How do we maintain space dominance in an increasingly contested domain? At Prodacity 2025, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, Commander of Space Systems Command (SSC), lays out a clear strategy for leveraging digital innovation to secure the future of national defense. From modernizing aging space infrastructure to integrating cutting-edge AI and cybersecurity measures, this session delivers key insights into how the U.S. Space Force is adapting to evolving threats.

Lt. Gen. Garrant discusses the rapid advancements in commercial space, the rising challenges posed by global adversaries, and how the U.S. must integrate digital solutions to stay ahead. His message is clear: the future of space security depends on agility, resilience, and collaboration between government and industry.

🔹 Key Topics Covered:

• The evolving space threat landscape
• The role of AI and machine learning in space operations
• Cybersecurity challenges in space systems
• The need for modernization and interoperability
• How industry partnerships drive innovation

🕒 Key Highlights & Timestamps:
[00:03] - Opening remarks & importance of digital transformation
[00:44] - The evolving commercial space industry & national security implications
[01:57] - Rising threats from China, Russia & the urgency of space security
[03:10] - Cyber threats to military & commercial space systems
[04:20] - The Space Systems Command (SSC) approach to modernization
[05:30] - The role of AI and machine learning in space operations
[07:39] - Integration challenges & SSC’s digital engineering efforts
[09:47] - Secure DevSecOps adoption for space systems
[10:43] - Building a culture of innovation in the Space Force
[12:38] - The Space Force’s commercial space strategy & industry collaboration
[14:39] - How businesses can engage with SSC through the Front Door initiative

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Lt. Gen. Garrant (00:03):

Good morning. I've got to say this is hands down the coolest venue I've ever spoken in. My two older boys are huge Luke Combs fans, and if they only knew, I understand Bryon tried to get Luke here for us, but I guess he's in Australia. But Bryon, thank you for that introduction and thanks for having me today. It's an honor to be here with all of you. And on behalf of General Saltzman, the chief of Space Operations, he sends his greetings. I think it's safe to say that I got the better end of the deal. I'm certain I'm having more fun here in Nashville with all of you than he's having in the Pentagon. Although it's hard to get a good night's sleep around here with all the bachelorette parties going up and down Broadway on the buses. Now, to be fair, it was a Monday.

(00:44):

There weren't any buses, but in seriousness, I'm extremely humbled to have this opportunity to talk to leaders across software and digital transformation community responsible for driving innovation and pushing the limits for what's possible, or as Bryon said, making **** happen. The commercial space industry is evolving rapidly. Satellites are smaller, launches are more frequent, and capabilities are far more advanced. This evolution presents unprecedented opportunities for collaboration with the US government, particularly in strengthening national security and advancing our space dominance. And while this evolution has been a catalyst for innovation and partnership, it's also contributed to a more complex space domain. General Salzman recently released his six Space Force Truths. The first of these is that the US Space Force capabilities are critical to the joint force and the American way of life. As the space domain has evolved through the years, our society's reliance on space has been woven into almost every aspect of our daily lives, and our joint force has grown to become incredibly dependent on the capabilities that space systems command provides.

(01:57):

Unfortunately, the space domain has become increasingly crowded and fiercely contested with more countries and private companies competing for access and control than at any other point in history. China is no longer a future threat. They are a threat Today, they're launching satellites at an unprecedented rate with more than 1000 satellites now in orbit and over 200 just in last year alone. They're heavily investing in counterspace capabilities with the intent to present a serious threat to US national security interests in from and to space. They're also targeting government and defense contractor networks to conduct espionage, steel data and technology and implant damaging malware. Not to be outdone, Russia has one of the world's largest space programs and is posturing itself to be a leading space power. They're researching, developing testing, and deploying sophisticated counterspace systems to disrupt and degrade, degrade US space capabilities. The speed in which our adversaries are developing and deploying space capabilities and cyber attack methodologies continues to increase.

(03:10):

They continue to refine and practice their cyber attack methods with a clear intent to disrupt our national security space systems, including ground infrastructure, satellite terminals, space ports, and spacecraft. In times of conflict, our adversaries are not going to discriminate between military, commercial, or allied systems. Every person here, every satellite on orbit and every network is a viable target. You are a target. Our call to action is to close kill chains with next generation capabilities and finish the pivot toward a more resilient on orbit posture. As the primary acquisition hub of the Space Force, space, systems command is charged with understanding the ever-evolving threat, delivering capabilities to counter it, and determining how to leverage those capabilities to maintain space dominance. Lethality starts here, driven by our innovation and relentless execution of our acquisition mission, we continue to face numerous complex challenges that cannot be solved efficiently using old acquisition methodologies.

