BATTLE MANAGEMENT COMMAND, CONTROL, AND COMMUNICATION (BMC3)

SDA’s Battle Management Layer will provide automated space-based battle management through command and control, tasking, mission processing and dissemination to support time-sensitive kill chain closure at campaign scales.

The SDA Battle Management Layer will provide the hardware and software framework to host mission-specific processing, algorithms and applications across the architecture layers and systems. Supported use cases will include space-based command and control, tasking, and mission processing. Processed data will be routed across a mesh network through both cross-links and down-links to enable timely dissemination to both the warfighter and other systems in the architecture. Evolving threats and mission needs will be continuously addressed through on-orbit updates to the flight software.

SDA’s Battle Management Layer is exploring technical areas including, but not limited to:

• Low-latency on-orbit mesh networks,
• Distributed command and control,
• Automated schedule optimization and sensor tasking,
• Onboard processing algorithms,
• Software architectures that enable on-orbit upgrades,
• Trusted autonomy and artificial intelligence,
• Enhanced cybersecurity,
• Improved performance and minimized size, weight and power of onboard processing hardware, and
• Improved modularity and interoperability of battle management functionality.