Breaking Defense:

The National Reconnaissance Office and the Space Force now plan to launch the first satellites in their highly classified joint SILENTBARKER program to improve monitoring of the heavens this summer, according to NRO Director Chris Scolese.

The new capability no doubt will be welcomed by leaders at US Space Command, who have been increasingly frustrated about the Defense Department’s failure to fix gaps in space domain awareness (SDA) capabilities required to keep real-time tabs on adversary space activities.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a report released on Monday, is pushing the Space Force to move faster to integrate commercial SDA capabilities in order to fill some of those blind spots — which “include gaps in the geographical distribution of global sensors that collect data and limited sensor capability for objects in deep space.”

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