As space agencies develop new capabilities, they often encounter gaps and unforeseen barriers that complicate the process of integrating those initiatives across missions and systems. Working for decades on civil and defense space missions, Booz Allen has seen that it saves time, rework, and costs to keep the mission central to the process—and speed progress by connecting legacy systems with state-of-the-art innovation.

Here are some of the most common issues that hold up system development:

• Incomplete big-picture mission perspective—Systems of systems are often so complex that technical teams operate without a comprehensive understanding of the external interdependencies that exist across the system and the missions with which it interacts.
• Siloed legacy technologies—Satellites developed as monolithic, proprietary systems back in the “space as a sanctuary” days have significant vulnerabilities but are costly to upgrade, while ground systems and devices have incompatible standards and interfaces.
• Disjointed communication—Various engineering teams and contractors, each tasked to work on a different part of the system, rely on documentation in varying formats and lack a common understanding and vocabulary.
• Ineffective inclusion of cybersecurity—Adding cybersecurity into a system after the fact continues to be a major cause of schedule delays and added risks. System and cybersecurity experts often recreate existing documentation, requiring the system to be reworked to accommodate cyber controls—possibly to the detriment of mission performance.

Here are Booz Allen’s recommendations on how space organizations can unlock efficiencies in fielding and integrating systems through digital systems-of-systems engineering. 

Gaining a big-picture perspective requires a high-level understanding of purpose, technology, and what’s required from each mission partner, entailing:

• A detailed understanding of the program’s mission—what it’s supposed to achieve, and how it’s likely to evolve
• How the mission of this program is intended to fit into the broader space enterprise—what are the critical external interdependencies
• The characteristics of mission elements such as satellite, ground system and associated networks, and user devices to assure proper synchronization and formatting for messaging and data exchanges between them
• Where the opportunities to streamline are likely to be—for example, where implementing a certain software solution could solve incompatibility issues in multiple areas of the system
• What the likely challenges in mission requirements will be, to inform the development of more accurate scenarios to test and better inform development
• Adopt an overall digital engineering approach that includes model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to capture requirements and understand mission elements with digital threads and digital twins

The imperative of mission understanding carries from the big picture to individual details. For us, this means augmenting our understanding of Department of Defense (DOD) missions—which has helped us integrate space solutions across DOD platforms from Navy vessels to Air Force fighters—with training to anticipate the needs of the system being integrated.

For example, we train our cyber assessors as operators; sitting on the keyboard, they can see the mission impacts from vulnerabilities in action. We also have them develop code and learn the network configuration and ecosystem so they can develop recommendations that integrate seamlessly across the program.

Mission understanding provides the foundation; MBSE provides the path. MBSE unites all engineering functions around a systems engineering model that acts as a single source of truth for the project—interconnections, data flows, requirements, and more.

Keeping stakeholders on the same page throughout the lifecycle is a revolutionary benefit. From the client to the key developers to vendors supplying just one element, each partner has ongoing access to the specific information needed by that team—and no more. Secure collaboration is ensured throughout the project lifecycle, allowing new partners to “plug in” at any time to play their role with speed and accuracy.

Moreover, with this aligned communications network, each team gets instant notification when key requirements, upgrade strategies, or any other program element changes. There’s no shuffling of files, extensive briefings, or danger of key players being left out of any new development, large or small. 

DOD’s mandate to adopt a modular open-systems approach (MOSA) offers benefits for both new and legacy systems, as the open-architecture approach can rapidly be applied to both to increase affordability and adaptability.

Using the model, every partner can see how their part of the project interacts with the overall system architecture. A new developer, for example, can open the model to find details on standards such as the Open Mission Systems (OMS) and Universal Command and Control Interface Standards (UCI), promoting interoperability and forestalling mistakes.

MOSA opens the door to:

• Reverse engineering for proprietary systems—Systems engineers can save clients significant costs by engaging an engineering team to decompose closed technologies and replicate their technical baselines. We’ve achieved this for many clients, usually at a fraction of the cost of having the original manufacturer make the upgrade.
• Government-owned application programming interfaces (API) for rapid connectivity—Applying open-source interfaces provides plug-and-play interoperability, allowing varied technologies to be tested for rapid decisions.
• Containerization for a software factory approach—The baseline for a software factory can be built using the digital model and driven by the government tactical reference architecture. Capabilities can be engineered as microservices within an agile management construct, transforming them to modular elements offering total customization and agility. Requirements are established and executed in sprints. Stakeholders can either adapt a service as-is, replace it, or adjust it—for example, testing out a new algorithm on an A/B basis and then deploying the best solution across the program. Rather than costly separate projects, upgrades become an ongoing part of the process.

Agile processes, for example, our own hybrid Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and DevSecOps approach, ensure continuous development of strategic elements, automation of the system lifecycle functions—including continuous design review, verification and validation, and a continuous authority to operate status. This reduces both vulnerabilities and the risk of schedule delays.

Agility also encourages innovation. Working within modular open frameworks allows space agencies to experiment with new tools and technologies, developing accelerators on the fly. For example, for one space client, we recently used commercially available software to create an emulator for testing interfaces easily and rapidly.

Using MBSE as the common digital thread, cybersecurity can be integrated into the systems engineering lifecycle as part of the development cycle. This not only saves time and costs—no new documentation needed—it ensures ongoing discovery and timely mitigation of vulnerabilities.

Booz Allen offers a solution that integrates cybersecurity into MBSE, allocating cybersecurity controls related to the risk management framework to our functional architecture, processes, and procedures. It also gives cybersecurity teams a comprehensive view of the system to complement their cross-functional training. If there’s a vulnerability on a router, for example, the assessor can trace and translate that effectively to operations. Including cybersecurity in the build offers multiple benefits:

• Stakeholders have the opportunity to get cybersecurity insights early in the system lifecycle—where in the architecture to look for the highest vulnerabilities, for example. Continuous threat modeling ensures ongoing vigilance and ever-evolving protection.
• Functionality can be tested along with the appropriate cybersecurity controls, developing both in parallel rather than running the risk of needing to retrofit the system. 

As part of an agile software development process, vulnerabilities are continually tested and mitigated. In our process, zero trust security helps us build integrity from the inside out—from the software to the network and the physical layers. 

• Infrastructure as code allows experts to do much of the development in an unclassified environment, delivering software to be deployed in the classified environment. This trims development time and gives clients access to a wider range of talent at a lower overall cost.

“Baking in” cybersecurity also provides the opportunity to advance to sophisticated techniques: For one critical legacy system on-orbit, our teams collaborated with stakeholders to create a digital twin, which allowed for fast, cost-effective mitigation of vulnerabilities. Working with our digital engineering team, we are now integrating both physical and digital systems into the program’s software ecosystem to test them in combination for higher speed and accuracy.

As the space race accelerates, it’s essential that agencies have the ability to effect secure system-of-systems integration faster. By focusing on the core mission throughout every part of the process—and accelerating development with digital engineering and MBSE—stakeholders can advance with more confidence at less cost.