Muellner said Boeing is putting greatest emphasis on persistent intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets, along with long-range strike, “because those are the two areas that our customers say are their greatest needs.” Toward that end, Boeing is emphasizing unmanned aerial systems with long endurance—“the unblinking eye,” Muellner said—range and sensors. However, he cautions that the sensor is not enough, that the information must be networked and distributed to provide overall situational awareness.
The Space Force has selected six commercial space domain awareness companies to support military operations with both steady-state and surge capacity, as part of the service’s new Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve.