Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said SPACECOM is setting up a pilot project that seeks to demonstrate how data can be fused to provide operators with a “common operational picture” as part of efforts to enhance command and control capabilities, Breaking Defense reported Monday.
“We need improved command and control capabilities to fuse all this data, be able to display it to us. Now, can we operate without having that single, common operational picture, absolutely, but we want to do better,” Whiting said Monday at an event.
“I’m not quite ready to announce all the details, but me and my J6 have just decided in the last month or so that we’re going to pick up a test case in one of our mission areas, where we feel like there’s a lot of data and … we’re going to be able to fuse all the data we have and put it on a single pane of glass,” he added.
The general noted that the command will work with existing data and systems for the planned data fusion pilot.
According to Whiting, space domain awareness is one of the mission areas that needs improved C2 capabilities.
He stated that the command uses a C2 system called the Space Defense Operations Center, or SPADOC, for space domain awareness.
“We’ve modernized the hardware; it’s all on modern hardware, but the internal software is still pretty old, and so working with the Space Force and their acquisition arms to deliver an improved command and control capability for us in that mission area would be very helpful,” Whiting said of SPADOC.
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