Outer space

Pentagon report: DoD needs to test how satellites would perform under attack

The Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation warns in a new report that the military today is not able to assess the durability of its satellites if they came under attack.

DoD plans to invest at least $100 billion in space systems over the next decade, “and we are not alone,” writes DOT&E director Robert Behler in his just released annual report for fiscal year 2019.

“We therefore must thoroughly understand how our systems will perform in space, particularly when facing man-made threats,” says the report. “Yet, the DoD currently has no real means to assess adequately the operational effectiveness, suitability and survivability of space-based systems in a representative environment.

In the fiscal year 2019 report, the testing office examined 235 programs that are currently in the oversight list. Congress created the office in 1983 to provide an independent take of the performance of major weapon systems.

In the introduction, Behler says testing and training for cybersecurity and for space-based systems “remain my greatest challenges.”