atomics Exec: CCA Will ‘Go Down in History’ for Putting Drones Front and Center
The Air Force has long embraced remotely piloted aircraft (RPA or drones) for over-the-horizon ISR and one-off strike missions and over two decades has come to see them as central in that role, General Atomics executive David Alexander said at a Hudson Institute event. But, ...
New Vice Chief: Air Force Failing to Exploit ‘Decisive Advantage’ Offered by Data
The Air Force’s cloud-based data lakes are becoming “data swamps,” clogged by huge troves of unstructured, uncatalogued, and therefore effectively unusable data, dumped in there by service elements overwhelmed by the huge task of curating, cutting and cataloging it. That was the message from new ...
Space Force Finally Rolls Out Cyber Standards for Commercial SATCOM Providers
The U.S. Space Force finally rolled out new cybersecurity standards for its commercial satellite vendors on May 28, saying those who could meet them might be able to charge more. First mooted more than three years ago, the Infrastructure Asset Pre-Assessment (IA-Pre) program is designed ...
GBSD Using Digital Twinning at Every Stage of The Program Lifecycle
The Air Force-managed modernization of America’s ground-based nuclear missiles has emerged as a test-bed for the use of digital twins—virtual models of real weapons systems—at every stage of the program lifecycle, its chief told the Space Symposium April 7. “What the digital environment allowed us ...
LEO Constellations’ Connectivity Offers Risks, And Rewards, Execs Warn
Many of the more remarkable capabilities of the coming generation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations come from their extraordinary connectivity—they’re networked not just with receivers on the ground, but with each other, as well. But this connectivity also means an increased cyber attack ...
Cutting Edge New LEO Constellations Will Use Familiar Link 16 Tech
The Space Development Agency’s experimental Low Earth Orbit (LEO) data transport constellation will employ bleeding edge new technology in space when it starts to launch later this year. But down on the ground, SDA Director Derek M. Tournear told the Space Symposium April 6, the ...
US Must ‘Slash Costs’ to Afford Space Superiority, Raymond Says
The U.S. military can’t afford the new proliferated, multi-orbit satellite constellations it needs unless military contractors cut costs by an order of magnitude, the Space Force Chief said. “We must also slash costs,” Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, Space Force Chief of Space Operations, told ...
Hackers Attacked Satellite Terminals Through Management Network, Viasat Officials Say
The cyberattack that cut communications for thousands of European users of Viasat’s satellite broadband service was carried out by hackers compromising and exploiting the system that manages customer terminals, two Viasat officials told Air Force Magazine. Viasat shared information about the hack with its DOD ...