In an article titled Pentagon underestimated supply chain fragility, now racing to fix gaps the author describes the supply chain challenges that are disrupting military satellite programs. These challenges were initially thought to be related to COVIDs impact on the supply chain but these challenges to fulfill orders for increasingly more demand are still being realized. Another stressor on our supply chain paths is the shift to proliferated constellations requiring many more parts than the tradition single or small groups of satellites. These types of programs are requiring an order of magnitude more satellites which means that many more rad. hard parts are required. An interviewee discussed the fact that ‘China’s global agreements have locked up supplies of these materials, putting the U.S. at a strategic disadvantage’ also the interviewee was quoted “We have a lot of single-source Chinese suppliers in our supply chains, and in a lot of cases, we’re not aggressively doing anything about it”. The article concludes that the US, while making strides to resolve these challenges, is still in the infancy stage of the solution road map.1
The cyber implications of these supply chain challenges are endless and a prime target for bad actors. For relatively cheap the reconnaissance stage can identify the components that can be targeted for an implant and then the cyber threat can just ride along through the production and integration process and can then be activated in the final test phases, resulting in months of delays and significant cost due to anomaly resolution and rework impacts or the attackers can wait until the satellite is on orbit and the satellite may turn into a space debris.
Luckily the satellite side of the space industry has normalized stringent procurement channels, receiving inspections for parts, and multi stage check out process that should help mitigate some of this cyber risk. Hopefully these steps will suffice in parallel to remedying our current supply chain problems through policy and manufacturing industry growth.
1 – https://spacenews.com/pentagon-underestimated-supply-chain-fragility-now-racing-to-fix-gaps/