After a nearly three-year period of construction, the Distributed Ground System-2 building addition is now open for business at Beale AFB, Calif. “The new state-of-the-art facility enables significantly more life-saving support to those in harm’s way, be they in armed conflict or in a humanitarian disaster,” said Col. Jenny McGee, commander of the 548th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group that operates DGS-2. DGS-2 is one node in the Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System. Intelligence analysts in DGS-2 provide imagery and electronic signals data collected from ISR aircraft to warfighters worldwide. During construction and the moving-in phase, DGS-2 analysts continued to operate with almost no interruption of service by temporarily relocating. “At one point, DGS-2 personnel were working simultaneously from five locations around the world,” said McGee. (Beale report by 2nd Lt. Nicole White) (For more on DGS-2, see Beyond Reachback from the Air Force Magazine archives.)
When the Space Force discusses the cyber threats faced by the service or the commercial satellite providers it uses, it typically frames the issue as a nation-state one. But for cyber defenders in the commercial space sector responsible for day-to-day operations, the reality is rather different: Like other providers of…
