Defense – The Smallsat Role

For U.S. military and intelligence agencies, the move toward smaller satellites is part of a broader effort to shore up their space-based assets against attack.

For generations, military satellites have been massive, and massively expensive. In recent years, however, an increasing consensus among defense leaders and military analysts has emerged that smallsat architectures are the way to go.    Rather than rely on a few big satellites, they say, critical military functions — such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance or positioning, navigation and timing — could come from swarms of smaller satellites.  National security experts say increasingly that a rising generation of space threats make the shift to smallsats an imperative.

Date: February 4, 2020 Time: 12:45 pm - 1:35 pm Dara A. Panahy
Partner

Milbank LLP
Jeanne Atwell
Senior Director of Advanced Mission Solutions

Ball Aerospace
Brigadier General Steve Butow
Space Portfolio Lead

Defense Innovation Unit - DIU
Todd Harrison
Senior Fellow and Director of the Aerospace Security Project

Center for Strategic and International Studies
Ric Vandermuelen
VP/GM Global Mobile Broadband

ViaSat