Space Domain Operational Environment Assessment

With the acknowledgement of space as a warfighting domain in 2019, the U.S. Space Command was established as a geographic combatant command. No orbital regime is entirely safe from intentional or unintentional threats. Adversary forces can track and target U.S. forces in all warfighting domains. The past two decades have witnessed rapidly maturing space based and counterspace capabilities of U.S. adversaries, as well as their attempts to interfere with U.S. military operations. U.S. operational space activities perform a continuous cycle of situational awareness, planning, execution, and assessment to support leadership’s decision-making process at all levels of command.

Space Domain Operational Environment Assessment is a prerequisite to achieving space superiority by

(a) understanding the situation in space, and (b) gaining insight into space-related activities in other domains. Even in peacetime, awareness and mission assessment in the space domain is difficult to maintain due to the scope and distances involved. Achieving timely awareness and assessment of space activities to support space superiority operations is a monumental, highly technical challenge that is only growing. The past 20 years has seen the number of objects in orbit grow from approximately 10,000 to over 50,000. As this number grows, so too does the need for timely space domain awareness and situation assessment.

Given the complexity and challenges of operations in space, this topic seeks to develop a proof-of-concept to leverage multi-INT, multi-domain data, intelligence, and information sources to monitor and assess space operations and their functionality in a timely manner in response to intentional and unintentional threats and situations of interest.

To accomplish this, the topic consists of two distinct Technical Areas (TAs). The first TA (TA1) focuses on the collection, processing and analysis of all data types and phenomenologies for advanced Space Domain Awareness and detection of non-standard threats. The second TA (TA2) focuses on analytics, data fusion, machine learning, dynamic command and control for understanding adversary capabilities, actions (offensive/defensive) and effects.

Technical Area 1 - Real-time Processing of Non-Traditional Phenomenologies for Non-Standard Threats

The space domain is becoming increasingly congested and contested as the population of satellites in the space domain is both increasing and expanding. The emergence of non-standard threats in the space domain poses a challenge for traditional phenomenologies, such as RADARs and electro-optical telescopes. Today’s non-standard threats are increasingly difficult to detect, track and characterize. The United States Space Force (USSF) must possess the capability to monitor the space domain for nonstandard threats in order to protect national assets. This topic seeks to identify new sensing phenomenologies and the processes necessary to detect, track, and characterize non-standard threats. Additionally, the USSF needs to understand how these new phenomenologies complement and improve information products generated by traditional phenomenologies.

Technical Area 2 - Real-Time Automated Data Fusion, Analysis & Exploitation

Joint space forces typically support multiple Combatant Commands, joint functions, and Operational Environments simultaneously to create effects during all military operations (strategic, operational, and tactical). Joint planners continually coordinate across internal and external equity holders to integrate intelligence and information for commander guidance and decisions on the development and refinement of space strategies, plans, and objectives. The timely assessment of space operations is critical for the iterative joint planning process, especially in a contested environment, and must keep pace with evolving conditions and considerations. This can be challenging in the space domain where operators often cannot directly observe the effects of an operation and resulting adversary behavior.

Space operations assessment measures the progress toward accomplishing a task, creating an effect, achieving an objective, or attaining an end state by comparing forecasted outcomes to actual events to determine the overall effectiveness of force employment. As planners identify specific space tasks, they also develop measures of performance and measures of effectiveness to assess each task and objective. Space operations assessment informs the decision-making process concerning the best way to employ and adapt limited resources in support of military operations.

Program: STTR, Phase I Agency: Department of War, Air Force Topic number: DAF26TX06-NV514 Solicitation: 26.TX Released September 2, 2026; proposals accepted from September 23, 2026 Closes October 21, 2026. Check the official solicitation for the exact due time. Award type: contract, not a grant. Official solicitation: https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/topics-app/ Listed on SBIR.gov: https://www.sbir.gov/topics/13016. SBIR.gov copies agency solicitations and can lag behind them; the official solicitation is the final word.

Small businesses only: a for-profit US business with 500 or fewer employees, including affiliates.

More than 50% owned and controlled by US citizens or permanent residents (some agencies also accept majority ownership by venture capital, hedge fund or private equity firms; the solicitation says).

SBIR: the principal investigator is primarily employed by the business. STTR: the business partners with a US nonprofit research institution or university, which does at least 30% of the work.

Registered in SAM.gov before submitting.

Check the official solicitation for its own conditions, proposal limits and security review.