Secure Multi-Source Data Fusion Environment for pLEO Constellations

Objective: The United States Space Force (USSF) seeks innovative solutions to develop and demonstrate a secure, adaptable software environment capable of ingesting, integrating, and analyzing high-volume, low-latency data streams from diverse space-based sources. This effort supports the Secure Multi-Source Data Fusion Environment for proliferated Low Earth Orbit (pLEO) Constellations topic and aims to deliver an extensible fusion platform that enables real-time situational awareness, advanced analytics, and dynamic mission adaptability across the Department of War's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). Proposed solutions must support the integration of heterogeneous data types, enable rapid onboarding of new sensors and analytics tools, and facilitate secure, sandboxed evaluation of AI/ML-driven capabilities. The environment should be designed to enforce zero-trust security principles, maintain strict access controls and data sovereignty, and operate seamlessly across both physical and cloud-based infrastructures. The architecture should allow for continuous scaling to accommodate growing mission needs, multi-vendor participation, and potential expansion to multi-level security environments and coalition operations. Priority will be given to solutions that enhance latency-sensitive decision-making, promote tool reusability, and align with SDA’s broader objectives for resilient and interoperable battle management. Ultimately, this effort will empower USSF and SDA to accelerate technology evaluation, reduce stovepiped workflows, and improve operational responsiveness across the evolving space enterprise. Description: The United States Space Force (USSF), through the Space Development Agency (SDA), is leading the development and deployment of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA)—a threat-driven, resilient constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) that delivers global sensing and secure data transport at operational scale. At the heart of the PWSA is the Battle Management, Command, Control, and Communications (BMC3) Layer, which is responsible for enabling real-time tasking, automated decision-making, and timely kill chain execution in support of joint warfighter operations. While various data fusion tools exist, few are designed to meet the scale, velocity, and multi-vendor integration demands of PWSA. This topic seeks innovative solutions to develop and demonstrate a secure, modular, and extensible data fusion environment tailored to pLEO constellations and their evolving operational contexts. Proposed capabilities may include, but are not limited to: - Real-time ingestion and fusion of diverse live or simulated data streams from PWSA assets - Hosting AI/ML-driven analytics for mission applications such as anomaly detection, threat identification, and predictive situational awareness - Establishing a secure sandbox framework to evaluate third-party tools in isolated environments with integrity and traceability - Implementing zero-trust security principles, robust access controls, and data sovereignty enforcement to maintain resilience and continuity of operations Solutions should be deployable in both cloud-based and on-premise environments, with a focus on core fusion infrastructure and sandbox functionality. Proposed architectures must enable rapid integration of new data sources, support future scalability to multi-level security and coalition use cases, and preserve government control over mission-sensitive data and tool access. This topic directly supports SDA’s goal to enhance data-to-decision agility, accelerate tool evaluation, and enable a responsive, vendor-agnostic space mission architecture. Keywords: pLEO; data fusion; secure environment; AI/ML; vendor sandbox; SDA; distributed operations; multi-vendor constellations; data ecosystems