In a Tactical Minute: Lessons Learned From the First-Ever In-Theater Satellite Command and Downlink

Responsive Space in the military world means responsive spacecraft development, launch, and operations. A tactical user, or warfighter, must be able to utilize the asset in near real-time in support of their urgent mission. This paper will focus on a means for the warfighter to utilize a space ISR asset directly from theater. Consider the following scenario: Unit X in-theater is not receiving the ISR data they need in a timely manner. Their U-2's and Global Hawks do not have access to the airspace, but they need to know what is over the hill. The wait for up-to-date ISR products could be days long, and they don't have that kind of time. Luckily, their Modular Interoperable Surface Terminal (MIST), used to communicate with the U-2 and Global Hawk, is also configured for communications with a Tactical Satellite (TacSat) Common Data Link (CDL) radio that will be overhead in a matter of minutes. With the flip of a switch, Unit X now has a satellite command and control station at their fingertips. As the satellite comes over the horizon, the MIST will lock on to the satellite and provide direct commanding access to the warfighter. Now he can task the satellite for ISR collection overhead but only has a few minutes to do it. But with an interface as easy to use as Orbitz.com, tasking the satellite can be done very quickly. Now that the satellite has been tasked, all he has to do is sit back and wait - but not for long! In a matter of minutes, a high speed downlink begins and the image can be displayed on the computer right in front of him. As you can see from the description of an in-theater contact, a tactical minute goes by in a flash. Because of the quick-paced nature of a tactical contact, processes and interfaces must be streamlined and easy to use. By examining lessons learned from the first-ever in-theater tasking/downlink using TacSat-2 and MIST, it can be shown that the scenario described above is feasible and responsive to the tactical user. This paper will focus on the concept of operations (CONOPS) lessons learned.