(04:20):

We must adapt to the times, adopt an innovative mindset, and constantly look for opportunities to leverage new philosophies to outpace our adversaries. We are constantly seeking opportunities to exploit innovative digital solutions to help us become more interconnected and digitally dominant. This is critical. As our adversaries and strategic competitors continue to make strides in advanced capabilities that are more sophisticated, dynamic and lethal, the ability to leverage digital innovation enables us to not only thrive and adapt through these threats, but also fight through hostile and highly dynamic environments. To that end, there are three key areas where SSC is focusing to sustain the US competitive advantage through digital innovation. The first of these is modernization. Many of our military space systems have been around for decades and require major overhauls to support modern software advancements. These systems were designed and developed back when we were still learning and understanding how to connect to the internet, which means they're written in code that's probably older than our junior workforce.

(05:30):

And because of this, these systems aren't as agile as we need them to be, be able to rapidly respond to modern threats. Our space CT program is an example of a critical modernization effort aimed at getting after this problem. This program is software intensive and will transform the space domain awareness mission area. The Space C2 program is responsible for developing software and the supporting architecture to organize, understand, plan, decide direct and capabilities within the C2 joint capabilities areas, it's focused on delivering infrastructure platform networks and support layers that are security classification specific to enable the development integration test and fielding of space C2 software using an agile based DevSecOps rapid delivery framework. In other words, we're modernizing foundational components that have been around since the sixties and give us the data we need to operate faster and more efficiently. Not only that, but the data will be formatted in a way that allows machine to machine communication between users and allies across the globe minimize the time it takes to look at the data, process it and understand it all within a threat relevant timeline.

(06:42):

As we modernize, we must ensure that this includes scalability and the agility to take any data that comes in, process it and produce a high accuracy catalog for the future going forward. We aim to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning into operational workflows. These modernization efforts will transform the way we approach space operations and battle management through machine learning and the use of AI capabilities to maintain our competitive edge. I'm going to go off script here for a minute. I'm pretty sure one of my leaders is in the room from this program. Raise a hand. Shout out. No. Okay, well maybe he's traveling. There he is. Alright. In the back. He's being bashful. So on our network superpower hour, seek out some of our SSCs best and brightest working on these hard problems that are here at the conference. This leads me to my next focus area integration.

(07:39):

Our military space systems and their supporting infrastructure aren't just dated. They're also stove piped. This poses many challenges as we work to integrate existing systems while also delivering capabilities that are integrated, interoperable and resilient. Our space systems integration office or SSIO is focused on conducting systems engineering for integration of programs across the space enterprise. In coordination with mission partner organizations, the team performs mission threat and kill chain analysis, defines interfaces, executes engineering control board processes, and provides budget prioritization recommendations to the Space Force's Senior acquisition executive for the entire Space Force portfolio. SSIO is responsible for enabling a hybrid architecture that is disaggregated, proliferated, and diversified through a wide range of government industry and allied providers, as well as across a variety of orbits platforms and domains. Using Space C2 as an example, again, not only are we modernizing our infrastructure hardware and the platform and software on the backend, but we're also bringing it all together in an integrated manner across the Space force and a broader joint DOD effort.

(08:50):

This joint nature compels us to address government-wide enterprise integration to ensure that we can get the right data to the right capabilities on the timelines that are needed across the whole of government. And when I say whole of government, this includes agencies like the Department of Commerce and the intelligence community. Because I said earlier, we as a society have grown incredibly dependent on space. In addition to integrating into broader DOD efforts, we need an architecture that enables us to partner with industry more easily. These are immense architecture integration issues that we're addressing, and it's imperative that the networks work, the interfaces work together and the stakeholders can receive the data that they need to perform their mission. With all of this integration, we also need to ensure that we can bring data into a secure cyber environment, especially to support military operations. Within Space C2, we have a continuous integration and continuous development software factory.

