DOD's Project Hydra fast tracks new C2 data fabric

A US Space Force radome receives data from satellites at Kaena Point Space Force Station, Hawaii, Sept. 14, 2022. (US Space Force)

The US Department of Defense (DOD) is leading a prototyping effort to develop a new common data fabric to centralize space-based tactical command and control (C2) data into a single, integrated computing environment.

Programme officials at DOD's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) are soliciting industry-developed data fabric prototypes for the effort, dubbed “Hydra”, according to a DIU solicitation issued in June. The Hydra programme is designed to “fundamentally shift from isolated mission areas to a dynamic, unified architecture capable of securely connecting and sharing data from any tactical C2 center from multiple locations, at scale”, the solicitation stated.

The programme's inception was driven by the stovepiped and disaggregated nature of the current terrestrial-based C2 architecture employed by US Space Force (USSF).

“Tactical command and control (C2) is siloed within individual mission systems, forcing operators to rely on manual coordination and brittle ... C2 [networks]” to carry out space-based operations, the solicitation stated. The problem is the most acute within the tactical C2 ground station network, according to programme officials.

The lack of a viable, integrated machine-to-machine architecture “creates a critical lag” in USSF's observe, orient, decide and act (OODA) loop, DIU programme officials wrote in the solicitation. That lag has resulted in “a vulnerability that is magnified as adversaries deploy [artificial intelligence] driven capabilities to compress decision timelines”, they added.