(09:47):

They're using DevSecOps models to ensure that when we bring software in, we can do it quickly and securely while not introducing code or vulnerabilities that can be exposed to one of our adversaries. We also aim to leverage different types of data from a wide pool of providers. It could be from a foreign partner, a commercial partner, the intelligence community, or from our own space sensing network. We're using a Kafka based approach to help with this challenge, which allows us to utilize a wide variety of data types across the enterprise in support of AI capabilities. Innovative solutions like Kafka will be critical as we drive to integrate large amounts of data from across sources. The last key focus area for SSC is culture addressing modernization and integration challenges requires a cultural shift in the way that we operate, collaborate, and train. Our SSIO office also has a digital engineering and transformation team.

(10:43):

This team is spearheading broad-based development and enterprise integration of digital tools, processes, and solutions for our guardians to accelerate digital engineering adaptation and promote digital transformation. Whether it's establishing a common digital engineering environment for seamless collaboration between our personnel and vendors or working side by side with programs to build the tools to shape their day to day. We are looking for ways to help our organizations become more efficient and more interconnected. We are aligned to accomplish this with digital engineering minimum viable products, prototypes and tools ranging from model-based systems engineering to style guides, to offering agile operating support, all with the goal of creating a holistic digital engineering picture for our program executive offices or PEOs. So what does this look like in practice Through the use of robust digital engineering ecosystems, threat models developed by the Space Warfare Analysis Center can be easily transferred to SSIO and our PEOs for incorporation of their system requirements.

(11:44):

This information can then be passed directly through digital pathways to vendors and contractors for development through a streamlined process. This clear thread of information ensures everyone understands how their piece fits into the bigger picture. This is only one small part of building the culture. Another one of CSOs Space Force Truths is that the Space Force must defend its capabilities or the joint force will be unable to project power. At SSC, we're working diligently across our portfolios to make our space systems more resilient in the face of adversary threats. But we are also committed to building a culture throughout our workforce that emphasizes a warfighter mindset focused on countering the threat and committed to ensuring our space and ground systems are resilient by design. In order to keep up with the ever-changing space domain and outpace our adversaries, we're going to need contributions from across the space community.

(12:38):

The three key focus areas that I touched on are no small task, and we need help from all of you to ensure we're delivering resilient, integrated, secure systems to the joint force. The Space Force released the commercial space strategy in early 2024, recognizing the opportunity to leverage commercial capabilities and integrate them into our processes and architectures. The strategy details, how the Space Force is retooling corporate processes and continuing to cultivate commercial partnerships to increase our competitive advantage in space. At SSC, we are committed to executing this strategy. We've dedicated a lot of resource me towards industry outreach to strengthening existing partnerships, establishing relationships with new businesses, and demonstrating that we understand how valuable our industrial base is. One example is our commercial space office or comso, which was created to deliver expedited game-changing commercial capabilities to the war fighter. Comso has been doing some amazing work.

(13:38):

They've been openly engaging industry to solve the government's challenges and opportunities, facilitating transparent and seamless engagements between industry and the government, leveraging commercial innovation to fill war, fighting technical gaps and enhanced capability, and building a business model that creates value for both the government and for industry. Comso is made up of several different offices, such as Space Works, the global data marketplace, and the SSE Front Door, all of which provide industry. The opportunity to engage with SSC Space Works is focused on innovation and advanced technologies, expanding the industrial base and enabling capability transition. The global data marketplace focuses on removing entry barriers to integrate existing and emerging commercial capabilities and exploit commercial data sources at speed. But I'd recommend that if you're interested in connecting with SSC, is that your first stop should be at our front door. The front door acts as our switchboard to direct you to the program that can best address and support your ideas.

(14:39):

You can contact the front door by simply searching SSC front door online and their website is typically the first to pop up. So please reach out to us, share your ideas, and help us continue building connections. Because a United Agile space enterprise is essential for national security. And by aligning our shared goals and leveraging Ether strengths, we can maintain our leadership in space. SSC is committed to integrating innovative digital solutions into our space architectures and building a culture where digital innovation is laid in from the start. Our war fighters demand speed, adaptability, and decision action waiting is not an option. Time and again, our partnerships with commercial industry pay off in dividends and demonstrate what can be gained when we maximize synergies and minimize duplication of effort. Together, we can assure that the United States remains at the forefront of space capabilities, defending freedom and advancing prosperity here on earth. So thank you for your commitment, your innovation, and your partnership. The future of space is dynamic and together we have the power to shape it. I'm looking forward to connecting with many of you during the upcoming networking break. Please stop by and happy to answer your questions and I've got some folks from my team here with me as well. And we're looking forward to meeting as many of you as all. So thank you Semper Supra.

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